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Nobel Peace Prize awardee Malala Yousafzai, in an open letter published on Sunday, 17 October, called on the Taliban government in Afghanistan to permit the resumption of schools for girls in the country.
"To the Taliban authorities... Reverse the de facto ban on girls' education and reopen girls' secondary schools immediately," says the letter, which has been penned by a group of activists, including Yousafzai.
The Taliban ministry of education had permitted schools to reopen for boys from 18 September. Schooling for girls, on the other hand, remains halted.
"Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that forbids girls' education. Leaders everywhere must take urgent, decisive action to get every Afghan girl back in school," Yousafzai wrote in the letter.
Yousafzai, as a school student, had been shot by the Pakistani Taliban over her campaigning for girls' education.
The women's rights and education advocate further appealed to the G20 countries to urge the Taliban to allow girls to attend school.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi, who had visited Kabul last week, has said that the Taliban education minister has assured him that Afghan girls will be allowed to attend secondary schools "very soon," news agency AP reported.
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