Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said she was “overwhelmed” to return to Pakistan to attend the global summit on girls’ education in the Islamic world.
Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for championing girls’ education, arrived in Islamabad for the two-day summit, which aims to address the education crisis facing millions of girls in Muslim-majority countries.
“I feel truly honored, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan,” Yousafzai told AFP upon arrival.
The summit, which opened Saturday morning, is attended by representatives from several Muslim-majority nations, where tens of millions of girls are currently out of school.
Yousafzai is scheduled to address the meeting on Sunday. “I will talk about protecting every girl’s right to go to school and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women and girls,” she posted on social media platform X ahead of the event.
Pakistan’s Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui confirmed that Afghanistan’s Taliban government was invited to the summit, but Islamabad is yet to receive a response. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are prohibited from attending school and university.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the regime has imposed an austere interpretation of Islamic law, which the United Nations has condemned as “gender apartheid.”
Pakistan itself faces a serious education crisis, with more than 26 million children out of school, mainly due to poverty, according to government figures.
Yousafzai, who was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 while traveling on a school bus in the Swat Valley, was later evacuated to the United Kingdom. Since then, she has become a global advocate for girls’ education and, at age 17, became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
