Malala Yousafzai called on Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its repressive policies against girls and women.
“Put simply, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not view women as human beings.” She spoke at an international summit hosted by Pakistan on girls’ education in Islamic countries.
Ms. Yousafzai told Muslim leaders that there was “nothing Islamic at all” about the Taliban’s policy of banning women’s education and women’s work.
The 27-year-old was evacuated from Pakistan at the age of 15 after being shot in the head by a Pakistani Taliban gunman who targeted her for speaking out about girls’ education.
Speaking at a conference in Islamabad on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said he was “overwhelmed and happy” to be back in his home country. She has returned to Pakistan only a few times since the 2012 attacks. First return in 2018.
On Sunday she said the Taliban government had once again created a “gender-discriminatory system.”
The Taliban are “punishing women and girls who dare to break their vague laws by beating, detaining and harming them,” she said.
She added that the group “covers up its crimes for cultural and religious justifications” but in reality “goes against everything our faith stands for.”
The Taliban declined to respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the advocate’s comments. They have previously stated that they respect women’s rights in line with Afghan culture and their interpretation of Islamic law.
Although the Pakistani government and the Muslim World League were invited to the summit hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), they did not attend.
Attendees at the meeting included dozens of ministers and academics from Islamic countries who advocate for girls’ education.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, their government has not been officially recognized by a single foreign government. Western powers said the group’s policies restricting women must be changed.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prohibited from receiving secondary and higher education. Approximately 1.5 million people are intentionally excluded from schooling.
The Taliban has repeatedly promised to re-enter the school once a number of issues are resolved, including ensuring the curriculum is ‘Islamic’. This hasn’t happened yet.
In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively cutting off their last route to further education in the country.
Ms. Yousafzai said girls’ education was at risk in many countries. She said Israel had “destroyed the entire education system” in the Gaza Strip.
She urged attendees to “point out the worst violations” of girls’ right to education and pointed out that crises in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan meant “girls’ entire futures have been stolen”.
