Islamabad (TDI): Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, said on Thursday that a formal invitation had already been sent to Afghanistan to participate in a conference on girls’ education.
The international conference on girls’ education in Muslim countries would be organized from January 11 to 12 in Islamabad with aims to address challenges and opportunities of women.
The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking global condemnation and despair among youth in the country.
Weeks after the Taliban seized power in August 2021, they reopened high schools for boys on September 18, but banned secondary schoolgirls from attending classes.
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Months later on March 23, the education ministry opened girls’ secondary schools, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered them shut again.
Since then, over a million teenage girls have been deprived of education across the country, according to United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
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Siddiqui expressed optimism that representative from the Afghan interim administration would attend the conference.
Addressing a media conference, he said that the conference, jointly organized by the MoFEPT and the Muslim World League, will be presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He said the ministry had already sent invitations to 57 nations which was confirmed by 48 countries and added the event would be attended by leaders, policy makers, educationists, diplomats, religious scholars, and experts from Muslim states.
Nobel Laureate and globally-acclaimed advocate for girls’ education Malala Yousafzai will deliver the keynote address in the conference, he added.
