Activist Malala Yousafzai reveals smoking a bong at university for first time brought back trauma

Malala Yousafzai recalled the time she smoked cannabis through a bong when she was at university, as part of her upcoming memoir.

The education activist became one of the most influential figures in the world when it came to fighting for equal rights, after her near-death experience in her native Pakistan.

Then a teenager, Malala made headlines for her activism and defiance of the oppressive society she was in, even posting on BBC blogs as early as 2009.

After building her reputation though, horror struck in October 2012 when a member of the Taliban stopped her school bus and shot the then-15-year-old in the head.

Despite being left in a coma with several injuries, as well as a lacerated facial nerve, a shattered eardrum, and a broken jaw, she survived and would live to tell the tale.

Malala Yousafzai shared her first-ever high experience in her second memoir (CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The assassination attempt came after several death threats which Malala received, both on social media and through threatening notes to her home in Swat Valley, Pakistan.

Despite 'erasing' memories of the traumatic ordeal, Malala remembered the feelings flooding back while she was at the University of Oxford and she decided to experiment with drugs.

The youngest ever Nobel Prize winner shared the harrowing experience in her second memoir, Finding My Way, which is set to be released soon.

In an extract published by the Guardian, Malala recalled seeing her friend Anisa and two lads from the business course sat around an 'unusual object' on the table, which looked like a 'clear glass container had a smaller glass tube poking out at the base and looked like something nicked from the chemistry lab'.

While the activist claimed she'd tried to smoke weed in the past, she hadn't felt high before, but added that 'it felt cool and grown-up to blow smoke in the air and lazily pass the joint to the next person'.

She said her friend Anisa convinced her to try the bong, a far stronger and intense method of smoking cannabis compared to a joint.

After zoning out for what felt like minutes, the time went from 11pm to 1am and Malala was left questioning how time had passed so quickly.

Anisa offered to walk her back to the dorms, but Malala noted that her legs 'felt heavy and rooted to the ground', while 'feeling wobbly' and noticing her knees locking up.

Malala has been fighting for equal rights since she was a child (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Malala simply couldn't walk, as she felt more and more anxious, claiming that the last time she felt 'trapped inside my body' was when she was 15 years old, after her traumatic experience on the school bus.

The 28-year-old said: "From the outside, I looked to be in a deep sleep. But, inside, my mind was awake, and it played a slideshow of recent events: My school bus. A man with a gun. Blood everywhere."

She remembered struggling to wake up, instead being shown this 'carousel of horrors', before calling out to Anisa: "I can’t walk! Please help me!"

Her friend carried her up to her dorm, as Malala struggled to breathe and was dealing with dizziness, though when Anisa encouraged her to get some shut-eye, it just wasn't possible.

Anisa said they shouldn't go into the hospital as doctors would likely carry out tests and the drug 'stays in your blood'.

Together with another friend, Anisa sat with Malala as she was sick in the toilet into the night, before finally giving the bed a go, though Malala recalled: "I got in bed, but I didn’t sleep. I could still see a familiar world around me - her books on the desk, polo mallet in the corner, the waning moon shining through the window.

"If I closed my eyes, it would all be gone for ever. The nightmares would hold me hostage in an endless loop of terror."

Malala even thought she would die if she fell asleep, slipping out in the morning to spend the whole day trying to forget about the awful experience.

She eerily wrote in her memoir: "I had seen it all, and the memories were still lurking in my brain, years later. What had Anisa said? It stays in your blood. It stays in your blood. It stays in your blood."

Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai is set to be released on 21 October.