Islam Does Not Prohibit Girls’ Education: Muslim World League Chief
New Age Islam News Bureau
12 January 2025
• Islam Does Not Prohibit Girls’ Education: Muslim World League Chief
• Malala Urges Muslim Leaders Not To 'Legitimize' Afghan Taliban
• Malala Yousafzai At Muslim Girls' Education Summit Snubbed By Taliban
• Three Women Killed, Five Children Injured In Stampede At Free Banquet Event At Syria’s Umayyad Mosque
• Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif criticizes Islamic World’s failure in Women’s Education
• MWL Launches Girls' Education in Muslim Communities Initiative
• In 2024, Israeli Forces Killed Two Women Every Hour in Gaza – UN
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/islam-girls-education-muslim-world/d/134308
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Islam Does Not Prohibit Girls’ Education: Muslim World League Chief
By Fidel Rahmati
January 12, 2025
Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, emphasized that Islam does not prohibit girls’ education. Addressing a summit in Islamabad, he rejected the claims of those using Islam to justify restrictions on girls’ education.
Speaking at the Girls’ Education in Islamic Societies Summit in Islamabad, the Secretary-General stated, “We reject the religious justifications some use to prevent girls’ education under the name of Islam.” He reaffirmed that Islam does not impose such limitations.
During the summit, Al-Issa told journalists, “Our message to those preventing girls’ education is clear: Islam has no restrictions against it.” He stressed the importance of highlighting this message in the summit’s declaration.
The two-day Girls’ Education Summit in Islamic Societies commenced on Saturday, January 11, in Islamabad. The summit aims to address barriers to girls’ education in Islamic communities and promote awareness of its importance.
Over 150 international delegates, including ministers, ambassadors, scholars, and representatives from organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, attended the summit. Their discussions focused on equitable access to education for girls across Muslim-majority countries.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, inaugurated the summit by addressing the challenges the Muslim world faces in ensuring equitable access to education for girls. He remarked, “Depriving girls of education means taking away their bright future.”
Pakistan extended an invitation to the Taliban to participate in the summit, but the group declined to attend. The absence of the Taliban underscored the ongoing restrictions on girls’ education in Afghanistan.
The conference took place amidst severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban on girls’ education in Afghanistan, making it the only country in the world where girls are banned from attending school.
The summit concluded with a strong call for collective efforts to ensure access to education for girls across Islamic societies. The participants stressed the need for policy reforms, community awareness, and international collaboration to remove barriers to girls’ education.
The discussions at the summit highlighted the transformative power of education for girls, not just for individuals but for entire societies. The declaration issued at the summit emphasized the shared responsibility of the global Muslim community to support and champion the education of girls as a fundamental right and a key to societal progress.
Source: Www.Khaama.Com
https://www.khaama.com/islam-does-not-prohibit-girls-education-muslim-world-league-chief/
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Malala Urges Muslim Leaders Not To 'Legitimize' Afghan Taliban
January 12, 2025
Rights activist Malala Yousafzai arrives for a session of a summit on girls' education in Islamabad on January 11.
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ISLAMABAD -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim leaders not to "legitimize" the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and instead to "raise their voices" and "use [their] power" against the militant group's curbs on women and girls' education.
"Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification," Yousafzai, 27, told the gathering in Islamabad.
The event marks a full circle for Yousafzai, who was shot in 2012 by the Pakistani Taliban in the northwestern valley of Swat because she had campaigned for girls' education.
Some 50 Muslim-majority nations have sent representatives to the event, but it was shunned by the Afghan Taliban, whom activists say are among the world's leading violators of the rights of women and girls.
Ahead of the gathering, Yousafzai said she will focus her speech on Afghanistan -- which is now the only nation among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that bans women's education. The ban has been widely assailed by the international community and many people inside Afghanistan.
"I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls."
The attack on Yousafzai, who had become a target for her campaign for girls' education, sent shock waves across Pakistan and provoked international outrage.
