{"id":6394,"date":"2015-12-10T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=6394"},"modified":"2016-03-29T14:29:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T12:29:02","slug":"4th-international-simorgh-peace-prize-awardees-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2015\/12\/4th-international-simorgh-peace-prize-awardees-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"4th International Simorgh Peace Prize Awardees – 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sim<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/b>4th <\/b>International Simorgh Peace Prize Awardees <\/b><\/p>\n

Armanshahr\/OPEN ASIA<\/b><\/p>\n

4<\/span>th<\/span> Edition \u2013 December 2015<\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kabul-Paris, 10 December 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Armanshahr Foundation\/OPEN ASIA announced the recipients of the 4<\/b>th<\/b> International Simorgh Peace Prize awards on the 67<\/b>th<\/b> Human Rights Day during the \u201cHuman Rights Week\u201d (<\/b>7-10<\/b> December 2015) in Kabul.<\/b><\/p>\n

This \u00a04<\/span>th<\/span> round, women who are true protectors of peace in three countries located at the heart of Asia \u2013 Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan \u2013 were recipients of the awards; women who despise war-mongering and stand up to it by their civic and sustained initiatives; innovative women who resist the despotic and war-afflicted world and give us hope to continue the struggle to change the unjust relations and serve equality. <\/span><\/p>\n

The awardee women are: <\/b><\/p>\n

AFGHANISTAN <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Horia Mosadiq<\/b><\/p>\n

In appreciation of more than two decades of human rights activities on the national and international levels<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\"8417F221-43DA-43C3-806E-C341EAACF40E_cx0_cy3_cw0_mw1024_s_n_r1\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times that I had to make very tough decisions, to sacrifice, to let go and to compromise and despite all the hardships I never gave up.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Horia Mosadiq was born to an educated and liberal family in Herat in 1973. Following the invasion by the former Soviet Union, she and her family moved to Kabul in the early 1980s, where she lived until 1995. After the outbreak of the civil war, she migrated to Pakistan. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a human rights activist and journalist, she has spent the last 22 years of her life working in the media in the fields of human rights, women\u2019s rights and transitional justice in Afghanistan and the region. Mosadiq has worked as Director of Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC), Media Commissioner for Afghanistan Elections Commission 2005, Senior Advisor to Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and Observer in the Constitutional Loya Jirga of Afghanistan in 2003- 2004. She represented Afghanistan in the 51<\/span>st<\/span> session of the UN Commission on the Status of women in 2007 and chaired the human rights and civil society panel in Paris Conference, civil society side event, in 2008. <\/span><\/p>\n

Horia Mosadiq is the author of more than 100 articles and opinion pieces on human rights, women rights and transitional justice in Afghanistan. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since September 2008, she is working at Amnesty International, International Secretariat, as Afghanistan Researcher. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mosadiq has helped with founding various human rights and media organisations and associations in Afghanistan, including the first Network of War Victims in Afghanistan, which defends the persons whose rights have been violated in the past. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"hooria\"<\/p>\n

She was awarded the National Human Rights Award of Afghanistan in 2007. In 2011, the British Glamour Magazine recognised her among 50 bravest women of the world. In 2012, she received the Women\u2019s Rights Defender Award from Amnesty International. <\/span><\/p>\n

She says: \u201cI conducted a research on the situation of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in 2012, which prompted the Afghan government to develop its first IDPs National Policy in order to tackle the issue. I did another report on civilian casualties caused by the USA in Afghanistan and the US government started an investigation into some of the cases we reported on allegations of torture and killings against civilians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/p>\n

Auntie Sakina<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

In appreciation of a life-time of bravery and courage in breaking sexual taboos<\/b><\/p>\n

\"IMG_5310\"<\/p>\n

<\/i>\u201cIn the entire Herat province, there is no other women who would serve the people like me.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Auntie Sakina who says she is the daughter of Hajji Ahmad Ali from the Babaji neighbourhood, is a militant woman from the era of the experience of liberation from the former Soviet Union. She says her house served as the base for her struggle for many years; she heard the people\u2019s problems and helped the militants and deems her main duty to be \u201cserving the braves of this land.\u201d During the war, she fetched bread and food for the militants, washed their clothes and served their needs. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Taliban, I was a hero. There was nobody in the Babaji neighbourhood to stand up to them other than me. When they asked me if there were any mujahedin in my house, I answered: No, they are only destitute people who have taken shelter with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Taliban members once went to her house to arrest her. Her family members were worried for her, but she told them: \u201cI wish I would be killed for the people, but I am not worthy of it.\u201d Finally, one Taliban member told the other not to bother Auntie Sakina, because she was a good woman whom the people respected. In those days, Auntie Sakina went on the mosque\u2019s rooftop and called for prayers. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"IMG_5336\"<\/p>\n

