Nobel laureate Malala voices support for Iranian women and girls

Iran’s anti-government protests are rooted in long-standing restrictions on girls and women, including access to education, said Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist and Nobel peace prize laureate.

Yousafzai said on X that the ongoing protests “cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy,” and added: “Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity.”

She said Iranians had warned about repression “at great personal risk” for decades and described a broader system of control shaped by “segregation, surveillance, and punishment.”

Yousafzai said Iranians were demanding the right to determine their political future, adding that it “must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls.”

“I stand with the people and girls of Iran in their call for freedom and dignity,” she wrote.