President Biden has a “huge responsibility” to the women of Afghanistan who have received their freedoms under the Taliban government after the withdrawal from the United States, said Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai.
“I would definitely ask you to stand up and defend women’s rights in Afghanistan and stand up for the education of girls. We cannot lose the gains we have made over the last many, many years,” Yousafzai told the anchor “CBS Evening News” and managing editor Norah O’Donnell in an interview Tuesday.
“It is the decision of the United States and other countries that has led to the plight of the Afghan people right now,” he said. “So he has a huge responsibility.”
Yousafzai, who survived the Taliban shot in the head after advocating for girls to be educated, said he felt Afghan friends that girls are now afraid to go to school, which they were allowed to do. do during the occupation of the United States.
“They had dreams and they’re worried they won’t be able to sit in the classroom anymore. The women are worried about going to work. They’re constantly under surveillance, where people are watching them act, how they talk, how they behave, what they wear, how they dress and are denied their rights, ”he said.
The Taliban are afraid that women and girls will be educated, he said, because they know that Islam allows them the same rights as men.
“Then these women can challenge them and they can tell them you can’t tell us,” she said. “The Enlightenment is dangerous to the ideology of the Taliban or any other extremist group out there.”
Yousafzai said he wants Afghan girls to know that their voices can be powerful.
“They have to believe in their voice,” he said. “It’s about your future. It’s about your dignity. It’s about your human rights and your voice is very much needed right now.”
Some Afghan women have taken to the streets to protest the Taliban in recent weeks: a scene that would have been unlikely under Taliban repression in the late 1990s and early 2000s. it ended violently demonstrations calling for equal rights.
Although the management of the withdrawal by the Biden administration has been widely criticized, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said that the US military presence in the country was not a viable solution for peace.
“This is a lesson to be learned from these 20 years of war on terrorism: that American troops, NATO troops were there for 20 years and that the Taliban have returned to the power, ”he said. “It’s more of an ideological struggle and we can only fight indoctrination and extremist ideology through enlightening education.”