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 dead by the Taliban in 2012 for defending girls’ education, arrived in Islamabad for the two-day summit, which aims to resolve the education crisis facing millions of girls in Muslim-majority countries.
“I am really honored, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan,” Yousafzai told AFP upon his arrival.
The summit, which opened Saturday morning, brings together representatives from various Muslim-majority countries, where tens of millions of girls are currently out of school.
On Sunday, Yousafzai is expected to address the gathering. “I will speak about protecting the right of all girls 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 before the event.
Pakistan’s Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui confirmed that the Afghan Taliban government had been invited to the summit, but Islamabad has not yet received a response. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women do not have the right to attend school and university.
Since the Taliban returned 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 UK. She has since become a global advocate for girls’ education, and at age 17, she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.