Malala slams Afghan Taliban for instituting ‘gender apartheid’

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on Sunday slammed the Afghan Taliban regime for instituting a system of “gender apartheid” against women by disguising their crimes in the cloak of culture and religion.

“Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification. These policies are a violation of human rights and have no basis in Islamic teachings,” she said while speaking on girls’ education in Muslim nations on the second and final day of an international conference in Islamabad.

Taliban recaptured power in 2021 by toppling the government of Ashraf Ghani and since then ruled Afghanistan with impunity, by legalising several anti-women policies, including denying them the right to education.

The 27-year-old Nobel laureate even questioned the Afghan government on the claim of their introducing Islamic system in the country. “They are violations of human rights, and no cultural or religious excuse can justify them,” she said.

She urged Muslim leaders to avoid giving recognition to the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan and to demonstrate genuine leadership by standing up against their policies limiting education for women and girls.

“Do not legitimise them,” she asked the Muslim leaders, as she termed the Taliban regime as “perpetrators of gender apartheid.” She said that an entire generation of girls is being robbed of their future in Afghanistan.