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Brother of Nobel laureate shares childhood trauma
Khushal Yousafzai, the younger brother of Malala Yousafzai, has spoken publicly about the lasting emotional scars left by the 2012 Taliban attack that nearly killed his sister. Now 25, he described the moment he learned of the shooting as a turning point that filled him with rage and self-doubt.
The day that reshaped a family
Khushal was 12 years old when Malala, then 15, was targeted by the Taliban for advocating girls' education in Pakistan. He recalled playing video games when his cousin broke the news: Malala had been shot in the head while riding a school bus. The memory remains vivid.
"Seconds felt like minutes, minutes were hours and hours were days."
Khushal Yousafzai
Malala was airlifted to the UK for emergency treatment, and Khushal later joined her. The attack left him consumed by anger, he told BBC Asian Network's Amber Haque. "My life mission was: *I'm going to build myself, go back and take revenge*."
Struggling in a global icon's shadow
While Malala recovered and became a global advocate-winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014-Khushal grappled with feelings of inadequacy. "Everyone around me is helping my sister. What am I doing? I didn't see a point in my existence," he said. Though he insisted he never felt overshadowed, he admitted to comparing himself to his sister and father, who channeled their pain into activism.
"If I'm not bringing positive change into the world, then I'm not doing enough," he recalled thinking. This pressure, he later realized, made him vulnerable to online spaces promoting toxic masculinity.
Drawn to the manosphere-and breaking free
Khushal described how he was initially drawn to the *manosphere*-a network of forums and influencers advocating "traditional" gender roles, where men dominate and women are subservient. The appeal, he said, was the focus on self-improvement: "Go to the gym, work on yourself."
But the messaging soon turned harmful. "They would sell these life lessons that made you feel so bad about yourself," he said. Struggling with PTSD, depression, and substance use, Khushal found the manosphere's rhetoric exacerbating his shame. "Whenever I smoked weed, I felt like a horrible human being. You want to escape that feeling, so you fall back to that bad habit. It becomes a loop."
His breaking point came when he heard these influencers' views on women. "My sister took a bullet for education," he said. "They might as well be speaking about my mother and my sister." He began distancing himself from those spaces, crediting his father's empathy and a supportive network for helping him heal.
Healing through vulnerability
Khushal now advocates for removing the stigma around mental health struggles. "Approach all of this from a position of empathy," he urged. "All of these people have a story."
He described hitting "rock bottom" and allowing himself to cry for the first time in months-a moment he called "the best cry of my life." Today, he finds strength in open conversations with loved ones. "We need to change the narrative that if you are vulnerable about your struggles, it's a sign of weakness," he said.
Reflecting on his journey, Khushal expressed gratitude for his family's values. "If I was born in another household where my parents were poor, couldn't afford my education, I could have also become easily radicalized and indoctrinated by the Taliban."
Where to listen
The full interview with Khushal Yousafzai is available on BBC Asian Network Trending. Newsbeat airs live weekdays at 12:45 and 17:45, with replays available online.