Yousafzai, who was 15 at the time, survived after months of treatment at home and abroad and became an international figure, winning 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
"I really call on all these ministers...who came from all over the world, to offer scholarships, to have online education, to have all sorts of education for them. This is the task of the day," she said during a panel discussion.
Yousafzai's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, told AFP he had not seen "any serious step or serious action from the Muslim world" on the cause of girls' education in Afghanistan.
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan's education minister, said, “No one from the Afghan government was at the conference," but that Taliban leaders were formally invited to the event.
Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian bans on women’s work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in his opening statement that preventing girls from receiving an education is "tantamount to denying their voice" and restricting their choices.
Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary-general of the Muslim World League, who organized the event with the Pakistani government, said, "The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls' education is important."
Source: Www.Rferl.Org
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-taliban-pakistan--malala-yousafzai-girls-muslim/33272457.html
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Malala Yousafzai at Muslim girls' education summit snubbed by Taliban
12.01.2025
Malala Yousafzai at the international summit on 'Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities', in Islamabad / © AFP
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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Saturday joined a global summit on the education of Muslim girls that was snubbed by Afghanistan's Taliban government.
The two-day conference hosted by Pakistan has brought together education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, but without Afghanistan -- the only country in the world where girls are banned from school.
"The Muslim world including Pakistan faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said at the opening of the summit in the capital Islamabad.
Pakistan Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP that Islamabad had extended an invitation to Kabul, "but no one from the Afghan government was at the conference".
Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary general of the Muslim World League -- which has backed the summit -- said religion was no grounds for blocking girls from school.
"The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls' education is important, and those who say that girls' education is un-Islamic are wrong," he said.
Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), urged leaders of Islamic countries to support Afghan girls.
"I really call on all these ministers ... who came from all over the world, to offer scholarships, to have online education, to have all sorts of education for them. This is the task of the day," she told a panel.
She earlier posted on social media that she would speak about "why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls".
Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has called "gender apartheid".
Yousafzai's father Ziauddin Yousafzai, a teacher who pushed against cultural norms for his daughter to go to school in Pakistan, told AFP he had not seen "any serious step or serious action from the Muslim world" on the cause of girls' education in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is facing its own severe education crisis, with more than 26 million children out of school, according to government figures, one of the highest numbers in the world.
Zahra Tariq, a 23-year-old studying clinical psychology who attended the opening of the summit, told AFP: "At last we have a good initiative on Muslim girls' education."
The Pakistan and Afghan Taliban are separate groups but share close links and similar ideologies, including a strong disbelief in educating girls.
Yousafzai was evacuated to the United Kingdom after her attack and went on to become a global advocate for girls' education and, at the age of 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Source: Today.Rtl.Lu
https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/2266386.html
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Three women killed, five children injured in stampede at free banquet event at Syria’s Umayyad Mosque
11 January, 2025
Three women died on Friday and five children were injured in a deadly stampede at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
The incident happened after chef and TikToker Abu Omar announced on 30 December that he would host a banquet on Friday to celebrate the New Year and the success of the Syrian revolution against deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad at the historic mosque, giving out free meat to anyone who attended.
The Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, announced that three women had lost their lives in the crush, while five children had suffered broken bones, severe bruises, and lost consciousness.
The Umayyad Mosque is usually crowded on the Muslim holy day Friday, when worshippers gather for midday congregational prayer. However, Abu Omar’s announcement of free food caused hundreds more people than usual to attend.
Syria’s prolonged conflict, which broke out in 2011, has led to widespread destruction and the crippling of the country’s economy, leaving over 90 percent of the population in poverty and struggling to feed themselves and their families.
Video uploaded to social media showed thousands of people gathering, amid a lack of organisation and crowd control, with some of the injured being carried away.
The incident led to widespread anger among Syrians, with many blaming Abu Omar, who owns the Bayt al-Dimashqi (Damascene House) restaurant, for announcing the banquet without organising it properly. Some people accused him of organising the event to gain fame on social media.
Syrian journalist Murad Abdul Jalil said on the social media platform X: “The situation clearly reflects the suffering of the people, who were driven by poverty to gather in crowds for a meal, but the question is what was the real reason for this event?
