When I last met Malala Yousufzai, the year was 2014. We were in the lobby of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, moments before the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize awardee headed out to be conferred with the honour. Malala had looked me in the eye then and told me, “I will return home.” I had my doubts but she none. Four years later, here she was and never happier.

This interview was conducted after Malala and the Yousafzai family had returned to Islamabad from their visit to Swat.

Obviously your return to Pakistan after over five years has been an emotional one for you. What was on your mind and how did you feel when your plane was landing in Islamabad? Were you at all conflicted?

Pakistan’s only living Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai, set foot on home soil after more than five years away. Eos attempted to get a sense of her emotional journey...

I was just telling everyone around me — guys, guys just imagine, Islamabad is below us, we are above Islamabad. We are going to be landing soon in Pakistan. And also, my mother and my father waited for so, so long, they miss their friends, I miss my friends and our family. And we did not leave Pakistan by choice — it was the recommendation and decision of my doctors from the military hospital that I should be taken to the UK for treatment. So, it was not our choice that we left Pakistan — in a sense we were forced by circumstances to leave. So, for us it was even harder to live in the UK. But we are now fine. Getting education and things. But it was such a beautiful moment just putting our feet on this land again.

What was the feeling when you returned to Swat?

Swat is beautiful and I have always said Swat is a paradise on earth — it’s called the Switzerland of the East but it’s even more beautiful than Switzerland. Just seeing the greenery and the mountains and trees and the river and the natural beauty that this valley has, was just so beautiful. And I had missed it. You know in the UK, where I live, it’s all houses and cars — there is no river, there are no mountains in the city. So, seeing that was a fortunate moment of my life. And then also I went to our home and going to my room, touching my old trophies from school, looking at my drawings and my books and my bed and just everything in that home was so precious, so special. It was reminding me of all my memories — you know, sitting with my friends, talking about our school life, watching TV with my parents, having dinner and playing on the rooftop, everything. I was just trying to imagine my life in that home. I was so happy that I met my friends as well as my neighbours.

And you also met your grandmother after six long years…

I was so, so happy to see my grandmother. She did remember me, she did remember my name. But then she would forget that she saw me. So, I had to keep going to her and saying, Grandma do you remember me, this is Malala. And she prays for me, like, all the time. I met both my maternal and paternal grandmothers and both are always there, praying for me, for my family and I am so grateful that they are part of my life and I could see them.

My plan was already to create an organisation. I called it the Malala Education Foundation. I still have the pages where we wrote our mandate, what we would stand up for. It was 21 of us, my friends in school.

This is a delicate question: on your return have you relived those last few moments on the bus before you were shot? How often do you think about it in the UK? Do you still feel under threat?

So, the place where the incident happened, I could see it from the helicopter — it is only two to three minutes away from my home. Like, a two- to three-minute walk and you could go to that place. I am really grateful that I don’t remember that incident. I remember everything else — from my time in Swat to the extremism we saw, to how we stood up for our rights. And how the people of Swat stood up and said we do not accept any terrorism in our region in the name of Islam and they gave sacrifices for peace there. I remember each and everything but not the incident. I think that it is something that is good for my health and my future as well.

You’ve recently taken to social media. Are you really on it or is it handled by your team? How do you allocate time for it with your studies and all the other work you no doubt are called upon to do?

Malala Fund has always had a social media presence — on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I did not join [social media] until last year in June. So, I joined Twitter. That’s the first one I tried. And it’s exciting because I can share my message and what I stand for. We see a lot of negativity on social media, so I think it’s a good way that all the positive people come and share good messages and the work they are doing and inspire people to do even more good work.

You have millions of admirers around the world and in Pakistan. And yet there is also a visible strand of people particularly on social media who question your celebrity and express dislike for you. How do you make sense of it? Does it ever bother you?

Firstly, I don’t look at those messages. If anyone is wondering if I read them — no, I don’t. Sometimes you can’t avoid it, it comes in front of your eyes. I think it is just unfortunate that some people don’t understand my message and what I stand for and just call everything Western or anti-Islam and that’s it. I think people need to realise that these are statements. And you need to give evidence and to give evidence like why you believe that, what is the reason behind it. Anyone can give such statements but it doesn’t mean that it’s true or it’s a fact. So, I would say read about the work we have done, go to the Malala Fund website.

