Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai visited Edinburgh on Wednesday, and met Scottish First Minister John Swinney to discuss her campaign to have gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under international law.
The First Minister discussed with Ms Yousafzai the Taliban’s systematic exclusion of millions of women and girls from education, employment and public life in Afghanistan, and joined calls for coordinated legal and political action to hold the regime to account.
Since the Taliban took back power in August 2021, they have banned education beyond sixth grade for women and girls and imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s paid employment.
Women’s faces and voices are banned from the media, and women are denied access to parks, museums, restaurants and gyms.
A draft crimes against humanity treaty being negotiated at the United Nations General Assembly could, however, soon be modified to include gender apartheid. The treaty is set to be negotiated between 2026 and 2029.
In July 2025, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders, marking a significant step toward individual criminal accountability.
Malala Yousafzai said: “I want to thank Scotland for standing by Afghan girls and their right to go to school.
“When the world acknowledges that systematic denial of women’s rights is a crime, we can begin to hold the Taliban and their sympathisers accountable.
“I hope more leaders will follow the First Minister and recognise gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.”
In 2021, The Scottish Government supported 19 female Afghan medical students to complete their studies at Scottish universities after they were banned from doing so in Afghanistan, amending student funding legislation to ensure they could receive free tuition and cost of living support as home students.
Mr Swinney used the meeting to voice his support for the international campaign and to highlight Scotland’s existing record of backing Afghan women.
He said: “It is my privilege to welcome Malala Yousafzai to Scotland, and to lend my support to the international campaign to promote the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
“It is clear that the Taliban is undertaking an institutionalised system of systematic oppression of girls and women in Afghanistan, and this demands urgent attention and action, as any society which strips women and girls of rights relating to education, employment, freedom of speech and political participation must not be allowed to thrive.
“It is vital that the international community stands in solidarity and mobilises support for girls’ right to education in Afghanistan and provides tangible support to ensure that their voices are amplified and their stories are told.
“I was very proud that the Scottish Government was able to support nineteen female Afghan medical students to come to Scotland to complete their degrees after they were banned from doing so by the authorities in Afghanistan.”
He added: “Scotland will continue to play its part by standing against human rights abuses, and welcoming people from across the world who are fleeing oppression.”
Swinney and Malala also penned a joint letter where they condemned the “deliberate and institutionalised system of domination of women and girls in Afghanistan”.
Malala, now 28, was shot by the Taliban on a school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in October 2012, aged 15, after years of activism for girls’ right to education. She survived the serious head injuries and was flown to the UK for treatment. In 2014, she became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, receiving the Peace Prize at age 17.
She has since spoken out for the millions of Afghan girls banned by the Taliban from going to secondary school, sharing their stories and calls to end gender apartheid with global leaders in Johannesburg, New York and Islamabad.
