Saturday, January 11, 2025
Islamabad (UrduPoint News International/ Pakistan Point News - 11th January, 2025) Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has arrived in her native Pakistan to attend a global summit on girls’ education in the Islamic world starting today. Malala expressed her happiness on her arrival in Pakistan.
The summit is being hosted by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
This global summit has brought together education leaders from Muslim-majority countries, but Pakistan’s neighboring country Afghanistan has refused to participate in it. It should be remembered that Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from going to school.
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Opening remarks by host country leaders at the conference
At the inauguration of this summit organized in collaboration with the Muslim World, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equal access to education for girls.
"Depriving girls of education is tantamount to destroying their voice and their right to choose, because deprivation of education will be the cause of deprivation of girls' right to a bright future," Shahbaz Sharif added.
Pakistan's Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP that the Islamabad government had "invited Afghanistan but no one from the Afghan government is attending the conference."
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Malala to attend conference
Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by Pakistani Taliban militants in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl, arrived in her home country on Saturday and is scheduled to address the conference on Sunday.
"It is an honour for me to return to Pakistan, I am truly happy and overwhelmed with emotion," she told AFP as she arrived in the capital Islamabad with her parents.
Earlier on Friday, Malala wrote in a post on social media that she would address the conference on "why the Taliban must be held accountable for crimes against Afghan women and girls."
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Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan Taliban government has banned girls and women from participating in education and other sectors, in a move the United Nations has described as "gender discrimination."
Pakistan's education crisis
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan itself is facing a severe education crisis.
More than 26 million children are out of school, the highest number in the world, according to government figures.
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Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif explained the reasons, saying, “Inadequate education infrastructure, security concerns as well as deep-rooted social norms are creating obstacles to girls’ education.”
“This is at least a good step for us in terms of education for Muslim girls,” said Zahra Tariq, a 23-year-old clinical psychology student who attended the inaugural session of the conference on Muslim girls’ education in Islamabad. “Those living in rural areas still face problems.
In some cases, the girls’ families themselves are the first obstacle.”
Why is Malala Yousafzai’s name on every language?
Malala Yousafzai’s name became known worldwide after Pakistani Taliban militants attacked a school bus in the Swat Valley in 2012. This was at a time when militancy was rampant in the region as fighting raged across the border in Afghanistan between the Afghan Taliban and NATO forces.
Malala's letter to Taliban leaders
It should be noted that the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban are separate groups but they share close ties and similar ideologies, including "considering girls' education as a grave sin".
Malala Yousafzai was transferred from Pakistan to Britain after the attack and became a "global advocate" for girls' education and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, becoming the world's youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
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