Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its policies of oppression against girls and women.
“Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not view women as human beings,” she told an international summit hosted by Pakistan on girls' education in Islamic countries.
Yousafzai told Muslim leaders that there was “nothing Islamic” in the Taliban's policies, which include banning female education and preventing women from working.
The 27-year-old was evacuated from Pakistan when she was 15 after she was shot in the head by a Pakistani Taliban gunman who targeted her for speaking out about girls' education.
Addressing the conference in Islamabad on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said she was “overwhelmed and happy” to be returning to her homeland. She has returned to Pakistan only a few times since the 2012 attack Making her first comeback in 2018.
She said on Sunday that the Taliban government had once again established a “system of apartheid between the sexes.”
She added that the Taliban “punishes women and girls who dare to break its vague laws by beating, detaining and abusing them.”
She added that the group “hides its crimes behind cultural and religious justifications,” but in reality, they “contrary to everything our faith stands for.”
The Taliban refused to respond to the BBC's request to comment on the lawyer's statements. They have previously said they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.
The group's leaders were invited to attend the summit run by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation by the Pakistani government and the Muslim World League, but did not attend.
Among those attending the conference were dozens of ministers and scholars from Muslim-majority countries who advocated for girls' education.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, its government has not been officially recognized by a single foreign government. Western powers said the group's policies that restrict women needed to change.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are barred from secondary and tertiary education – with nearly one and a half million girls deliberately deprived of an education.
The Taliban have repeatedly promised to readmit them to schools once a number of issues are resolved, including ensuring that the curriculum is “Islamic.” This has not happened yet.
In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing their last path to further education in the country.
Ms Yousafzai said girls' education was at risk in many countries. In Gaza, she said that Israel had “destroyed the entire education system.”
She urged attendees to “shed light on the worst violations” of girls' right to education, noting that crises in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan mean that “girls' entire future has been stolen.”
