Malala Yousafzai came to Pakistan on Tuesday to see flood victims, ten years after a Taliban murder attempt on her life.
Yousafzai was shot in the head for her advocacy for girls’ education by militants from the Pakistani Taliban, a separate organization with ties to the Afghan Taliban. She was just 15 years old at the time.
After being airlifted to Britain for life-saving treatment, she campaigned for international education and became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Only making her second trip since the shooting, she arrived in Karachi two days after the attack’s tenth anniversary. From there, she will go to regions that unheard-of monsoon floods have ravaged.
Her organization, Malala Fund, said in a statement that the goal of her travel is to “help maintain worldwide attention on the effects of floods in Pakistan and stress the need for urgent humanitarian relief.”
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A third of Pakistan was submerged by catastrophic floods, which forced eight million people to flee their homes and put them in danger of contracting diseases. The losses were estimated at $28 billion.
Yousafzai’s visit coincides with a walkout by students at her old school against an increase in violence in Mingora, Pakistan, where she was born and raised.
Before a significant military operation in the country’s northwest in 2014 ended the Pakistani Taliban’s years-long insurgency, security had been lost.
But since the Taliban retook control in Afghanistan last year, there has been a rise in violence.
Attacks have increased recently, mainly targeting security personnel.
Up to 2,000 kids and instructors skipped class on Monday due to an assault on a school bus that left the driver dead and a youngster injured.
Although the Pakistani Taliban have denied involvement, locals have accused them.
Tuesday saw another mass absence of students and faculty who demanded regional peace.
Ahmad Shah, the principal, told AFP on Monday that “many are upset.” However, all of the private school students came there to demonstrate.