Malala accuses world leaders of enabling Taliban ‘gender apartheid’ in Afghanistan
Malala, who was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban when she was 15 years old, has accused world leaders of normalising the oppressive Taliban rule in Afghanistan. She is now calling for women’s rights to be central to all work on the future of the country.
Listen to this article
Read time: 3 mins
In brief…
- Malala says world leaders are complicit in the Taliban’s oppression of women in Afghanistan by attempting to negotiate with its leaders.
- The activist and Nobel Prize winner says the women and girls living under Taliban oppression are “not even counted as people” by western politicians.
- She tells The News Agents of a “gender apartheid” being carried out in the country, and says women’s rights must be the centre of any future negotiations about the future of Afghanistan.
What’s the story?
Malala has condemned western leaders for normalising the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan, where the terror group has ruled since 2021.
Under their rule, girls are denied education and women subjected to strict rules on how they must behave both in public and their own homes.
Malala has criticised western leaders for normalising their regime by attempting to negotiate with the Taliban, and work with them like any other country's leaders.
“Countries are opening their embassies, and are meeting them. They're inviting them to big gatherings,” Malala tells Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.
“The issue of women's rights is put aside as if it's not even important. Afghan women and girls are not even counted as the people of Afghanistan.
“Women are restricted from work, from education. They are beaten up, they are abused. They are even put in prisons if they disobey any of the Taliban's obscure, oppressive rules.”
In the UK, Reform UK has said it would consider paying the Taliban to take back hostages, with the terror group responding to say it would work with a Farage-led government.
Nobel Prize winner Malala was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban when she was 15 due to her activism in her home country for women's rights and education.
Her survival propelled her to international acclaim.
‘Taliban conducting gender apartheid in Afghanistan’
In the Taliban-run Afghanistan, girls are only educated to primary school level, are excluded from being trained in healthcare, are forbidden to laugh loudly, participate in sport, all beauty salons have been closed and cosmetics banned.
International apathy towards these extreme measures make Malala feel women’s rights is going backwards, globally.
“I don't know why we still have to defend the right to education for girls. Why is it becoming a crime for an Afghan girl to be in a classroom?” Malala says.
“Internationally, it's not yet a crime for the Taliban to be imposing all of these restrictions.
“Afghan women activists are advocating for what's happening in Afghanistan to be recognised as a gender apartheid. They're pushing countries to put more pressure on the Taliban and to not normalise conversations with them.”
‘Taliban laws are un-Islamic – more Muslim leaders should act’
She also accuses the Taliban of exploiting the teachings of Islam to justify its actions towards women, and wants to see more Muslim leaders calling it out.
“They call themselves the so-called ambassadors of an Islamic country, but there are dozens of Muslim countries, and none of them are banning girls from their education,” Malala adds.
“So I do hope that more Muslim leaders and more Muslim countries will step forward and challenge the Taliban.
“We need more scholars to come out and say that what the Taliban are doing is actually un-Islamic.”
She calls on world leaders to ensure that women’s rights are at the forefront of any discussions or negotiations on the future of Afghanistan.
“We need to make sure that we open our borders, we provide women in Afghanistan more support, but that is not a long term solution,” she says.
“What leaders need to do is help those who are at risk immediately, but they also need to prioritise the women's rights conversation of Afghanistan and put this on top of their agenda.
“They need to make sure that in the rooms where decisions about Afghanistan's future are made, the Afghan women are present, and that girls' education and women's rights become a non-negotiable condition with the Taliban.”