AFP | Dawn.com
January 12, 2025
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai speaks during an international summit on ‘Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities’, in Islamabad on January 12, 2025. Yousafzai, a Pakistani education activist urged Muslim leaders on January 12, not to “legitimise” the Afghan Taliban government and to “show true leadership” by opposing their curbs on women and girls’ education. — AFP
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Sunday said that the Taliban did not see women as “human beings” and had created a system of “gender apartheid” by cloaking their crimes in cultural and religious justification.
Since sweeping back to power in 2021, the Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.
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Their curbs have shut women and girls out of secondary school and university education, as well as many government jobs, and seen them sequestered out of many aspects of public life.
While speaking at a summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations being held in Islamabad, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said the women living under the Taliban system were in a “gender apartheid”.
“The Taliban punish women and girls who dare to break their obscure laws by beating them up, detaining them and harming them,” 27-year-old Yousafzai said.
“Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings,” Yousafzai told the conference. “They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification.”
The two-day conference has brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League.
Delegates from Afghanistan’s Taliban government did not attend the event despite being invited, Pakistan Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP on Saturday.
Malala said that nothing was Islamic about the policies of the Afghan government and they were “against everything our faith stands for”.
“They are violations of human rights, and no cultural or religious excuse can justify them,” Yousafzai said.
She urged Muslim leaders not to “legitimise” the Afghan Taliban government and to “show true leadership” by opposing their curbs on women and girls’ education.
The Nobel laureate called on the leaders at the conference to recognise the Taliban regime as “perpetrators of gender apartheid.”
“So, let’s not legitimise them. Do not make compromises on our faith,” she said.
She urged them to support the Crime Against Humanity treaty and push their governments to engage in the process.
“It is time we have real tools to prevent an extremist regime from systematically erasing women and girls,” Yousufzai said.
“The path forward for Afghanistan lies in political solutions instead of military force.”
She said that 12 million Pakistani girls were out of school — one of the highest numbers in the world.
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“I’m glad that this conference is taking place here in Pakistan, because there is still a tremendous amount of work that is ahead of us, so that every Pakistani girl can have access to her education,” she said.
“As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voices, use your power. You can show true leadership. You can show true Islam,” she said.
“While we celebrate our rich [Islamic] history, we must also turn our attention to the present and the urgent crisis of millions of girls who cannot go to school,” she said.
“This is not just happening in small, far-flung communities[…] this is the lived reality of more than 120m girls globally.”
She added that the Muslim World League should begin by recognising the crisis which was holding economies back by hundreds of billions in lost growth.
“If we do not tackle this crisis […] we will fail to live up to Islam’s fundamental values of seeking knowledge,” she said.
“In Afghanistan, an entire generation of girls is being robbed of their future,” she said.
“The Taliban have ripped away the right to learn from every Afghan girl […] they want to eliminate women and girls from every aspect of public life and erase them from society,” Yousufzai said.
Yousafzai was shot in the face by the Pakistani Taliban when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2012, amid her campaigning for female education rights.
Her activism earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and she has since become a global advocate for women’s and girls’ education rights.
While there is an outcry in much of the international community over the Taliban government curbs, nations are divided over how to engage with Kabul’s rulers on the issue.
Some countries argue they should be frozen out of the diplomatic community until they backtrack, while others prefer engagement to coax them into a U-turn.
No country has officially recognised the Taliban authorities, but several regional governments have engaged on the topics of trade and security.
Education activist Malala returns to a region in crisis
By AFP
January 12, 2025
Malala Yousafzai has made only a handful of public visits to Pakistan since her evacuation to Britain after being shot in the head by a Pakistan Taliban militant - Copyright AFP Aamir QURESHI
Zain Zaman Janjua and Emma Clark
Twelve years after she was evacuated out of Pakistan as a badly wounded schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai has returned to her home country at a critical time for girls’ education.
“For her, it is a homecoming to a region that shaped who she is today, but also a reminder of the work still left unfinished,” Yousafzai’s friend and fellow rights activist Nighat Dad told AFP.
Millions more families are living in poverty while more than a third of children are still out of school, as the cash-strapped state grapples with cycles of political chaos and resurging militancy.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, the Taliban have returned to power and imposed an austere interpretation of Islamic law that includes banning girls from studying at secondary school and university.
This weekend, 27-year-old Yousafzai was the guest of honour at a global summit on girls’ education in Islamic nations hosted by Islamabad, where she called on leaders to stand up for Muslim girls.
“Her presence in Pakistan during such a time is a message to those in power: the fight for education cannot be silenced, whether it’s in the Swat Valley or across the border in Afghanistan,” Dad added.
In 2012 at the age of 15, Yousafzai was shot in the head while on her way home from school by a Pakistan Taliban militant incensed by an education blog she wrote.
At the time, an insurgency against the government had spread to her remote, picturesque Swat Valley and militants had ordered girls to stay home.
Across the frontier, the war raged between NATO forces and the Afghan Taliban, a separate but closely linked group from the Pakistan Taliban which flourished in the border regions.