Can you tell us a bit about the kind work that Malala Fund has been doing in Pakistan and intends to take on in the future?

The Malala Fund has invested more than six million dollars in Pakistan. And we started work when we began the fund for ensuring that girls in domestic child labour can go to school. And we also supported this school in our home village, Shangla, and it’s a state-of-the-art school. I am really excited about it. It going to change the whole village, it’s going to impact that whole community. We are also supporting the local activists in Pakistan who are fighting and campaigning for girls’ education and I hope that we can even do more in girls’ education and education activists can come together and say that we will ensure that all girls in Pakistan can have access to safe and quality education.

You once said you had forgiven the people who attacked you. How is it humanly possible to be so forgiving?

There were 10 people involved in this attack and eight were released and the two who actually came to the bus and attacked me and my friends, they are still under arrest. I don’t have any update on what has happened after that — whether they are still under any rehabilitation or any support or care. Personally, in my heart I have forgiven them and I hope that in future, no person attacks any child or anyone. We give a message to all our Pakistani brothers and sisters that the true message of Islam is peace, forgiveness and kindness. And that our religion does not teach us to harm anyone at all. These are the principles of our faith and our religion.

You are only 20 years old, about to turn 21. Do you ever feel you’ve been handed too big a burden to shoulder at too young an age?

Okay, don’t remind me of my age. I think I have just removed age from my life. I am going to be turning 21 and yes, I have my degree at Oxford to finish but as I go along, I will continue doing my work for girls’ education. We have to ensure that all girls have access to 12 years of free, safe and quality education. Right now, there are 130 million girls who are out of school. In Pakistan, there are 24 million children who do not have access to education. So, we have to stand up for them, we have to ensure that they get quality education. It’s not just good for the children, its good for the whole country as well. We don’t want our children to be extremists and we don’t want them to be part of these radicalised groups. We want our children to be doctors, to be teachers, to be engineers, and to be those thinkers who can actually contribute towards the country and make it even better.

If none of this had happened, what do you think your life would have been like? What do you wish most you could do that you cannot do now?

Well if this had not happened, my plan was already to create an organisation. I called it the Malala Education Foundation. I still have the pages where we wrote our mandate, what we would stand up for. It was 21 of us, my friends in school. So, my goal was already to ensure that locally, we can reach as many girls as possible. We’ll give them quality education, the support that they need and protect them from child labour or any other issue that is preventing them from going to school. I also wanted to apply to Oxford, that was also one of my dreams, while I was studying in Pakistan, to go Oxford. So, I would have tried for that as well. And then carrying on my mission of women empowerment and girl’s education.

What happens after you finish your Oxford degree? Do you want to continue studying further? (If so, what?)

After PPE, definitely Pakistan is my country, I am still Pakistani, so I would come back to my home Pakistan. Right now, I have no plans for further studies because I want to take a few gap years. But I’m not sure, I have no idea, probably international relations or law or something.

What is your message to girls in Pakistan?

My message to all girls in Pakistan is that believe in yourself. You are part of the society, you have a role to play and when you talk about women empowerment and women’s rights, I think if women don’t stand up, no one is going to give attention to their issues. So you have to speak out for yourselves.

Focus on your education because education is the way through which you can get that opportunity that your voices will be heard. And be part of society. Go for jobs, be teachers, be engineers, be artists and follow your dreams. I am really grateful that in Pakistan we have great role models who can inspire you.

And to all the boys, I think boys should be proud of their sisters and the girls in our community and also look up to all the women role models we have in our community. I usually think that if we do not allow half of the population of the country to get ahead, it’s going to be a burden on the boys. You are making it more difficult for yourself. So, allow girls to stand on their own two feet, be independent so they can make decisions for themselves and earn for themselves and live their lives as they want.

The interviewer is a print and electronic media journalist based in Karachi

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 8th, 2018