Educating Girls in Muslim Societies: International Conference
An International Conference entitled “Educating Girls in Muslim Societies: Challenges and Opportunities” was held in Islamabad from 11 to 12 January 2025. Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta reported that Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Professor Dr. Nazir Ayyad, chaired the opening session of the conference entitled “Women’s Education in Islamic and International Charters”.
In his speech, the Grand Mufti emphasized that Islam places the highest importance on education, making the pursuit of knowledge an obligatory duty for both Muslim men and women. He highlighted that Muslim women have long been paragons of knowledge, leadership, and wisdom throughout history. He further stressed that advancing opportunities for girls’ education in Muslim societies is not only a religious duty but also a social imperative for achieving sustainable development and human justice.
But the speech that attracted attention throughout the world was given by Malala Yousafzai who urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its repressive policies for girls and women. The BBC reported she said the Taliban government had again created “a system of gender apartheid”. The Taliban were “punishing women and girls who dare to break their obscure laws by beating them up, detaining them and harming them” and she added that the government “cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification” but actually “go against everything our faith stands for”.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prevented from accessing secondary and higher education – some one and a half million have been deliberately deprived of schooling. “Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are completely banned from education beyond grade six,” she said.
See a video of her speech below.
The Taliban government leaders were invited to the summit but did not attend
The conference was run by run the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Pakistan government and the Muslim World League.