Malala Fund Urges Global Action Against Gender-Based Oppression in Afghanistan

• Malala Fund calls on world leaders to officially recognize and address gender apartheid in Afghanistan
• It denounces Afghanistan’s four-year ban on girl’s education challenging the policy makers

In a March 21 statement, the Malala Fund called on global leaders to acknowledge the Taliban’s gender-based oppression in Afghanistan as ‘gender apartheid’ and pursue accountability measures. The organization highlighted that Afghan girls have been unjustly deprived of education for four years, not due to war, but solely because of their gender, calling it a crime against humanity.

Sahar Halimzai, Director of the Afghanistan Initiative at the Malala Fund, condemned the failed peace process and global miscalculations that enables Taliban control. She emphasized that misleading narratives and international complacency led some nations to wrongly assume that Taliban has moderated its stance on women’s rights.

According to Sahar, the failure to challenge Taliban’s actions has enabled the establishment of unprecedented gender apartheid system. She highlighted that their governance continues to deny women’s rights, dispelling previous global assumptions of reforms.

Ahead of the G20 summit in South Africa, the Malala Fund has called on global leaders to take decisive action against gender discrimination. In a bold statement, they challenged policymakers: “Will you take action to end gender apartheid, or will history remember your silence?”

Despite the ban on secondary education, the Malala Fund is working with local organizations to sustain learning opportunities for girls. It also backs courageous activists working under dangerous conditions to uphold the right to education in Afghanistan.  The call for the G20 leaders to act underscores the urgency of the situation. The world cannot afford complacency while Afghan women face one of the harshest gender-based crackdown in modern history. Action must be immediate and resolute.