Pakistani education advocate and UN Messenger of Peace, Malala Yousafzai, has told a gathering in Abuja, Nigeria, that the world must do more to ensure that more than 120 million girls who are out of school can do get an education
The Nobel laureate was speaking exactly 10 years after her landmark ‘Malala Day’ address to youth at UN Headquarters in New York, where she called for global action against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, according to a press release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed introduced Malala, saying she has transcended borders, cultures and generations, while her message and passion have touched people everywhere. “Malala keeps daring us to imagine: to imagine a world with less intolerance, more understanding and respect. A world of less hate and more humanity. A world of less bigotry and more equality. A world of less ignorance, and more education and knowledge,” Ms. Mohammed said.
She added that both the UN and Malala know that quality education for both girls and boys “is not a dream, but it’s a fundamental human right.” In the years since her UN speech, Malala has completed high school and university, travelled to more than 30 countries, and established an eponymous fund working to reduce barriers to girls’ education. “I gave a lot of speeches and talked to many leaders,” Malala said. “In everything that I did, I tried to draw the world’s attention to girls like me – the nearly 120 million girls denied the right to education by poverty, patriarchy, climate and conflict.” During that time, Malala also spent her birthday traveling to different countries to meet with local girls, including refugees in Jordan, Iraq, Kenya and Rwanda, and indigenous girls in Brazil. She has made three trips to Nigeria alone, meeting with activists and young women, and also with parents whose daughters were among the 276 girls abducted in the Chibok school kidnapping in 2014.
Malala shared the stories of some of the young women she has met over the years who have gone on to earn university degrees and even start working. “We should celebrate the girl who goes to university, takes a job, chooses when and if she marries. But we should not deceive ourselves into thinking that we have made enough progress,” she warned.
“I want to cheer for those who have made it, despite the challenges they faced. But my heart aches for those who we failed. Every young woman like me has friends we saw being left behind – those whose governments, communities and families held them back.” Malala praised global initiatives to boost education and gender equality, which will help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of quality education for all by 2030. Yet she again stressed that “this handful of victories can’t hide how little has changed for hundreds of millions of girls”, including due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Malala also highlighted the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power two years ago. Previously, one in three women there were enrolled in university, she said, but today it is the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from pursuing an education. “Even as a teenager, I understood that progress could be slow,” she said. “But I never expected to witness a complete reversal. An entire country of girls locked out of school, trapped in their homes, and losing hope.”
