Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai burst into tears and, according to a family friend, took deep breaths as she entered her childhood home in Swat for the first time since a Taliban gunman shot her in 2012.
The photographs show a composed Malala Yousafzai… but according to a family friend, the Nobel Peace Prize winner burst into tears when she returned to her childhood home in Pakistan for the first time since a Taliban gunman shot her in the head in 2012.
Farid-ul-Haq Haqqani is now renting the family's home in Mingora. He said Malala - along with her mother AND father - were weeping and keeling on the ground upon their return.
It was uncertain whether Malala would even be able to visit the neighborhood due to security concerns.
The roads were blocked off in the town as Malala, her parents and her brother were flown in by a military helicopter.
The visit reportedly lasted about 90 minutes.
And according to Malala, who spoke at her hotel on Friday, the trip back to Pakistan was full of raw emotion:
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL LAUREATE AND EDUCATION ACTIVIST, MALALA YOUSAFZAI, SAYING:
"I don't compare coming to Pakistan to anything. It has been the most beautiful day of my life; this has been the most important thing in my life. And I had never been so excited for anything, I have never been so happy before."
The Taliban claimed responsibility in 2012 for the attack on Malala--when she was only 15-years old-- for her outspoken advocacy for girls' education, which was forbidden under the militants' rule over Swat and their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
But it only gave Malala more resolve... a new girls' school built with the 20-year-old's Nobel prize money has now opened in the region where the attack occurred.
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