I fear for my Afghan sisters, says Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times, "In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away."

Washington: Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has expressed fear for women and girls in Afghanistan as the Taliban has once again taken control of the war-torn country after 20 years of US military operations. "The Taliban - who until losing power 20 years ago barred nearly all girls and women from attending school and doled out harsh punishment to those who defied them - are back in control. Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters," Malala wrote in an op-ed published in New York Times on August 17. "I cannot help but think of my own childhood. When the Taliban took over my hometown in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2007 and shortly thereafter banned girls from getting an education, I hid my books under my long, hefty shawl and walked to school in fear. Five years later, when I was 15, the Taliban tried to kill me for speaking out about my right to go to school,'' she wrote in the NYT op-ed.