– ‘Malala is a paradox’ –
Always flanked by heavy security, Yousafzai has made only a handful of public visits to Pakistan since her evacuation to Britain, where she made a remarkable recovery and went on to become the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17.
Since then she has frequently shared the world stage with international leaders.
But Pakistan’s relationship with her is complicated: a symbol of resilience and pride to some, and a stooge of the West to others, in a country where Islam is perceived as under threat by creeping Western values.
Sanam Maher, an author who has written about high-profile Pakistani women, told AFP that Yousafzai is a “contentious figure”.
“There’s a perception of her being ‘handled’ or ‘managed’, which creates distrust”, she said.
“There are many who criticise Malala for her absence in Pakistan,” she added. “They are indifferent to her commitment.”
Still, Yousafzai retains star power in Pakistan, especially among young girls.
“Malala is an icon and a powerful voice for girls’ education. She has faced violence, hatred, and criticism simply for advocating for girls’ education,” said Hadia Sajid, a 22-year-old media student who attended Yousafzai’s closing speech in Islamabad.
“It’s disheartening that things remain largely unchanged since she left, but there has been marginal improvement, largely due to the impact of social media — it’s more difficult to hold back girls from their rights.”
Yousafzai founded the Malala Fund with her father, once a teacher in the Swat Valley who pushed against societal norms to champion his daughter’s education.
The charity has invested millions of dollars in tackling the plight of 120 million girls out of school across the world.
“Pakistan is where I began my journey and where my heart will always be,” Yousafzai said in her speech on Sunday.
But in her native country the projects she backs in rural areas are rarely publicised.
“I still think Malala is a paradox in Pakistan,” said Dad.
“While her global achievements are undeniable, officials and the public remain divided, caught between admiration and mistrust. Yet Malala’s impact transcends these perceptions,” Dad told AFP.
By AFP
January 12, 2025
Malala Yousafzai has made only a handful of public visits to Pakistan since her evacuation to Britain after being shot in the head by a Pakistan Taliban militant - Copyright AFP Aamir QURESHI
Zain Zaman Janjua and Emma Clark
Twelve years after she was evacuated out of Pakistan as a badly wounded schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai has returned to her home country at a critical time for girls’ education.
“For her, it is a homecoming to a region that shaped who she is today, but also a reminder of the work still left unfinished,” Yousafzai’s friend and fellow rights activist Nighat Dad told AFP.
Millions more families are living in poverty while more than a third of children are still out of school, as the cash-strapped state grapples with cycles of political chaos and resurging militancy.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, the Taliban have returned to power and imposed an austere interpretation of Islamic law that includes banning girls from studying at secondary school and university.
This weekend, 27-year-old Yousafzai was the guest of honour at a global summit on girls’ education in Islamic nations hosted by Islamabad, where she called on leaders to stand up for Muslim girls.
“Her presence in Pakistan during such a time is a message to those in power: the fight for education cannot be silenced, whether it’s in the Swat Valley or across the border in Afghanistan,” Dad added.
In 2012 at the age of 15, Yousafzai was shot in the head while on her way home from school by a Pakistan Taliban militant incensed by an education blog she wrote.
At the time, an insurgency against the government had spread to her remote, picturesque Swat Valley and militants had ordered girls to stay home.
Across the frontier, the war raged between NATO forces and the Afghan Taliban, a separate but closely linked group from the Pakistan Taliban which flourished in the border regions.
– ‘Malala is a paradox’ –
Always flanked by heavy security, Yousafzai has made only a handful of public visits to Pakistan since her evacuation to Britain, where she made a remarkable recovery and went on to become the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17.
Since then she has frequently shared the world stage with international leaders.
But Pakistan’s relationship with her is complicated: a symbol of resilience and pride to some, and a stooge of the West to others, in a country where Islam is perceived as under threat by creeping Western values.
Sanam Maher, an author who has written about high-profile Pakistani women, told AFP that Yousafzai is a “contentious figure”.
“There’s a perception of her being ‘handled’ or ‘managed’, which creates distrust”, she said.
“There are many who criticise Malala for her absence in Pakistan,” she added. “They are indifferent to her commitment.”
Still, Yousafzai retains star power in Pakistan, especially among young girls.
“Malala is an icon and a powerful voice for girls’ education. She has faced violence, hatred, and criticism simply for advocating for girls’ education,” said Hadia Sajid, a 22-year-old media student who attended Yousafzai’s closing speech in Islamabad.
“It’s disheartening that things remain largely unchanged since she left, but there has been marginal improvement, largely due to the impact of social media — it’s more difficult to hold back girls from their rights.”
Yousafzai founded the Malala Fund with her father, once a teacher in the Swat Valley who pushed against societal norms to champion his daughter’s education.
The charity has invested millions of dollars in tackling the plight of 120 million girls out of school across the world.
“Pakistan is where I began my journey and where my heart will always be,” Yousafzai said in her speech on Sunday.
But in her native country the projects she backs in rural areas are rarely publicised.
“I still think Malala is a paradox in Pakistan,” said Dad.
“While her global achievements are undeniable, officials and the public remain divided, caught between admiration and mistrust. Yet Malala’s impact transcends these perceptions,” Dad told AFP.
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