Claim: The Epstein Files reveal that Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai wanted to empower underage girls by handing them over to child abusers for money and that she was also asked to source them from Swat and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, her non-profit, Malala Fund, has been discredited as its name appears in the newly-released documents.
Fact: According to the searchable documents available publicly, the Epstein Files do not include any communication between Epstein or his associates with Yousafzai or her non-profit, Malala Fund. The convicted child abuser’s friends and employees suggested the name of the activist and her organisation to help him improve his public image. There is no mention or confirmation of him actually financing her or funding her organisation.
In February 2026, multiple social media users claimed that according to the newly-released Epstein Files, Pakistani education activist and Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, wished to “supply underage girls for dollars” to “empower them” by apparently “taking money from ‘child abusers’”.
People also claimed that Yousafzai “was contacted to supply underage girls from Swat and other parts of [Khyber] Pakhtunkhwa” and that her non-profit organisation, Malala Fund, is now “quite badly discredited” because it is mentioned in the same documents
The complete captions of the aforementioned posts — which are archived here, here, here, and here, respectively — are as follows:
- “ایپسٹین فائلز میں انکشاف ہوا ہے کہ ملالہ یوسفزئی 💰 ڈالر لے کر نابالغ بچیاں سپلائی کرنا چاہتی تھی [Epstein Files reveal that Malala Yousafzai wanted to supply underage girls for dollars 💰]”
- “ملالہ یوسف زئی کا نام بھی ایپسٹین فائلز میں موجود ‘بچہ بازوں’ سے پیسے لے کر بچیوں کو ‘Empowered’ کرنے کے چکر میں تھی محترمہ [Malala Yousafzai’s name was also in the Epstein Files; madam was in the business of ‘empowering’ girls by taking money from ‘child abusers’]”
- “یہ ملالہ یوسفزئی وہ عورت ہے جس کا نام بھی ایپسٹین کی فائل میں آیا تھا، اور ان سے یہ رابطہ کیا گیا تھا کہ آپ سوات اور دیگر پختونخوا سے کم عمر لڑکیوں کی سپلائی کیا کرو۔ آج یہی طالبانِ افغانستان کو مشورہ دے رہی ہے کہ وہاں خواتین کو حقوق سے محروم رکھا جا رہا ہے۔ کون سے حقوق؟ [This is Malala Yousafzai, the woman whose name also appeared in the Epstein Files and who was contacted to supply underage girls from Swat and other parts of [Khyber] Pakhtunkhwa. Today, she is advising the Taliban of Afghanistan that women are being deprived of their rights there. What rights?]”
- “Malala Fund quite badly discredited because its (sic) mentioned several times in the Epstein Files. It appears 19 times – including one email by Jeffrey Epstein to someone informing that person that the Malala Fund is looking for an Executive Director.”
The Epstein Files
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) published over three million pages of the Epstein Files on 30 January 2026 in line with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law was signed by President Donald Trump on 19 November 2025, bringing the total number published to nearly 3.5 million.
“More than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are included in today’s additional publication,” the DoJ said in its press release, referring to the documents pertaining to the deceased convicted child abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
A financier by profession, Epstein “was accused of sexually abusing and trafficking dozens of women and girls” and “was found dead in his jail cell” after being arrested in 2019, according to The New York Times.
His death was “ruled a suicide” but “fueled a host of suspicions about the investigations into his crimes and about his powerful friends”, the publication added.
The convicted child abuser was friends with multiple rich and influential people, including US President Donald Trump and his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, United Nations General Assembly’s former president Miroslav Lajčák, former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, and British politician and UK Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, according to multiple media reports.
Other powerful individuals named in the Epstein Files are former US President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of Britain, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson, linguist Noam Chomsky, business professional and television personality Martha Stewart, and American filmmaker Woody Allen.
It is important to note that the presence of a name in the Epstein Files does not directly imply wrongdoing by the person in question.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched the DoJ library containing the publicly available Epstein Files and found that Yousafzai’s name appears in 19 documents in total. However, not all of them are correspondences, with some being invitations or brochures. These PDF files’ names and summaries are as follows:
- EFTA00715689: An invitation to an Intelligence Squared event held in June 2017 where Malala Yousafzai was a speaker.
- EFTA01199587: An email from 19 October 2014 containing write-ups about different events sent by a “Gregory Brown, Chairman & CEO, GlobeCast Partners, LLC,” with the subject “Greg Brown’s Weekend Reading and Other Things…. 10/19/2014.” Yousafzai’s name is mentioned in a report about her winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
- EFTA02086973: A 6 January 2015 email from a redacted user to Epstein, with his assistant Lesley Groff carbon-copied, asking for help finding a job. The individual also wrote, “The Malala Fund is looking for an Executive Director too if you have any contacts there,” indicating that they were probably interested in being hired by the non-profit organisation.
- EFTA01199627: A copy of an 10 October 2014 article by The New York Times with the headline “Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize.”
- EFTA00587691: A 15 May 2013 draft of “IPI Mission Report” intended “for internal IPI discussion” and marked “strictly confidential”, likely referring to the International Peace Institute. Titled “Polio eradication in Pakistan: Problem areas & possible solutions,” it provides an on-the-ground picture to prepare a roadmap for the polio eradication campaign (PEC). The mention of Yousafzai is in the context of the “militancy” situation in Swat and how there were “target killings (such as the attempt against 14 year old Malala Yousufzai)”.
