Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Sunday called the situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan “gender apartheid” and urged Muslim leaders to denounce the Taliban government’s repressive education policies. women and girls.
“Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not view women as human beings,” she said, speaking in Islamabad at a summit on advancing girls’ education in countries Islamic groups, organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League.
The Pakistani education campaigner added that there was “nothing Islamic” about the government’s policy, which bars adolescent girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade and women from attend university.
Yousafzai, 27, also urged participants, including dozens of ministers and academics from Muslim countries, to “openly challenge and denounce” the Taliban by recognizing gender apartheid as a crime against humanity under of international criminal law.
“In Afghanistan, an entire generation of girls will be deprived of their future,” she said. “As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voice and use your power. »
Gaisu Yari, a gender expert and fellow at the Wilson Center, told NBC News that “Malala took a bold step in engaging with Muslim leaders, understanding that their influence could have a significant impact when speaking to Taliban.”
Afghan representatives did not attend the summit.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid declined to comment, telling NBC News: “We do not want to comment on Malala Yousafzai’s remarks about us. »
The Taliban has said it will use its own interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law, known as sharia, to guide its policies on women’s rights.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that prohibits women and girls – almost 1.5 million Afghans – from accessing secondary and higher education.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have systematically deprived women and girls of their basic rights by passing laws that restrict access to education, work, and freedoms of movement and expression.
In December, he banned women from training as midwives or nurses, ending women’s only access to higher education and endangering the lives of women and children.
Earlier this month, he passed another ordinance banning residential buildings from having windows that allow women to be seen while they are at home.
For women, living in Afghanistan “is akin to living in a prison,” Yari said.
No foreign government has officially recognized the Taliban due to their restrictive stance towards women, while the United Nations has repeatedly denounced the government.
Although gender apartheid has not yet been formally codified in international law, activists, experts and the women’s movement in Afghanistan say that Taliban rule over the past three years has shown clear characteristics of this practice, Yari said.
Legal experts define gender apartheid as “the systemic, institutionalized discrimination and segregation of individuals based on their sex, designed to maintain male dominance by controlling women.”
In September 2023, international legal expert and civil society representative Karima Bennoune told the UN Security Council that “what has been tried since the Taliban’s return to power does not work” and urged the UN to take all available measures to encourage the Taliban to reverse course. its course.
She added that codifying this crime into international law would be one of the most effective ways to achieve this.