“Food could have been delivered to them securely, but it seems that the main goal was to become famous and gain likes at the expense of poor people.”
Source: Www.Newarab.Com
https://www.newarab.com/news/three-killed-five-injured-stampede-syrias-umayyad-mosque
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Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif criticizes Islamic World’s failure in Women’s Education
By Fidel Rahmati
January 12, 2025
The Prime Minister of Pakistan stated at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting that Islamic societies face significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls.
Speaking at the “Girls’ Education in Islamic Societies” summit in Islamabad on Saturday, January 11, he emphasized that denying girls access to education is equivalent to taking away their bright future.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that Pakistan also struggles to provide equitable access to education for girls. He highlighted that women make up more than half of Pakistan’s population, yet the literacy rate for women is only 49%.
He added that approximately 22.8 million children aged 5 to 16 are out of school in Pakistan, the majority of whom are girls. This underscores the urgent need to address gender disparities in education access.
The two-day OIC summit, titled “Girls’ Education in Islamic Societies,” was held in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. It brought together over 150 participants, including ministers, ambassadors, and representatives from international organizations like UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank.
This summit takes place amid severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, where girls are currently barred from attending school beyond sixth grade.
The summit underscored the shared responsibility of Islamic societies to ensure equitable education for girls. Participants highlighted the need for robust policies, international collaboration, and community engagement to address educational disparities.
The discussions emphasized that empowering girls through education is not only a moral imperative but also essential for societal progress. The summit called on governments and organizations to prioritize girls’ education as a pathway to a more equitable and prosperous future.
Source: Www.Khaama.Com
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MWL Launches Girls' Education in Muslim Communities Initiative
12 January 2025
The Muslim World League (MWL), represented by its Secretary General and Chairman of the Organization of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa, launched on Saturday its international initiative, Girls' Education in Muslim Communities, in Islamabad.
The conference was attended by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General HisseinBrahim Taha. Several prominent figures and institutions were also present, including muftis from across the Islamic world, members of Islamic scholarly councils, the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the MWL, the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of the OIC, senior education officials, and leaders from the League of Islamic Universities.
The initiative aims to raise awareness in Muslim communities about the importance of girls' education through various themes, joint programs, and collaborative agreements. It includes the issuance of the Islamabad declaration for girls' education, which will be presented to international governmental and non-governmental organizations. The declaration calls for the establishment of an international day dedicated to advancing its primary goal.
The initiative also entails launching a platform for international partnerships, including the signing of several agreements with regional and international organizations focused on women's empowerment and girls' education.
Al-Issa lauded the initiative as a transformative step for advancing girls' education, emphasizing its practical and results-oriented approach. He highlighted that the initiative is underpinned by high-quality agreements designed to ensure tangible outcomes. He further stated that the Islamabad declaration for girls' education will serve to solidify and strengthen the initiative.
Sharif commended the MWL for its dedication to education, emphasizing that ensuring equal access to education for girls remains one of the most pressing challenges.
Taha affirmed the OIC's readiness to support the initiative and contribute to its success for the benefit of girls across the Islamic world.
Source: English.Aawsat.Com
https://english.aawsat.com/gulf/5100354-mwl-launches-girls-education-muslim-communities-initiative
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In 2024, Israeli Forces Killed Two Women Every Hour in Gaza – UN
January 12, 2025
United Nations reported that last year, more than two mothers were killed every hour in Gaza, underscoring the devastating toll of ongoing violence on the region’s most vulnerable. The shocking statistic highlights the urgent need for global intervention to address the escalating humanitarian crisis.
The UN is calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages to prevent further loss of life and ensure the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. The blockade and restricted access have left millions in Gaza without essential resources, including food, medical supplies, and clean water.
“This unbearable reality cannot continue through 2025,” stated a UN representative, emphasizing the dire need for safe and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid to reach those in desperate need. International organizations are urging governments and stakeholders to prioritize the protection of civilians, particularly women and children, who continue to bear the brunt of the conflict.
Source: Thehindustangazette.Com
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