Representatives from around 40 countries and activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, are meeting in Pakistan on Saturday for a two-day summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities.
The summit, being held in the capital Islamabad, is to be inaugurated by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and will bring together ministers and ambassadors from 44 countries, as well as religious dignitaries and representatives of the United Nations and the World Bank.
Arriving Saturday morning, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai said she was “moved and happy” to be back in her country. Attacked in 2012 by Pakistani Taliban on a school bus in the isolated Swat Valley, near the border with Afghanistan, she has returned to her country only rarely since her evacuation to the United Kingdom, where she now lives.
Malala Yousafzai became a global spokesperson for girls’ education and the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to her in 2014 at the age of 17. She is due to speak on Sunday and has already indicated that she will focus on the fate of girls in Afghanistan, a neighboring country of Pakistan and the only one in the world where girls and women are not allowed to go. in high school or university.
Islamabad said the Afghan government had been invited but had not responded. When contacted by AFP, Afghan officials declined to comment. Pakistan further claims that the Taliban refused the invitation.
-The Pakistani Taliban, who attacked Malala Yousafzai in 2012, and the Afghan Taliban are two different groups but have close relationships and share a similar ideology, which disdains girls’ education.
The summit in Islamabad must confirm “the commitment of (the) Muslim community to empower girls through education,” according to a statement from the Pakistani government. Pakistan faces a serious education crisis, with more than 26 million children out of school, mainly due to poverty, one of the highest rates in the world, according to official government figures.
Tens of millions of girls are out of school in Muslim-majority countries, including Bangladesh and Nigeria. Besides foreign representatives, Pakistani schoolgirls and students are attending the summit.
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