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Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai knows the viciousness of the Taliban all too well. When she was just 15, she was riding home on a bus from an exam she’d just taken when a Taliban gunmen entered seeking her out. Upon identifying herself, Yousafzai was shot through her eye, miraculously surviving thanks to emergency medical treatment. At the time, she’d come under fire from the Taliban present in her country for speaking against their actions towards female children, which included bombing girl’s schools so they’d no longer be able to attend. Now, Yousafzai is standing up to the organization once again by serving as an executive producer on the Apple TV+ documentary “Bread & Roses.” The film follows three women in the aftermath of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgency, which took place in 2021. Holding power in the country for over three years, the Afghan Taliban have systematically stripped Afghan women of their rights, preventing them from receiving an education and even working.
“Afghan women activists are calling it a gender apartheid, that just because of their gender they are oppressed,” said Yousafzai in a recent interview with “CBS Mornings.”
When asked why the Taliban wishes to oppress women in this way, Yousafzai said, “We have been trying to figure out an answer to that for the past 30 years. The Taliban took control in 1996, they have had influence in many parts of Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan as well and this is now repeating in Afghanistan once again where the Taliban have taken control for more than three and a half years. I cannot find any explanation that justifies it to me. How can you stop a girl from her school? They come up with these excuses that it’s culture, it’s religion — there is no culture excuse. The true representatives of that culture are the Afghan women and girls that we see in the documentary.”
Following the attempt on her life, Yousafzai grew into a global figure in the fight for women’s rights and against radicalism, becoming the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at 17. In raising her stature throughout the world community, Yousafzai thought it meant people finally understood the threat the Taliban and figures like it pose, but with their resurgence in Afghanistan, she’s not so sure anymore.
“I was so grateful for the support that I received received, but I was only 15 years old when I was attacked by the Taliban and I survived and I admired the support people gave me. What really shook me was the fact that people stand with you once you have survived, but we don’t look at people who are still under a big threat, so it really made me question that,” said Yousafzai. “Is it all about receiving awards and applause or is it really about actually creating systems of accountability and justice so so that it never happens to anybody. I thought that the praise I was receiving was a true commitment that it should never happen to any girl. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. That is unfortunately not the reality, but I do want us to change that.”
Watch the full “CBS Mornings” interview below.
“Bread & Roses” is currently streaming on Apple TV+.