Islamabad Conference; Muslim Leaders Emphasize Girls' Right to Education and Critique Taliban Policies

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif, at the opening of a major meeting led by Muslim countries regarding girls' education, which remains a sensitive issue in the Islamic world, stated that preventing girls from receiving education is equivalent to denying their voices. On Sunday, January 13, he said in his opening speech: "The Islamic world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equal access to education for girls." This two-day conference, held in Islamabad, also hosted Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. In her speech, Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders not to legitimize the Taliban government in Afghanistan and to show "real leadership" against the assault on women's rights. She emphasized that the Taliban have deprived Afghan girls and women of their right to education, labeling these actions as "crimes justified by cultural and religious excuses." The conference, supported by the "Union of the Islamic World," was attended by ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim countries. Mohammed Al-Issa, the Secretary-General of this union, also stated that "educating girls is not un-Islamic." Yousafzai also pointed to the impact of wars in Yemen, Sudan, and Gaza on education, condemning the destruction of Gaza's educational system by Israel. She mentioned that the Taliban have banned the construction of windows overlooking "women's areas." In a part of her speech that was censored by Pakistan's state television, she referred to the plan for the widespread expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan, stating: "It is unimaginable for an Afghan girl to be returned to a system that denies her future." Malala, who was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012, is now a global activist for women's and girls' education rights. World leaders continue to disagree on how to engage with the Taliban government. Some call for the Taliban's diplomatic isolation, while others view engagement as a way to change the group's positions. Razaa Atunbaeva, head of the UN aid mission in Afghanistan, urged leaders of Islamic countries to directly assist Afghan girls by providing opportunities such as scholarships and online education. While women's rights activists emphasize that the Taliban, ruling Afghanistan, is one of the world's greatest violators of women's and girls' rights, the Taliban did not attend the international conference in Islamabad. The conference was initiated by the "Organization of Islamic Solidarity" based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and representatives from member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and human rights activists were present. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan's Minister of Education, the host country of the conference, stated that the Taliban were "officially" invited to the conference, but no one from their side attended. "Radio Mashaal," a section of Radio Free Europe for Pakistan, quoted a "senior Taliban diplomat" in Islamabad as saying that no directive to attend the conference had been received from Kabul. During their peace negotiations with Donald Trump's first government in Qatar, the Taliban promised that if they were included in the government, they would agree to women's education. However, after the start of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan under Joe Biden's administration, the Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul three summers ago, banned teenage girls from education, citing Islamic Sharia law. The Taliban imposed strict regulations not only on education but also on women's work and mobility, and for over two years have prohibited women's education in universities and their work in non-governmental organizations. Until recently, girls and women in Afghanistan were studying at least in fields such as midwifery, pharmacy, nursing, dental prosthetics, and laboratory sciences. The Dari section of Voice of America reported that the decision to refrain from continuing girls' education was made by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, and is a "final decision." Among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Afghanistan is the only country that has banned women's education due to its government. This prohibition has continued for the third consecutive year, facing widespread opposition from Afghans and the international community, including the United Nations. Pakistan, although it has had a female prime minister in its history and women and girls officially have the right to education, faces criticism for violating some rights of women and girls, particularly in rural areas. Poverty, lack of infrastructure, and cultural issues are challenges that Pakistan's educational system grapples with. The Wilson Center in the U.S. has reported that millions of Pakistani children do not attend school, and those who do face a shortage of teachers and poor educational environments. Iranian media have also recently reported that due to poverty from recent inflation, the number of out-of-school children has reached at least one million. Ehsan Azimi Rad, spokesperson for the Education Commission in the Iranian Parliament, stated last week that at best, the number of out-of-school children is 750,000. It is unclear how many of these dropouts are girls. The spokesperson for the Education Commission in Parliament said, "With rising inflation, the number of out-of-school children in Iran will increase in the coming years."