After the fall of the Taliban, her house retained its character as before. \u201cThe people would come to me as the neighbourhood\u2019s elder. I had inherited all the lands in the Babaji neighbourhood from my father. They would ask for land and house and I would provide for them.\u201d She built a mosque in a part of her father\u2019s lands and dedicated some land to the \u201cMartyrs\u201d Charity to build a school for orphans. This fulfilled her true wish of \u201cseeing children smile in school.\u201d Streets of the neighbourhood were paved and electrified, all through her efforts. <\/span><\/p>\n

Auntie Sakina meets with the Police Commander of Herat and other officials once or twice a week to follow up people\u2019s problems. She is also active in charity work. If there is an argument in the neighbourhood, her son would take everybody to the mosque to settle the dispute. In her old age days, her son is following in her footpath. She has two sons and a daughter who died. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/b><\/p>\n

Maryam Durani<\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

For her resistance and initiatives to make voices of women heard from Kandahar <\/b>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\"3_bild\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Afghan girl, I tell the women to have confidence and know that they can change whatever they want to.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Durani is the first Afghan who has been awarded the Freedom of Speech medal. She has also received the \u201cPeace Generation\u201d award of the UN. She is the founder of Khadija Kubra Association for culture and director of \u201cMerman\u201d (Women) \u00a0Radio in Kandahar, which is a special women\u2019s radio. She says: \u201cI had reached the conclusion that activities of Khadija Kubra association are not sufficient and it is necessary to make women\u2019s voice heard through a medium.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Having lived in migration in Pakistan and Iran, she returned to Afghanistan in 2003. Khadija Kubra Association was founded in 2003 with the goal of empowering women, where women take part in literacy, sewing, carpet weaving, flower making and cosmetic classes. The Association has also established the \u201cKandahar Women\u2019s Advocacy Network\u201d to defend women’s rights. The Association offers short-term interest-free loans to women to build a home or to start up a business and one of its achievements is the organising of the first Women\u2019s Handicraft Fair in Kandahar. Durani established the first women\u2019s institute for evening classes in 2014, where women are taught computer, English, management, accounting, leadership and journalism. She also set up a women\u2019s library in Kandahar in 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mariam<\/p>\n

Her political activities date back to 2004, when she entered the provincial council. She was re-elected in 2009 and carried on until 2014. She has been the target of two suicide attacks and was wounded once. She lays special emphasis on women\u2019s \u201ceconomic independence\u201d and deems their presence in the provincial councils as a great change. <\/span><\/p>\n

Time Magazine chose her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012. <\/span>\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/p>\n

Farkhonda Rajabi<\/b><\/p>\n

An outstanding example of young girls who employ culture and knowledge to promote enlightenment<\/b><\/p>\n

\"10564807_588907711226705_2116021404_n\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding a healthy society with educated women.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rajabi is a journalist born in Mazar-e-Sharif in 1990. She went to school under the new regime and published the first student newsletter in the framework of the Ministry of Education of Balkh province when she was studying in the ninth grade. The newsletter formed the backbone for the \u201cParto\u201d monthly and cultural house, an institution that trained many cultural activists. In his \u201cHistory of Literature in Balkh,\u201d Saleh Mohammad Khaliq described the Cultural House as a source of a new wave of female poets, writers and cultural activists. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rajabi is a co-founder and member of Board of Directors of \u201cCivil Activists for a Sustainable Development,\u201d which she set up with four \u201clike-minded\u201d colleagues in 2011. They have organised numerous national and international programmes in collaboration with Finland and Germany among others. <\/span><\/p>\n

She is currently busy with the education of rural girls in Balkh province, including building of schools, organising computer training classes and teachers training centres. \u00a0The educational programmes have the perspective of \u201cBuilding a healthy society with educated women.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"12236723_1635713600022218_543543536_o\"<\/p>\n

Rajabi says writing keeps her alive and that is a love that encouraged her to continue her Dari Persian language studies. She graduated from BBC Academy and an anthology of her stories has been published with the title of \u201cCold Claws.\u201d She has worked for many national and international media during her career and has been working for \u201cWomen and Peace\u201d for more than six years. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/b><\/p>\n

Praised:\u00a0Vaheed Kaacemy<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

For his efforts to bring message of peace and friendship through music and research.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"wahid_qasimi1\"<\/p>\n

Vaheed Kaacemy is a singer, performer, composer and music scholar. He is mainly known for his reproduction of folklore songs and his research on the nationwide local music of Afghanistan. He examined the theories of music in Afghanistan from 2001-2011 and then set out to talk to artists, or families, survivors and associates of artists. The outcome has been specialised writings on instruments and songs in Afghanistan in Persian and English. He is referred to as one of the youngest composers in the history of Afghanistan. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaacemy\u00a0was born to a family well known in Afghanistan\u2019s traditional music in Kabul in 1958, graduated from Kabul University in Dari Language and Literature and then took up music. He learned the fundamentals of the oriental and Western music with celebrated masters in Afghanistan and founded the Shine pop music band in 1977, which \u2013 along with \u201cFour Brothers\u201d and \u201cStars\u201d \u2013 is considered as a milestone of modern music in this land. <\/span><\/p>\n

His book, \u201c<\/span>Zeer o Bam<\/span><\/i>, a Study of Traditional Music from Badakhshan, Herat and Badghis\u201d, which Armanshahr published, is the outcome of 10 years of research and interviews with traditional artists, performers of old instruments and folklore singers of Afghanistan. In the book, he has discussed the traditional music of Badakhshan in Pamir and Takhar, has introduced the styles and works, instruments and artists in both areas and discussed folklore songs. He also portrays the relationship between oral literature and music in different regions and reviews the history of music in this land, in particular the local music of Herat. The concluding chapter is an illustrated narrative of traditional music of Badakhshan, Herat and Badghis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kaacemy\u00a0has published more than 15 music albums and other songs. His work frequently concerns women and girls. Some of his works deal with the political, social and cultural background of Afghanistan. His most important works are: \u201cAlphabet\u201d for children, \u201cLonely Afghan, you\u2019re lost to the wind\u201d (a mourning for the people who suffered in Afghanistan), a mourning song for Ahmad Shah Massoud, \u201cAlas, Eagles\u2019 Nest burnt up\u201d (a Lullaby for Afghan children, sung by Master Mahvash), \u201cMy Eyes\u201d (for the blind)\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

Wahid Kaacemy\u00a0was celebrated as a \u201cStar of Music\u201d in the 2007 Noor TV Festival (USA), and in the 2008 Ariana TV Festival , along with other artists such as Master Mahvash, Ms Ghamar Gul, Farid Zaland, Master Khial, and Ahmad Zahir. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/p>\n

IRAN<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mehranzi Kar <\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

For a life-time of defending equal rights for women and freedom<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"MehrangizKar_2008\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen shall decide Iran\u2019s future.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mehrangiz Kar, lawyer, writer and human rights activist, is one of the most influential women in the domains of democracy, human rights, women’s rights and rule of law in Iran. She has critiqued and challenged the legal and social structures in Iran through her books and articles, as well as by representing \u00a0her clients in courts. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mehrangiz was born in Ahvaz\/Iran in 1944 and is a law graduate from Tehran University. She started writing for the Iranian press before the February 1979 revolution. Her lawyer\u2019s licence was issued three months prior to the revolution. Her involvement in court cases prompted her to \u201cdecide to expose the law.\u201d Her books that have been published in Iran, include: \u201cAngel of Justice and Patches of Hell\u201d, \u201cThe Quest for Identity: Iranian Women in History and Pre-History\u201d, \u201cWomen in the Labour Market of Iran\u201d, and \u201cChildren of Addiction.\u201d She has also published numerous articles on legal topics concerning women’s rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having spoken on the need to amend the Iranian Constitution at the Berlin Conference 2000, Mehrangiz Kar was detained for two months upon her return to Iran and was charged with \u201cacting against the national security\u201d, but was released as a result of international outcry. She was then sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, which she appealed. Subsequently, she left Iran with the Indian Government\u2019s help to seek treatment for her breast cancer and took up residence abroad. In all the years in exile, she has been campaigning for women’s rights in Iran. Since leaving Iran, she has published two other books: \u201cHoly Necklace\u201d and \u201cInsurgency: A Women\u2019s Narrative of the Iranian Revolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"1438369726\"<\/p>\n

In 2002, Human Rights Watch awarded her the Hellman\/Hammett grant, which is allocated to writers who have been victims of political persecution. Her other awards include: <\/span><\/p>\n