The exiled Pakistani activist returned to Islamabad for a summit on girls’ education.
Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Sunday that Israel had “decimated Gaza’s education system”.
“In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system. They bombed all the universities” et “indiscriminately targeted civilians sheltering in schools”she denounced during a summit in Islamabad on girls’ education.
“I will continue to denounce Israeli violations of international law and human rights”she added, in front of dozens of representatives from Muslim countries gathered in the Pakistani capital.
“Palestinian children have lost their lives and their futures”denounced Malala Yousafzai. “A Palestinian girl cannot have the future she deserves if her school is bombed and her family killed”.
Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding in Gaza schools, where families are also sheltering.
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Pakistan: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai returns to Islamabad for education summit
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
More than 46,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of reprisals in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
Malala Yousafzai was attacked in 2012 by Pakistani Taliban on a school bus in the remote Swat Valley, near the border with Afghanistan.
She has returned to Pakistan only rarely since her evacuation 12 years ago to the United Kingdom, where she now lives and has become a global spokesperson for girls’ education. In 2014, she became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded at the age of 17.
“The Taliban do not consider women as human beings”
The Pakistani activist also called on Muslim leaders not to give “legitimacy” to the Taliban in power in Afghanistan: “To put it simply, the Taliban do not view women as human beings”she said. “They hide their crimes under the cover of cultural and religious justifications”.
“As Muslim leaders, it is time to raise your voices, to use your power. You can show real authority”she said.
Afghanistan is, since the return to power of the Taliban in 2021, the only country in the world where girls and women do not have the right to go to secondary school or university.
The Taliban government was invited to the education summit but no official attended, according to Islamabad. Asked by AFP, Afghan officials did not immediately comment.
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