Islamabad:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday not to “legitimise” the Afghan Taliban government and to “show true leadership” by opposing their curbs on women and girls’ education.

“Do not legitimise them,” she said at a summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations being held in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

“As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voices, use your power. You can show true leadership. You can show true Islam,” said 27-year-old Yousafzai.

The two-day conference has brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League. 

Since sweeping back to power in 2021, the Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.

Their curbs have shut women and girls out of secondary school and university education, as well as many government jobs, and seen them sequestered out of many aspects of public life.

Delegates from Afghanistan’s Taliban government did not attend the event despite being invited, Pakistan Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP on Saturday.

“Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings,” Yousafzai told the conference.

“They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification.”

Yousafzai was shot in the face by the Pakistani Taliban when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2012, amid her campaigning for female education rights.

Her activism earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and she has since become a global advocate for women and girls’ education rights.

“The Taliban are explicit about their mission: they want to eliminate women and girls from every aspect of public life and erase them from society,” she told the conference.

While there is outcry in much of the international community over the Taliban government curbs, nations are divided over how to engage with Kabul’s rulers on the issue.

Some countries argue they should be frozen out of the diplomatic community until they backtrack, while others prefer engagement to coax them into a U-turn.

No country has officially recognised the Taliban authorities, but several regional governments have engaged on the topics of trade and security. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad:

Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Sunday said she would continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights in Gaza. The education advocate was speaking at a global summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations hosted by Pakistan and attended by representatives from dozens of countries.

“In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system,” she said in an address to the conference.

“They have bombed all universities, destroyed more than 90 percent of schools, and indiscriminately attacked civilians sheltering in school buildings. I will continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights.”

Ms Yousafzai was shot when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl by Pakistani terrorists enraged by her education activism.

She made a remarkable recovery after being evacuated to the United Kingdom and went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17.

“Palestinian children have lost their lives and future. A Palestinian girl cannot have the future she deserves if her school is bombed and her family is killed,” she added.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, Palestinian terrorists took 251 people hostage, of whom 94 remain in the Gaza Strip, including 34 the Israeli military has declared dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 46,537 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory considered reliable by the United Nations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad, Pakistan:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said she was “overwhelmed” to be back in her native Pakistan Saturday, as she arrived for a global summit on girls’ education in the Islamic world. The education activist was shot by the Pakistan Taliban militants in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl, and has returned to the country only a handful of times since. 

“I’m truly honoured, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan,” she told AFP as she arrived at the conference in the capital Islamabad with her parents. 

The two-day summit brings together representatives from Muslim-majority countries, where tens of millions of girls are out of school. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was set Saturday morning to address attendees, including local schoolgirls and university students. 

“At last we have a good initiative on Muslim girls’ education,” said Zahra Tariq, a 23-year-old studying clinical psychology.

“Those in rural areas are still facing problems. In some cases their families are the first barrier,” she told AFP. 

Yousafzai is due to address the summit on Sunday, and said she would focus on Afghanistan — the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from going to school and university.

“I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls,” she posted on social media platform X on Friday. 

Pakistan’s education minister, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, told AFP the Taliban government in Afghanistan had been invited to attend, but Islamabad had not received a response. 

Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”. 

Pakistan is facing its own severe education crisis with more than 26 million children out of school — one of the highest figures in the world — mostly as a result of poverty, according to official government figures.

Yousafzai became a household name after she was attacked by Pakistan Taliban militants on a school bus in the remote Swat valley in 2012.

Militancy was widespread in the region at the time as the war between the Afghan Taliban and NATO forces raged across the border in Afghanistan. The Pakistan and Afghan Taliban are separate groups but share close links and similar ideologies, including a strong disbelief in educating girls.

Yousafzai was evacuated to the United Kingdom after her attack and went on to become a global advocate for girls’ education and, at the age of 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lahore:

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday condemned Israel and reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza, after a backlash in her native Pakistan over a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas.

The musical, titled “Suffs,” depicts the American women’s suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century and has been playing in New York since last week.

“I want there to be no confusion about my support for the people of Gaza,” Yousafzai wrote on X, the former Twitter. “We do not need to see more dead bodies, bombed schools and starving children to understand that a ceasefire is urgent and necessary.”

She added: “I have and will continue to condemn the Israeli government for its violations of international law and war crimes.”

pic.twitter.com/D1bsncROJS

— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) April 24, 2024

Pakistan has seen many fiercely emotional pro-Palestinian protests since the war in Gaza began last October.

Yusafzai’s “theatre collaboration with Hillary Clinton — who stands for America’s unequivocal support for genocide of Palestinians — is a huge blow to her credibility as a human rights activist,” popular Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.

“I consider it utterly tragic.”

Whilst Clinton has backed a military campaign to remove Hamas and rejected demands for a ceasefire, she has also explicitly called for protections for Palestinian civilians.

Yousafzai has publically condemned the civilian casualties and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The New York Times reported the 26-year-old wore a red-and-black pin to the “Suffs” premier last Thursday, signifying her support for a ceasefire.

But author and academic Nida Kirmani said on X that Yousafzai’s decision to partner with Clinton was “maddening and heartbreaking at the same time. What an utter disappointment.”

The war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Hamas militants also abducted 250 people and Israel estimates 129 of them remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.

Clinton served as America’s top diplomat during former president Barack Obama’s administration, which oversaw a campaign of drone strikes targeting Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan’s borderlands.

Yousafzai earned her Nobel Peace Prize after being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban as she pushed for girls’ education as a teenager in 2012.

However, the drone war killed and maimed scores of civilians in Yousafzai’s home region, spurring more online criticism of the youngest Nobel Laureate, who earned the prize at 17.

Yousafzai is often viewed with suspicion in Pakistan, where critics accuse her of pushing a Western feminist and liberal political agenda on the conservative country.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A massive explosion ripped through a hospital in Gaza, killing over 500 people and drawing widespread condemnation globally. Israel claimed a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad (a group affiliated with Hamas) misfired and hit the hospital, while Hamas said Israel conducted airstrikes on innocent Gazans.

Irrespective of the claims and counter-claims, it was children and the elderly in a hospital who died in the bombing.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, in a video message, said “I’m horrified to see the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza and unequivocally condemn it.”

I’m horrified to see the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza and unequivocally condemn it. I urge the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and reiterate the call for a ceasefire. I am directing $300K to three charities helping Palestinian people under attack. pic.twitter.com/JiIPfnTUvY

— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) October 17, 2023

“I’m adding my voice to those from Israel, Palestine and those around the world crying out for peace. Collective punishment is not the answer. Half of Gaza’s population is less than 18 years of age and they should not be living the rest of their life under bombing and unjust occupation,” Ms Yousafzai said.

She urged the Israeli government to let humanitarian aid go into Gaza, adding that she would donate $300,000 (Rs 2.5 crore) to three charities helping the people of Palestine in this crisis and urged people to provide aid to such charities.

The Nobel laureate urged governments to work for an immediate ceasefire and enduring peace.

Global Condemnation

US President Joe Biden, who is visiting Israel, backed the latter’s claim that a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad misfired and hit the hospital, but in the same breath, also condemned the attack and said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “Deeply shocked at the tragic loss of lives at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza”, adding, “Civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict are a matter of serious and continuing concern. Those involved should be held responsible.”

Russia said that the blast at a Gaza hospital compound that health officials said killed hundreds of people was a “crime” and an “act of dehumanisation”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the situation in Gaza is spiralling out of control and said, “Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives.”