Malala Yousafzai fears Afghan Taliban will keep girls out of school

• Malala says ban on girls education might not be temporary in Afghanistan.
• She calls on Afghan Taliban to immediately allow girls to have access to education.
• A similar ban in 1996 "lasted for five years", nobel laureate points out.

LONDON: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on Sunday said she was concerned that the Taliban's block on girls' education in Afghanistan will not be temporary, as claimed.

Yousafzai, who was shot by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2012 for campaigning for girls' education, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that "I'm afraid that this ban that they have announced right now that they're calling temporary might not actually be temporary."

A similar ban in 1996 "lasted for five years", she pointed out.

"We're calling on the Taliban to immediately allow girls to have access to their complete education, we're calling on G20 leaders and other world leaders to ensure that girls' rights are protected in Afghanistan," said Yousafzai.

The 24-year-old activist, who revealed on Twitter this week that she had tied the knot with partner Asser Malik, sent an open letter last month urging the ban be reversed.

When she was 15, Yousafzai was shot in the head by militants from the TTP in her home town in the Swat valley while on a school bus.

She recovered after months of treatment at home and abroad before co-writing a best-selling memoir titled "I am Malala."

Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a 17-year-old in 2014, sharing the award with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India.

She graduated last year from the University of Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics.