By Charlotte Greenfield
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai called on Muslim leaders on Sunday to support efforts to declare gender apartheid a crime under international law and urged them to speak out against the Afghan Taliban for their treatment of women and girls.
At a summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities attended by international leaders and scholars in her native Pakistan, Yousafzai said Muslim voices must lead the way against the Taliban’s policies, which have banned teenage girls from going to school and women from universities.
“In Afghanistan, an entire generation of girls will be deprived of a future,” she said in a speech in Islamabad. “As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voice, use your power.”
The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law. Spokesmen for the Taliban administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Yousafzai’s statements.
No foreign government has formally recognized the Taliban since they took over Afghanistan in 2021, and diplomats have said steps toward recognition require a change in attitudes about women’s rights.
Yousafzai survived being shot in the head by a gunman in Pakistan when she was 15 after campaigning against the Pakistani Taliban’s move to deny girls an education.
The summit, organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Muslim World League, was attended by dozens of ministers and scientists from Muslim-majority countries.
Yousafzai asked scholars to “openly challenge and condemn the Taliban’s repressive laws” and political leaders to support the addition of gender apartheid to crimes against humanity under international criminal law.
The summit was hosted by Pakistan, which has had a frosty relationship with the Afghan Taliban in recent months amid accusations that the militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan, which the Taliban denies.
