Malala says Smoking Cannabis triggered Memories of Taliban Attack

Malala Yousafzai has revealed that smoking cannabis for the first time at Oxford University triggered memories of the Taliban attack that almost killed her.

The 28-year-old said her mind had “blanked out” the moment a gunman shot her in the head as a teenager on a school bus in Pakistan. But the memory returned in vivid detail years later after using a bong filled with cannabis.

Malala was 15 when she was attacked in Swat Valley for speaking out about girls’ education.

The gunshot left her in a coma with severe injuries, including a shattered eardrum, a broken jaw, and a lacerated facial nerve. She later underwent multiple surgeries in the UK.

Until that night at Oxford, she said the details of being shot, taken to hospital, and airlifted to Birmingham had been erased from her memory.

In her forthcoming memoir Finding My Way, Malala recalls the night she smoked cannabis inside a shed at Lady Margaret Hall, encouraged by friends to try it for the first time.

As she left, she collapsed and had to be carried back to her room.

Her mind flooded with images of the gun, blood, and the chaos that followed the 2012 attack.

Speaking to The Guardian, Malala said: “I had never felt so close to the attack as then, in that moment.

“I felt like I was reliving all of it, and there was a time when I just thought I was in the afterlife.”

Malala said she struggled to tell her parents and friends about the flashbacks, fearing it would clash with her public image of bravery.

But the trauma soon took a physical toll. She began shaking and sweating, with her heart racing and panic attacks setting in.

Malala said she found it hard to accept that she could recover from an assassination attempt yet feel powerless in daily life.

She continued:

“I thought nothing could scare me, nothing… and then I was scared of small things, and that just broke me.”

With the support of a therapist, she eventually found balance and learned to manage her trauma.

Malala has since rebuilt her life, continuing her global advocacy for girls’ education through the Malala Fund, where she serves as executive chair.

She married Asser Malik in 2021 and in the memoir, Malala detailed their secret romance.