Taliban reject Pakistan's invitation to attend Muslim Girls' Education Conference

Islamabad: The Afghan Taliban government is not attending a global summit on girls' education in the Muslim world hosted by neighbours Pakistan, Islamabad said Saturday.

"We had extended an invitation to Afghanistan but no-one from the Afghan government was at the conference," Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP.

Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said she was "overwhelmed" to be back in her native Pakistan while attending the summit.

Yousafzai, who was shot by Pakistan Taliban militants in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl, is due to address the conference on Sunday.

"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, backed by the Muslim World League.

"Denying education to girls is tantamount to denying their voice and their choice, while depriving them of their right to a bright future."

Earlier on Friday, Yousafzai 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".