Getty ImagesIt was n’t just to give Afghan girls a voice when Nila Ibrahimi started creating a website that would tell their stories.
The 17-year-old Armenian immigrant was determined to show that her brother Gen Zs in her adopted nation, Canada, were related, and they even listened to Taylor Swift like other young women around the world.
” I want to create them as authentic as possible so that other people, especially young people, Gen Z especially, can put themselves in their boots”, she told the BBC.
Nila spoke to the BBC earlier this week, before picking up the International Children’s Peace Prize previously won by education campaigner Malala Yousafzai and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
EPANila’s is, possibly, never an easy task. Fresh Afghan women and girls ‘ lives in Canada are far from Nila’s country of origin, where the Taliban seized control of the region three years ago.
The Taliban also forbid young girls from getting into school, prohibits women from traveling for extended distances without a female companion, and has now mandated that they keep their voices down in public, effectively silencing the majority of the populace.
The Taliban have previously defended the decisions by saying they are in line with spiritual texts.
” The differences]between Afghanistan and Canada ] are vast, so it makes it hard for them to feel connected”, acknowledges Nila.
She contributed to the creation of HerStory, a platform where she and other people can express the tales of Afghan women and girls in their own comments, both domestically and abroad.
” We lose sight of the resemblance because we are so frequently lost in the differences,” says our mission,” to show the world.”
Nila Ibrahim was chosen from 165 candidates to be the 20th recipient of the prominent prize.
The prize recognises not just the job done on HerStory, but even her love for standing up for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
In March 2021, Nila joined other young Afghan women in posting a picture of her singing online, making her first statement about women’s rights.
It was a small but powerful protest against a decree by the then-director of education in the Afghan capital, Kabul, who tried to ban girls over 12 singing in public. The attempted order was never implemented.
” That was when I truly understood the importance of performing, the importance of speaking up and talking about these concerns”, explains Nila, who was part of a group called Sound of Afghanistan.
However, less than six months later, the Taliban arrived and she would have to retreat with her home at the age of 14.
The relatives- who are part of Afghanistan’s Hazara majority- made the hard voyage to Pakistan, where they spent a month before being granted asylum in Canada.
It was, after 12 months without learning, a “breath of new air”, she says.
That, Nila was reunited with her friends from the singing party.
She was even invited to speak at situations, about her experience of Afghanistan, allowing her to advocate for all the ladies left behind.
Citizens, she says, were surprised at how brilliant she was. However, Nila was aware that there were thousands of Afghan women and girls who were just as able, albeit with fewer opportunities.
What if I knew that my potential might surprise these people and that they were n’t aware of how educated Afghan girls can be?
Getty ImagesHerStory, a site created as a result of this idea, was founded in 2023. conversations and first-person records from Afghan women and migrants are included.
A group of people who “grew up with the stories of the first phase of the Taliban and how terrible the lives of women were at the moment” who “grew up with these stories” share their experiences and” shock and anger” at being in a situation that is becoming more and more comparable.
Nila tries to keep her work from her indignation, though.
” When you see Afghanistan going back in time in 20 years, of course it makes you fear”, she says.
” It’s a shared experience. It’s a shared experience for women somewhere”.
She claims that the award serves as a chance for Afghan girls to once more remind the world of the limitations they face daily and to remind people to” never forget Afghan women.”
Marc Dullaert, chairman of the KidsRights Foundation, which runs the prize, pointed out that a” remarkable” number of young people were already being excluded from training.
He continued,” Nila’s inspirational work to give them a message that will be heard everywhere in the world makes her a really honorable success of this year’s 20th International Peace Prize.”
It is also a warning that her era- while youthful- can make a distinction, Nila hopes.
She says,” I think so many times when we talk about issues and various causes, we talk about it with the very adult-like attitude, oh, this is very serious,” she says.
” The earth is a very terrible place, but there is an approach that is more General Z-like… and we can take small steps and… do whatever we can”.