Malala Yousafzai

That's a reality girls in Afghanistan have to live under.

Or women being banned from work.

That's a reality women have to live under.

So it's also a reminder that the activism that we are doing for women's rights is more important than ever because...

of how fragile these accomplishments had been, that they are taken away from us the next moment.

So we need to do more to protect women's rights and systematically protect them.

So one of the campaigns that Afghan women are leading is to

Recognize what's happening in Afghanistan as a gender apartheid and to make gender apartheid a part of the Crime Against Humanity Treaty.

And I know it sounds like too much, too many jargons, but what this basically means is that, you know,

Currently, we do not have anything in the international law that can recognize the level of systemic oppression that the Taliban impose.

Like the scale of it is just so big and so intense that they're like getting away with it.

So if it becomes an international crime, then countries are obliged to react.

Countries should not be normalizing relationships with them.

And it just helps us have a better accountability system.

Yes.

So a lot of the activists that Malala Fund supports also receive grants from USAID.

And yes, because of the cuts, their organizations were affected, including one organization in Afghanistan as well.

And it, you know, for an organization like Malala Fund, so we don't receive government grants, but we knew that these activists who are working in these important, tough areas of the countries where girls need help with education, need our support more than ever.

So we are helping them get like fundraising in other ways.

And we are also providing them with the funding that they need.