Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for girls’ education, urges UK’s new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to prioritize the issue of girls’ education deprivation in Afghanistan and other countries in his foreign policy, Khaama Press news agency reported yesterday.

Yousafzai tweeted on Monday, July 8, “As you shape Britain’s foreign policy and development plans in the next 100 days, it is crucial to prioritize the rights and education of girls worldwide, with special consideration for those denied education under the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime in Afghanistan.”

She addressed Starmer, noting that girls everywhere look to him for solidarity and initiatives.

Malala Yousafzai emphasized that girls’ education should be on top of his foreign policy agenda in the next 100 days.

Girls above the sixth grade in Afghanistan have been deprived of education by the Taliban.  The Taliban claim that the conditions for girls’ education are not suitable, yet they provide no timeline for reopening schools.

Under Starmer’s Labor Party leadership, which secured a significant majority in UK parliamentary elections, he reversed the previous conservative government’s decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, a move that adversely affected Afghan refugees in the country, according to Khaama Press.

Meanwhile, Yousafzai’s call underscores the urgent need for global attention and action to ensure girls’ education rights are upheld, particularly in regions affected by extremist regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Starmer’s government faces significant international expectations to lead on this issue, reflecting broader global concerns about human rights and gender equality in education, Khaama Press concludes.

Malala Yousafzai (born July 12, 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17.  She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize.  Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."