Malala Yousafzai

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 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 fundraising in other ways, and we are also providing them with the funding that they need.

Yes, it's reaching to the work for girls' education.

It has affected that.

You know, I don't necessarily think about it in the sense of freedom, but I think about it as a purpose of life.

I just reflect on the time when I could not be in school.

I was only 11 years old and the Taliban had banned girls from learning.

It has been my life's mission since then that no other girl faces that.