After the Pakistani Taliban attacked 14-year-old Pakistani school girl Malala Yousufzai for encouraging girls to seek education, Afghan religious leaders attending a conference in Kabul spoke out against such violence, child marriage, and in favor of providing education for women and girls, further stating that “forced marriage and child marriage are against Sharia.”
According to the Ministry of Women's Affairs a new Commission on Prevention of Violence against Women will work with religious leaders to inform people about Afghanistan’s violence against women act. Afghan women’s safety activists believe this partnership can help to protect girls and women rights from attacks perpetrated against women and girls in the name of religion.