Kabul-Paris, 8 December 2018
Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA lauded the awardees of the 5th International Simorgh Peace Prize today, marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the commencement of the 6th “Human Rights Week” of Armanshahr, in Kabul. This year’s Simorgh Peace Prize centred on the motto of “My ideal city” and the awardees received the Festival’s statute and prizes during a warm ceremony.
Marking the International Day of Peace in 2017, Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA had called on pupils from schools across Afghanistan, from Herat to Kandahar, to submit their works of poetry, stories and drawings based on the motto of “My ideal city” for the 5th International Simorgh Peace Prize.
From among 2,000 drawings and texts in Persian and Pashto, 33 works were selected, which are currently being published over 33 days, as a clear message in praise of peace and abhorrence for war, as part of “My ideal city campaign”. A selection of the submitted drawings have been published, together with poems from the Caravan of Light, in a book with the title of “My ideal City” in Afghanistan in 2017. Furthermore, this book formed the basis for a short documentary film “My ideal City”.
For this edition of the 5th International Simorgh Peace Prize, five schools from Kabul, Herat and Kandahar provinces were selected as the awardees of the lapis lazuli Simorgh Peace Statute. Representatives of these schools received the statutes during the ceremony today:
- Towhid Schools Group, Herat
- Zeynab High School, Kandahar
- Malali High School, Kandahar
- Eyno High School, Kandahar
- Marifat School, Kabul
a) Awardees of the Drawings category (in Persian alphabetical order):
1. Umulbanin Mohammadi, daughter of, 11 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
2. Bibi Halima Vatandoost, daughter of Abdullah, 10 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
3. Hassanat Jan, daughter of Mohammad Shafi, 10 years old, Aynoo High School, Kandahar
4. Rossana Vahdat, daughter of Habibullah, 9 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
5. Zubaida Popal, daughter of Abidullah, 9 years old, School?? Kandahar
6. Zahra, daughter of Zaker, 9 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
7. Ali Akbar Hossein, son of Mohammad Ali, 12 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
8. Fatema, daughter of Sardar Mohammad, 8 years old, Eyno High School, Kandahar
9. Fatema Noorzay, daughter of Hajji Moshaver, 12 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
10. Ferdows Amini, daughter of Fereydoon, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
11. Madina Youssef, daughter of Mohammad Youssef, 11 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
12. Malali, daughter of Issa Mohammad, 8 years old, Zeynab High School, Kandahar
13. Maleka Fayzi, daughter of Hajji Sardar Mohammad, 12 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
14. Mahtash Akbari, daughter of Ali Ahmad, 7 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
15. Mahdiya, daughter of Seyyed Zaman, 10 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
16. Nazanin Abbasi, daughter of Ahmad Masood, 9 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
b) Awardees of the Text category (in Persian alphabetical order):
1. Abolfazl, son of Mohammad Zaki, 12 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
2. Ahmad Ali Hafizi, son of Mohammad Sadeq, 17 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
3. Ahmad Fahim, 17 years old (submitted only a contact phone number: 0728847943)
4. Arghavan Nikdel, daughter of Mohammad Youssef, 12 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
5. Parvin, daughter of Mohammad Amin, 13 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
6. Hayatullah Mohammadi, 17 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
7. Sona Popal, daughter of Nematullah, 14 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
8. Shaghayegh Arabnejad, daughter of Ali Sheer, 14 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
9. Sadaf Popal, daughter of Mahmoud Shah, 14 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
10. Ali Reza Safari, son of Hajji Mohammad, 14 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
11. Gol Hassan Mohammadi, son of Ali, 18 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
12. Mohammad Reza Hassanzada, ??, 13 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
13. Maryam Ahmadi, 15 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
14. Morssal Soroori, 14 years old, Towhid Schools Group, Herat
15. Marzia Azimi, daughter of Ghulam Sakhi, 16 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
16. Mehdi Ahmadi, 12 years old, Marifat School, Kabul
17. Nayba Hakimi, 16 years old, Malali High School, Kandahar
Armanshahr Foundation/OPEN ASIA established the International Simorgh Peace Prize at the heart of Asia (the three neighbouring countries Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan) in 2009. Around 1,000 works were submitted for the 1st edition, during which poets and writers working for peace by combatting war, violence and militarism through literature received awards. In the 2nd edition, independent publishers of Afghanistan, the National Library of Tajikistan as well as the Ministry of Culture of Tajikistan – for establishing a large house for books and its publishing activities – were lauded. In the 3rd edition, the awardees were musicians who have been winning hearts of their audiences by sowing the seeds of peace and affection. During the 4th edition, women were praised as the true guards of peace in the three neighbouring countries; women who hate warmongering and stand against it by their persevering civic initiatives.
Contact us:
Email: contact@openasia.org
Instagram: @armanshahropenasia
Facebook pages and groups:
