Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is reintroducing herself to the world and sharing her personal journey in her new memoir, “Finding My Way.”
In an interview on “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday, Yousafzai said she hopes readers will see her as more than an activist.
“I have grown over the past decade, and there has been so much more to my life that I wanted to share with people. This has been a journey of navigating friendships, marriage, mental health, and my activism. I’m reintroducing myself,” said Yousafzai.
Before the attack, Yousafzai described herself as a spirited young girl in Pakistan who loved to speak her mind. Yousafzai first captured global attention in 2012 at the age of 15 when she was shot in the head by a gunman from the Taliban for advocating girls’ education in her home region of Swat Valley. After surviving the attack, she was flown to the United Kingdom for emergency treatment. It was an event that would change the course of her life.
Yousafzai said the world first heard her story while she was in a coma at the hospital.
Following her recovery, Yousafzai and her family settled in Birmingham, England, where she continued her education. The transition to a new country and culture was not easy.
“Language barrier, cultural barrier. Many of the reasons why in those years of high school in the U.K., I struggled to make any friends,” she said.
Determined to rebuild her life, Yousafzai went on to attend Oxford University, where she earned a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics in 2020. She said that during her college years, she was focused on something she had long missed—friendship.
“I had one goal in college: Socialize, make friends, that is it,” she said. “I had missed on this opportunity of having friends in my life. I was so lucky that I met the right people at the right time.”
Her memoir also explores her mental health journey and the emotional aftermath of surviving violence. She often had panic and anxiety attacks and experienced a flashback in college after smoking marijuana.
“It was a normal night, and my friends were trying bong, and I saw it for the first time,” she recalled. “I tried bong with my friends, and suddenly, as it entered my body, it took a sharp turn, and I froze in that moment, and I was reliving the Taliban attack flashbacks. I thought I had forgotten.”
Importance of therapy and finding love
She said it wasn’t until a friend encouraged her that she decided to seek therapy, and she realized it was an unaddressed part of her recovery from her attack.
“It was only when a friend suggested that I see a therapist, and she reminded me that it’s common in college for kids who are struggling to get therapy,” she said. “This is something that I had missed in my treatment. I saw it as just surgeries and medication, but I never considered therapy as part of the recovery.”
Yousafzai also writes about finding love and overcoming her early fears of marriage. She married Asser Malik, a Pakistani sports management investor, in 2021, describing their relationship as one built on partnership and shared values.
“I had doubts about marriage. Growing up, I had seen little girls married off, forcefully, illegally, and I was afraid of marriage,” she said. “When I met the right person, I knew I wanted to be with him.”