- EFTA00586386: The same report as above but likely a final version as it is not labelled as a “draft.”
- EFTA00586369: Same as above.
- EFTA00586403: Same as above.
- EFTA00354430: An email dated 8 January 2015 from a redacted user to Epstein. Titled “Fallout,” it includes the link to a 7 January 2015 article on The Smoking Gun, headlined “Jeffrey Epstein And A Long History Of Slime.” The sender appears to advise the convicted child abuser on how to soften his image and stage a comeback, suggesting a calculated PR campaign that includes a public apology and the launch of a foundation for young women; among the examples of such organisations is Malala Fund. The individual offers to help by saying they are “in the market for a full-time paying job”.
- EFTA01973546: Same as the documents titled EFTA00586386, EFTA00586369, and EFTA00586403.
- EFTA01748983: An 11 August 2015 email to Epstein from Japanese venture capitalist Joi Ito, who, at that time, was the director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Lab. In the correspondence, the convicted child abuser offers to plan a meet-up referred to as “josh reid weekend”. In his final reply to the discussion, Ito writes, “OK, I’ll ask, but I think he’s [Reid] only there briefly and Malala, Bill Gates and Oprah are going to be there so my guess is that he’s going to want to connect with them…”
- EFTA00670622: Same as above.
- EFTA02035760: A 20 November 2012 email to Epstein from the “Office of Terje Rod-Larsen” — a Norwegian politician and former International Peace Institute (IPI) president. It contains a report titled “IPI Regional Insights – November 2012”, which included a summary of Pakistan’s political scene, with Yousafzai’s name appearing in a line about the government facing “pressures”, such as “the continuing fallout from the Taliban attack in the Swat Valley on Malala Yousafzai”.
- EFTA00281507: A copy of a 3 October 2015 opinion piece about recycling, written by journalist John Tierney for The New York Times, in which the name of Davis Guggenheim’s 2015 film “He Named Me Malala” appears on the top-right. The write-up is unrelated to the documentary.
- EFTA00946028: A 17 October 2012 email from the “Office of Terje Rod-Larsen” containing a report titled “IPI Regional Insights – October 2012.” The recipient’s name is not available. The document included a summary of Pakistan’s political scene, including a mention of the assassination attempt on Yousafzai in the following line: “Pakistan is reeling from the latest attack in a Taliban campaign to silence moderate voices. The Taliban shot a 14- year-old girl education and peace activist, Malala Yousafzai, in the head in Swat, Pakistan, on October 9th. She is now in a serious condition in a hospital in the United Kingdom..”
- EFTA01976295: Same document as EFTA02035760 but without the recipient’s name.
- EFTA00684460: A 20 January 2014 email from the “Office of Terje Rod-Larsen” with the subject “January 19 update,” including two news articles, one of which is a profile of former US President Barack Obama, written by David Remnick for The New Yorker, with the headline “On and off the road with Barack Obama.” This includes a line about Obama inviting Yousafzai to the White House.
- EFTA01045132: An email to Epstein, dated 29 May 2017, from Russia-born entrepreneur Masha Bucher — formerly Masha Drokova — advising the convicted child abuser on how to improve his public image. She recommended associating with people like Yousafzai who work on gender equality and women empowerment, as the “media are partially controlling your web presence and formulating how the world sees you”. She wrote, “Another idea, since you are an expert in women. You can start supporting gender equality organizations/leaders empowering women would receive a positive reaction. It will help to more from sexist (sic) image as it’s seen now to somebody who treat (sic) women as people. Malala and Emma Watson are the leaders to support and be associated with in this case.”
- EFTA00354758: Same as EFTA02086973 but Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff, who was carbon-copied in it, is redacted.
None of the documents above indicate that Epstein or his associates communicated directly with Yousafzai or her non-profit, Malala Fund.
The Pakistani activist’s name appears in:
- A request from an unknown person to Epstein asking for help to get a job at the Malala Fund if he had any contacts there;
- Suggestions to the convicted child abuser to improve his public image by launching an organisation or supporting people involved in gender equality and women empowerment
- An email from an associate telling him “Josh Reid” would be at “park city” at the same time as “Malala, Bill Gates and Oprah” and he would likely want to connect with them rather than spend the weekend with Epstein. “Josh Reid” appears to refer to two different people.
There is also no mention or confirmation of Epstein financing Yousafzai or funding her non-profit organisation. Additionally, there is no evidence in the files that she was asked “to supply underage girls” from anywhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Lastly, we did not find any credible reporting about such claims by reliable news outlets. Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claims are false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claims circulating here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here, here, here, here, and here on Threads.
They were also shared here on TikTok.
People also posted the claims here, here, here, here, and here on X (formerly Twitter).
Conclusion: The Epstein Files do not include any communication between the convicted child abuser or his associates with Yousafzai or her non-profit, Malala Fund. There is no evidence of any financial transactions between the two and any references to her in the files are made by third parties.
Background images in cover and featured photos: Wikimedia Commons, MalalaFund, Ekrulila, and MalalaFund
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