A teenage girl who managed to survive after the Taliban group returned to power in Afghanistan three years ago was honored with the prestigious ‘Kids Rights Prize’ on Tuesday for her fight for women’s rights. Earlier, Greta Thunberg and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai also won the International Children’s Peace Prize.
The organizers informed that 17-year-old Neela Ibrahimi, a human rights activist and environmental activist, was honored with the ‘Kids Rights Prize’ at a program held in Amsterdam. The organizer said that Ibrahimi, who is living in Canada, is a brave girl fighting for the rights of girls and women in her country.
“After recording a powerful protest song that went viral online, she is inspiring other Afghan girls to stand up for their rights and take a stand against the injustices they face through public speaking and advocacy at global events,” said the KidsRights Foundation, which works for children’s rights.
After US-led forces returned to power in August 2021, Taliban officials have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Currently, women and girls in Afghanistan cannot study beyond primary school, go to parks, gyms or beauty salons. They are advised to leave their homes only with a male companion.
A recent morality law passed in Afghanistan also prohibits women from speaking about their rights in public. The United Nations has termed this situation as ‘gender discrimination’, but the Taliban government has called the UN’s concerns ‘groundless and propaganda based on the statements of some escaped women.
“Winning the International Children’s Peace Prize means that the voices of Afghan women and girls will be heard around the world,” Ibrahimi said after receiving the award. “We must all continue to give them strength and hope even in the darkest of times,” he said in a statement after accepting the award. Ibrahimi’s information about how his family fled to Pakistan after the establishment of the Taliban government in Afghanistan last year and the fall of the government drew the world’s attention to him. He now lives in Canada.
“I feel safe in my new home, but every day I think about those girls left behind in Afghanistan,” she said at a human rights summit in Geneva last year. He added, “They are left to live a life of despair in Afghanistan with no hope of evacuation and protection.” Ebrahimi was selected from 165 nominations from 47 countries and was awarded the ‘Kids’ Rights Prize’ by Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel Prize-winning Yemeni journalist.
