Malala Calls for Pakistan to Stop Deporting Afghans

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
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Malala Calls for Pakistan to Stop Deporting Afghans

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called for Pakistan to stop deporting undocumented Afghans, saying she was especially concerned about the “dark future” awaiting women and girls sent back.
“It is deeply concerning that Pakistan is forcing Afghan refugees based in Pakistan back into Afghanistan, and I’m deeply concerned about the women and girls”, the activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2014, told AFP in an interview on Friday.
Despite extending leave for Afghan refugees with permits to stay in Pakistan for another year, Islamabad this week said it would remove illegal migrants.
More than 600,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad last year ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest.
Human rights monitors have warned that some sent to Afghanistan faced persecution by the Taliban, who came into power in 2021 and have imposed an austere form of Islam, barring girls from higher education and excluding women and girls from areas of public life.
“A lot of these girls in Pakistan were studying, they were in school, these women were doing work”, said Malala, 27, who grew up in Pakistan’s Swat valley.
She had to move to the UK after she was shot, aged just 15, for resisting the Pakistan Taliban’s then-ban on girls’ education in her hometown.
“I hope that Pakistan reverses its policy and that they protect girls and women especially because of the dark future that they would be witnessing in Afghanistan”, she added.
Speaking to AFP on her birthday, recognised by the UN as Malala Day, the activist launched into the challenges facing the only country in the world where girls over 12 are barred from school.
“I cannot believe that I’m witnessing a time when girls have been banned from their education for more than three years”, she said, adding that while the situation was “shocking”, she “admired the resilience of the Afghan activists.”
The Malala Fund is campaigning for the UN to formally broaden their definition of crimes against humanity to include “gender apartheid” — a phrase the UN has used to describe the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, the UN and Taliban sat down for talks in Doha for the first time since the latter came to power but without women in attendance.
“World leaders need to realize that when they sit down with the Taliban... and they’re excluding women and girls, they are actually doing a Taliban a favor,” Malala said.
Malala also called for an “urgent” ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
“It is horrifying how many schools have been bombed in Gaza, even more recently the four schools,” she added, referring to four schools that were hit by Israeli air strikes this week.
According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.
“It is deeply concerning because we know that children do not have a future when they’re living under a war, when their schools and homes are destroyed,” said Malala.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, said it used more than half its budget before the war to fund education.

 

 

 



China Says It Will Grow Relations with Canada on Basis of Mutual Respect 

Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
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China Says It Will Grow Relations with Canada on Basis of Mutual Respect 

Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

China will continue to grow bilateral relations with Canada on the basis of mutual respect and equality, the foreign ministry said after Mark Carney won the race to lead Canada's ruling party and become the next prime minister.

Carney, a two-time central banker who has never held elected office, won the leadership race with 86% of the votes cast on Sunday and will succeed Justin Trudeau who resigned in January.

Speaking at a regular press conference on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning congratulated Carney on his win, while urging Canada to work with China to promote improvement and development of relations.

"We expect Canada to adhere to an objective and rational understanding of China and pursue a positive and pragmatic policy towards China," Mao said on Monday.

Carney's victory came just a day after Beijing announced tariffs on over $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products on Saturday, in retaliation against levies Ottawa introduced in October.

The levies, scheduled to take effect on March 20, match the 100% and 25% import duties Canada imposed on China-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminium products.

Mao defended China's countermeasures as entirely "legitimate and reasonable," telling the Canadian side to correct its "wrong practices" to provide a fair, non-discriminatory and predictable environment for the two countries' enterprises.