Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai will attend a summit on girls’ education hosted in Islamabad to advance girls’ education and promote awareness of women’s empowerment.
Malala, an advocate for girls’ education, and her friends Kainat and Shazia were attacked by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Oct 9, 2012, while they were returning from school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat valley.
She was critically injured in the attack after being shot by the TTP, who were enraged by her activism. Malala was evacuated from the country after receiving initial treatment. The Nobel laureate has returned to the country only a handful of times since.
“I am excited to join Muslim leaders from around the world for a critical conference on girls’ education,” Malala said today in a post on X.
“On Sunday, 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.”
A spokesperson for her Malala Fund charity confirmed she will attend the summit in person, which is scheduled to take place on January 11 and 12 and will focus on girls’ education in Muslim communities.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from going to school and university. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law which the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”.
Girls are only allowed to attend primary school, while women are largely restricted to working in segregated environments in health or education. The Taliban administration claims that Islamic law “guarantees” the rights of Afghan men and women.
The summit will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and bring together ministers and ambassadors from 44 countries as well as representatives from the United Nations and the World Bank.
The summit will confirm “the shared commitment of (the) Muslim community to empower girls through education”, according to a government statement.
Federal Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Thursday said that the two-day international conference would address challenges to women’s access to education across the Muslim world.
In 2018, Malala visited her hometown in Swat, more than five years after the attack. The same year, she visited again, travelling to areas devastated by unprecedented monsoon flooding and met flood victims.
