Malala slams Afghan Taliban for instituting system of 'gender apartheid' against women

Islamabad: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on Sunday slammed the Afghan Taliban regime for instituting a system of “gender apartheid” against women by disguising their crimes in the cloak of culture and religion.

"Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification. These policies are a violation of human rights and have no basis in Islamic teachings,” she said while speaking on girls’ education in Muslim nations on the second and final day of an international conference in Islamabad.

Taliban recaptured power in 2021 by toppling the government of Ashraf Ghani and since then ruled Afghanistan with impunity, by legalising several anti-women policies, including denying them the right to education.

The 27-year-old Nobel laureate even questioned the Afghan government on the claim of their introducing Islamic system in the country. “They are violations of human rights, and no cultural or religious excuse can justify them,” she said.

She urged Muslim leaders to avoid giving recognition to the Taliban's government in Afghanistan and to demonstrate genuine leadership by standing up against their policies limiting education for women and girls.

"Do not legitimize them," she asked the Muslim leaders, as she termed the Taliban regime as “perpetrators of gender apartheid.” She said that an entire generation of girls is being robbed of their future in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban have ripped away the right to learn from every Afghan girl and they want to eliminate women and girls from every aspect of public life and erase them from society,” she said.

Malala also said that 12 million Pakistani girls were out of school, one of the highest numbers in the world, but expressed satisfaction that the conference was taking place here in Pakistan.

She also criticised Israeli actions in Gaza, accusing it of dismantling the region’s education system and committing human rights violations.

“In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system,” she said. “They have bombed all universities, destroyed more than 90% of schools, and indiscriminately attacked civilians sheltering in school buildings..." She urged international solidarity to support education in conflict zones and end discriminatory practices against women and girls.

Malala was shot in the face by the Pakistani Taliban at the age of 15 for opposing them but survived to become a global symbol of resilience and advocacy for girls’ education.

She came to Pakistan to attend the two-day summit, which aimed to address challenges in girls' education across Muslim communities and explore international leadership’s role in ensuring equal access to education.