Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and global advocate for girls’ education, has strongly criticized the Taliban government in Afghanistan, accusing it of systematically dehumanizing women. Speaking at an international summit on girls’ education in Islamic countries, hosted by Pakistan, she urged Muslim leaders to take a stand against the Taliban’s repressive policies.
“Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not see women as human beings,” Ms. Yousafzai stated. She emphasized that the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls, including their exclusion from education and work, are not rooted in Islamic teachings. “There is nothing Islamic about their policies,” she said, urging Islamic leaders to challenge the regime.
Malala, who survived a near-fatal attack by the Pakistan Taliban in 2012 for advocating girls’ education, returned to Pakistan to address the summit in Islamabad. She expressed her joy at being back in her home country, which she has visited only a few times since the attack.
The 27-year-old condemned the Taliban’s governance, describing it as “a system of gender apartheid” where women and girls face severe punishment for defying their restrictive laws. “They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification, but their actions go against everything our faith stands for,” she said.
The Taliban government, which has faced global criticism since retaking control of Afghanistan in 2021, declined to comment on Malala’s statements. While they claim to respect women’s rights within their interpretation of Islamic law, their policies have led to Afghanistan becoming the only country in the world where girls are barred from secondary and higher education. Approximately 1.5 million Afghan girls have been deliberately deprived of schooling, and women are now banned from training as midwives and nurses, cutting off their last pathway to further education.
The summit, organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Pakistan government, and the Muslim World League, was attended by ministers and scholars from across the Islamic world. Despite being invited, Taliban representatives did not attend.
Malala highlighted the broader risks to girls’ education globally, pointing to crises in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan that have devastated education systems. She accused Israel of “decimating the entire education system” in Gaza and warned that in many conflict zones, “the entire future of girls is being stolen.”
Malala urged the international community to confront and condemn the worst violations of girls’ rights. She emphasized that without global action, millions of girls would continue to face a future without education, opportunity, or hope.
