Pakistan’s education minister claims that no one from Afghanistan showed up at the conference.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government is not participating in a global summit on girls’ education in the Muslim world that began in neighboring Pakistan. This was announced by Islamabad on Saturday, according to TASR, according to AFP.
“We sent an invitation to Afghanistan, but no one from the Afghan government was at the conference,” Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP.
“The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said at the opening of the summit. It is supported by the Muslim World League (MWL), a Mecca-based non-governmental organization for promoting the true message of Islam by promoting moderate values. .
Girls need a future
“Denying education to girls is tantamount to denying their voice and their choice, depriving them of their right to a bright future,” Sharif added. The summit includes education leaders from Muslim-majority countries, with the exception of Afghanistan, which is the only country in the world where girls forbidden to go to school.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed their version of Islamic law in Afghanistan, which the United Nations has called “gender apartheid.”
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malála Júsufzajová, also arrived in her homeland for the summit. In 2012, as a 15-year-old, the Pakistani branch of the Taliban attempted to assassinate her as she was returning from school by bus in the remote Swat Valley. An Islamic radical shot her in the head. With severe neck and skull injuries, she was later flown to Britain, where she underwent several demanding procedures, including facial plastic surgery
She posted on social media on Friday that she will be speaking on “why we must hold Taliban leaders accountable for their crimes against Afghan women and girls”. She will speak at the conference on Sunday. Pakistan is facing its own serious education crisis. According to government figures, more as 26 million children do not go to school, which is one of the highest numbers in the world.
