Taliban Turns Down Pakistan’s Invitation To Girl’s Education Conference

<p>The Taliban government in Afghanistan has turned down an invitation by neighbouring Pakistan to participate in a global summit on girl’s education in the Muslim world.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Country’s Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told Reuters that an invitation was extended to Afghanistan “but no one from the Afghan government was at the conference.”</p>
<p>The development comes amid already strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad for the last several months over the terrorist hideouts inside Afghanistan, as per The Express Tribune report.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Since capturing Afghanistan on August 22, the Taliban government has passed several orders restricting the education of women in the country drawing global condemnation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Notably, the international conference on &ldquo;Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities&rdquo; will be attended by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai who will be one of the keynote speakers in the two-day event, reported The Express Tribune.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Malala was just 15 years old when the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shot her in the head over her campaign for girls’ education.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Prime Minister Shehbaz will inaugurate the two-day event beginning Saturday and will deliver the keynote address. The event is being hosted by Pakistan’s Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The global summit will foster dialogue and find actionable solutions to address the challenges in girls’ education, said a statement issued by the Foreign Office.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The conference will conclude with a formal signing ceremony of the ‘Islamabad Declaration’, highlighting the shared commitment of the Muslim community to empower girls through education.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Discussing the current ban on girls’ education by the Taliban government in Afghanistan would be one of the agendas of the conference. While there has been no explicit reference to the situation in Afghanistan, the report stated, that the joint declaration would “certainly reject Taliban’s ban on girls’ education.”</p>