Malala says Taliban ‘does not see women as humans’
Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its repressive policies towards girls and women.
“Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not view women as human beings,” he said at an international summit organized by Pakistan on girls’ education in Islamic countries.
Ms Yousafzai told Muslim leaders there was “nothing Islamic” about the Taliban’s policies, which include banning female education and preventing women from working.
The 27-year-old girl was deported from Pakistan at the age of 15 after she was shot in the head by a Pakistani Taliban gunman for speaking out about girls’ education.
Addressing the conference in Islamabad on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said she was “overwhelmed and happy” to be back in her country. She has returned to Pakistan only a few times since the 2012 attacks Making her first comeback in 2018.
On Sunday, he said the Taliban government had again created “a system of gender apartheid.”
“The Taliban are punishing women and girls who dare to break their vague laws, beating them, detaining them and harming them,” she said.
He said the group “hides its crimes in cultural and religious justifications” but in reality “goes against everything we believe in”.
The Taliban declined to respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the lawyer’s remarks. He has previously stated that he respects women’s rights in accordance with Afghan culture and his interpretation of Islamic law.
The group’s leaders were invited by the Pakistan government and the Muslim World League to a summit run by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), but did not attend.
Conference attendees included dozens of ministers and scholars from Muslim-majority countries who advocated for girls’ education.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, its government has not been formally recognized by any foreign government. Western powers have said the group’s policies restricting women need to be changed.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from secondary and higher education – approximately one and a half million are deliberately denied schooling.
The Taliban have repeatedly promised that they will be readmitted to school once a number of issues are resolved – including ensuring that the curriculum is “Islamic”. This is yet to happen.
In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing their last route to further education in the country.
Ms. Yousafzai said that girls’ education is in danger in many countries. In Gaza, he said, Israel had “destroyed the entire education system”.
She urged attendees to “raise their voices about the worst violations” of girls’ right to education, pointing out that the crisis in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan means “girls’ entire futures have been stolen”.
