Nobel Laureate Calls For Women’s Rights To Be Central In Taliban Talks
Malala Yousafzai has urged countries to support the rights of Afghan women and girls, saying women’s rights must be a non-negotiable condition in any talks with the Taliban.
Malala Yousafzai has urged countries to support the rights of Afghan women and girls, saying women’s rights must be a non-negotiable condition in any talks with the Taliban.
Speaking at the Harvard Law School Negotiation Programme, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said the situation for women and girls has worsened under renewed Taliban rule, leaving them deprived of their basic rights. She added that the presence of women and girls at the negotiating table must be guaranteed.
“You cannot determine the future of a country when half of the population is held back.,” she said. Yousafzai added that Taliban restrictions on women are often framed as cultural but argued that the group’s mindset has no connection to Islam.
Referring to the visit of Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India, she said when countries ignore the issue of women’s rights, they effectively contribute to it.
Yousafzai, who met Guhan Subramanian, chair of the Harvard Law School Negotiation Programme, and other officials, also criticised the Taliban’s ban on girls’ and women’s education and the absence of a fair judicial system.
The programme was held in late March 2026, during which the documentary “Bread and Roses”, depicting the struggle of some Afghan women in the early weeks after the Taliban’s return to power, was screened.
