Malala Yousafzai relived Taliban’s assassination attempt in Pakistan after smoking bong at Oxford

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, for advocating girls’ education. (File photo)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has revealed that smoking a bong during her time at Oxford triggered a traumatic flashback to the Taliban’s assassination attempt on her life in Pakistan in 2012, The Guardian reported.

The incident took place in a secluded shed behind Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where Yousafzai smoked cannabis for the first time. “My life has changed forever,” she said. That night, she blacked out while walking back to her room and had to be carried by a friend. Unable to sleep, she was overwhelmed by vivid memories of the attack in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, when she was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for advocating girls’ education.

Flashbacks and panic attacksYousafzai said that the bong unlocked memories she had long suppressed — the gunshot, the blood, and the chaos of being rushed to a hospital. “I had never felt so close to the attack as then,” she told the publication. “I felt like I was reliving all of it.” The experience left her shaken and disoriented. “I felt numb … I couldn’t recognise myself in the mirror.”

She began experiencing panic attacks, insomnia, and anxiety. “I’d be sweating and shaking and I could hear my heart beat,” Yousafzai added. A therapist later diagnosed her with trauma linked to the shooting, her childhood under Taliban rule, and academic stress.

Struggling in silence
Yousafzai said she initially downplayed the incident to her friends and family. “I’m the girl who was shot… I’m supposed to be a brave girl,” she said, but the emotional toll became impossible to ignore. “I thought nothing could scare me. And then I was scared of small things, and that just broke me.”

She eventually sought therapy and began to understand the depth of her trauma. “In this journey, I realised what it means to be actually brave. When you can not only fight the real threats out there, but fight within," she said.