120 millions girls are out of school today — this organization is fighting for every girl’s right to education.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai was only 11 years old when the Taliban took away her right to an education. When she spoke out about girls’ right to education, she was shot in the head by a gunman and miraculously survived. After her recovery, she founded the Malala Fund, a charity championing every girl’s right to free, safe, quality education. With 120 million girls out of school today, Malala Fund’s work is more important than ever.
FEMINIST sat down with Sahar Halaimzai, the Director of the Afghanistan Initiative at Malala Fund, to learn more about the state of girls’ education and how we can help:
Sahar Halaimzai is the Director, Afghanistan Initiative at Malala Fund.
She is an Afghan-British human rights advocate and writer, with more than 15 years of experience working at the intersection of social justice, campaigns and movement building. In her role as Director, Sahar drives Malala Fund’s global advocacy agenda on Afghan girls’ education. She also manages the organisation’s Afghanistan grant portfolio and work to resettle Afghan girls’ education advocates and human rights defenders. To date, Malala Fund has provided more than $6 million in funding for Afghan education activists — including those living in Afghanistan and in exile — who are helping girls access 12 years of free, safe, quality education.
Reflecting on three years without formal education for Afghan girls, what have been the most significant changes in the educational landscape and how has the situation evolved since September 15, 2021?
Afghanistan is the only country in the world that denies girls education beyond the sixth grade. Nearly 2.5 million girls are now denied the right to attend school. This number will grow as tens of thousands of girls age out of school each year.
Malala Fund supports local education partners in Afghanistan who are striving to provide secondary education to Afghan girls despite these challenges. From digital classrooms and underground schools to teachers holding lessons in their own homes, Afghans are resisting the erasure of girls' rights every day.
Malala Fund was founded by the incredible Malala Yousafzai. Could you tell us a little bit about her story and how the Malala Fund was started?
Malala has advocated for education since age 11, when the Taliban took over Pakistan’s Swat Valley and banned girls from school. She began by blogging anonymously for BBC about her experiences, but once she started publicly speaking out — it drew international media attention, then awards. At age 15, she was attacked by the Taliban. They tried to silence her, but Malala recovered in the U.K. and kept on fighting for girls. She co-founded Malala Fund with her father, Ziauddin, in 2013. A year later, Malala received the Nobel Peace Prize in honour of her work. Our team at Malala Fund works for a world where every girl can access and complete 12 years of school. We invest in local education activists, advocate for policy changes that help girls learn and we amplify the voices of girls fighting for change.
You drive Malala Fund’s global advocacy for Afghan girls’ education. Could you tell us more about the current state of girls’ education in Afghanistan?
September will mark a grim milestone in Afghanistan: three years since girls were barred from schools across the country. But this is just one of the issues girls face. Since they took over, the Taliban have issued a series of executive orders that strip women and girls of the most basic rights and freedoms, creating an oppressive system of governance that can only be described as gender apartheid. There is now a culture of fear and uncertainty. The long term economic impacts could be devastating. In Afghanistan, 80% of people live on less than a dollar a day. A less educated population will result in significant shortages in essential skills, such as healthcare, education and technical skills.
How are women and girls resisting these restrictions on their right to education?
Afghan women and girls are organising and protesting across the country, running underground schools for girls and sharing resources and knowledge in secret. They are leading the call to make gender apartheid a crime under international law, a call that is being amplified by communities throughout Afghanistan.
How does the Taliban treat girls’ education advocates and human rights defenders?
The Taliban's response to this resistance is often swift and brutal. Women and girls are beaten, arrested and tortured in prisons. Male family members are coerced into becoming their jailers — punishing them for women’s perceived infractions. This has crushed the space for civic action. Despite these tactics, the resolve of Afghan women and girls remains unbroken.
What would an ideal future for girls’ education look like to you?
Afghan women and girls deserve the right to make choices about their education and their future without fear of violence. Girls should be free and safe to attend school, to play in parks and to enjoy their childhoods. This is the future I wish for them. It’s the future Malala Fund is advocating for.
How can the international community support girls’ right to education around the world?
There is no international law that says what the Taliban are doing to women and girls is illegal. This needs to change. If the Taliban are not held accountable for establishing a system of gender apartheid it not only devastates Afghan women and girls, but also sets a dangerous precedent for women’s rights worldwide.
Malala Fund is working with partners inside and outside Afghanistan, prominent feminists and legal scholars, to make gender apartheid an official crime against humanity in international law. This would not only provide Afghan women with tools to seek justice and accountability in the long term, but also make women’s basic rights a non-negotiable for states and international bodies engaging with the Taliban.
We need leaders of governments around the world to take action on this — and we all can help build public pressure. Support organisations like Malala Fund and others that are advocating for Afghan women’s rights, amplify their stories and call on your leaders to call out what’s happening in Afghanistan as gender apartheid.
