The Taliban “don’t see women as human,” says Malala in Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its repressive policies for girls and women.

“Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not see women as human beings,” she said at an international summit hosted by Pakistan on girls’ education in Islamic countries.

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 was evacuated from Pakistan at 15 after being shot in the head by a Pakistani Taliban gunman who attacked her for speaking out about girls’ education.

Speaking at the conference in Islamabad on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said she was “overwhelmed and happy” to be back in her home country. He has only returned to Pakistan a handful of times since the 2012 attack, after making their first comeback in 2018.

On Sunday he claimed that the Taliban government had once again created “a system of gender apartheid.”

The Taliban “punish women and girls who dare to violate their dark laws by beating them, arresting them and harming them,” he said.

He added that the group “covers up its crimes with a cultural and religious justification,” but in reality “it goes against everything our faith represents.”

The Taliban refused to respond to a BBC request to comment on the defender’s comments. They have previously said they respect women’s rights according to their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.

The group’s leaders were invited to the summit organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) by the government of Pakistan and the Muslim World League, but did not attend.

Among those attending the conference were dozens of ministers and academics from Muslim-majority countries who advocated for girls’ education.

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, their government has not been formally recognized by any foreign government. Western powers have said the group’s policies that restrict women must change.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prohibited from accessing secondary and higher education: around one and a half million have been deliberately deprived of schooling.

The Taliban have repeatedly promised that they would be readmitted to the school once a number of issues were resolved, including ensuring that the curriculum was “Islamic.” This has not happened yet.

In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing their last avenue to continue their studies in the country.

Yousafzai said girls’ education was at risk in several countries. He said that in Gaza, Israel had “decimated the entire education system.”

She urged those present to “denounce the worst violations” of girls’ right to education, noting that crises in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan meant that “girls’ entire future is being stolen.”