The Nelson Mandela Foundation honoured the 10th anniversary of Madiba’s passing at Joburg Theatre

In honour of the 10th anniversary of Madiba’s passing on 5 December, the Nelson Mandela Foundation observed the day with the 21st instalment of the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the Joburg Theatre.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai was the main speaker and delivered her lecture which was based on gender apartheid and the oppression of girls and women in Afghanistan.

Yousafzai has been at the forefront of advocating for the rights of women and children. On October 9, 2012, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as she was returning home from school.

This attack led to widespread condemnation.

The 26-year-old said thinking long and hard about what it is to lead for a just future and bearing Mandela’s legacy in mind led her to the personal topic.

“My family and I know what it feels like to live under the Taliban ideology and to look over our shoulders. Nelson Mandela and South Africans knew that feeling as well and their resilience of injustice can inspire us.”

The Pakistani education activist added that over two years ago, women in Afghanistan were doing things which included: working, serving in leadership positions and travelling freely. Girls and women had opportunities and choices until the Taliban seized power a second time.

She noted that after the Taliban seized power for the second time as they did in the 1990s, this made headlines for a short period, “But since then, the world has turned its back on the Afghan people. Maybe this reflects the sheer number of crises the world is facing which include: violence and displacement in Sudan, the climate crisis being debated currently at COP28 and the unjust bombardment of Gaza where a child is killed every 10 minutes.”

Yousafzai explained that her goal with the lecture was to highlight what was truly happening in Afghanistan and identify the regime as gender apartheid. She added that the Taliban say that oppressing girls and women is a matter of religion, which was false.

“Many Muslim scholars have made it clear that Islam does not condone denying girls and women their right to education and to work. If you are a girl in Afghanistan, the Taliban has decided your future for you: you cannot attend school, see a doctor or go to the library to read.”

The Pakistani education activist stressed that if the global community accepts the Taliban’s edicts, the world would be sending a devastating message to girls everywhere, that their rights are up for debate.

Member of Parliament Nompendulo Mkhatshwa weighed in and said, “In most countries, education is used to empower but in Afghanistan, it is used to disempower, divide, and create an inferior society which is what happened in South Africa through Bantu education.”

Former SA first lady, Graça Machel said it was difficult to believe that in 2023, the Taliban still oppressed women and girls.

“We believe that with the promise of 1994 in SA, it was not only the country saying ‘never again’ to the oppressive system, but the rest of humanity as well not following in those footsteps.”

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