ISLAMABAD: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday not to “legitimise” the Afghan Taliban government and to “show true leadership” by opposing their curbs on women and girls’ education.
“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”, Malala Yousafzai emphasized while speaking at a summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations 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.”
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”.
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.
In her address, the Nobel Peace laureate said she would continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights in Gaza.
The education advocate was speaking at a global summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations hosted by Pakistan and attended by representatives from dozens of countries.
“In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system,” she said in an address to the conference.
“They have bombed all universities, destroyed more than 90 percent of schools, and indiscriminately attacked civilians sheltering in school buildings.
“I will continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights.”
“Palestinian children have lost their lives and future. A Palestinian girl cannot have the future she deserves if her school is bombed and her family is killed,” she added.
The two-day conference has brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League.
