Malala urges world to support Afghan women demanding ‘right to learn’

WASHINGTON: Education activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Sunday voiced her concern over the girls education in Taliban-led Afghanistan, urging the world to support Afghan women in their struggle for the “right to learn”.

Taking to Twitter, the Nobel Prize laureate wrote that the world must stand with the Afghan women who are raising their voice for the right to an education.

Afghan women are speaking out for themselves and demanding their right to learn. We must stand with them.

Sign the open letter @ZarqaYaftali, @ShaharzadAkbar and I wrote calling on Taliban, G20 and Muslim leaders to take action and #LetAfghanGirlsLearn. https://t.co/5crbnThPHD

— Malala (@Malala) October 17, 2021

Malala, who is also the co-founder of the Malala Fund that advocates women’s education, urged the people to sign the letter she wrote in association with Women & Children Legal Research Foundation Director Zarqa Yaftali and Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission Chairperson Shaharzad Akbar.

The education activist further said that the letter was written to call on the Taliban-led Afghan government, G20, and the international Muslim leadership to “take action” for the right of Afghan girls and women to education. Malala has linked her post to the letter she requests people sign.

“Afghan women are speaking out for themselves and demanding their right to learn. We must stand with them. Sign the open letter @ZarqaYaftali, @ShaharzadAkbar, and I wrote calling on Taliban, G20, and Muslim leaders to take action and #LetAfghanGirlsLearn,” wrote Malala.

On September 18, Afghanistan’s new rulers ordered male teachers and boys aged 13 and over back to secondary schools, picking up an academic year already cut short by violence and the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there was no mention of women teachers or girl pupils. The Taliban later said older girls can return to secondary schools, which were already mostly split by gender, but only once security and stricter segregation under their interpretation of Islamic law could be ensured.

Meanwhile, a senior United Nations official said that the Taliban will announce a framework that allows girls to attend school in Afghanistan “soon.”

“The de facto minister of education told us that they are working on a framework, which they will announce soon, that will allow all girls to go to secondary school, and we are expecting that to happen very soon,” UNICEF deputy executive director Omar Abdi said at the United Nations in New York.