Malala Yousafzai Joins Pakistan’s Global Summit on Girls’ Education

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has arrived in Pakistan to attend a global summit in Islamabad aimed at promoting girls’ education in the Muslim world. The summit, launched by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has gathered education leaders from various Muslim-majority countries but has notably been boycotted by Afghanistan, the only nation where girls are currently banned from attending school.

At the opening of the conference, Prime Minister Sharif highlighted the significant challenges faced by Pakistan and other Muslim countries in ensuring equitable education for girls. He emphasized that denying girls an education is equivalent to denying their voice, their choices, and their future.

While the Afghan government was invited to the summit, Pakistan’s Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui confirmed that no representatives from Afghanistan attended. Malala, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 for advocating girls’ education, is scheduled to speak at the conference on Sunday. She posted on social media that her address would focus on holding the Taliban accountable for their treatment of Afghan women and girls.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on women’s rights, including a ban on education for girls, which has been condemned as “gender apartheid” by the United Nations. Malala, who now advocates globally for girls’ education, called for stronger action to address these violations.

Pakistan is also grappling with its own education crisis, with over 26 million children currently out of school. Prime Minister Sharif pointed to societal norms, infrastructure challenges, and safety concerns as major barriers to girls’ education in the country.

Attendees like Zahra Tariq, a 23-year-old clinical psychology student, expressed optimism about the summit’s efforts to address the educational struggles faced by girls, particularly in rural areas, where family and cultural pressures remain significant obstacles.

Malala’s advocacy continues to inspire global action for gender equality in education, following her own recovery after the 2012 attack, which occurred in Pakistan’s Swat Valley during a period of widespread militancy.