getty imagesWhen Nila Ibrahimi set out to build a website to tell the stories of Afghan girls, it wasn’t just to make their voices heard.
The 17-year-old Afghan refugee is also determined to remind her fellow Gen Zers in her adopted country, Canada, that they are similar. They even listened to Taylor Swift like other teenage girls around the world.
“I want to make it as realistic as possible so that other people, especially Generation Z, can put themselves in their shoes,” she told the BBC.
Nila was interviewed by the BBC earlier this week ahead of receiving the International Children’s Peace Prize, previously won by the education campaigner. Malala Yousafzai and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
EPANila’s job is probably not an easy one. The plight of women and girls in Afghanistan may seem like a world away to young people living in Canada. Nila is a place where people left their homeland and returned home, just as it was occupied by the Taliban three years ago.
At the time, the Taliban had banned teenage girls from being educated, banned women from traveling long distances without a male guardian, and now ordered them to lower their voices in public, effectively silencing half the population.
The Taliban has previously defended the ruling, telling the BBC it was consistent with its religious content.
“The differences between Afghanistan and Canada are so great that it is difficult to feel connected,” Nila admits.
So she helped found HerStory, a place where she and others share the stories of Afghan women and girls in their own words at home and abroad.
“A lot of times we get so caught up in the differences that we don’t see the similarities. That’s our goal: to show that to the world.”
Nila Ibrahim was selected as the 20th recipient of the prestigious award from 165 candidates.
The award recognizes her work at HerStory, as well as her passion for advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Nila’s first stand in defense of women’s rights appeared in March 2021. It all started when she shared a video of herself singing online with other young Afghan girls.
This was a small but powerful protest against the government’s decree. At the time, he was the director of education in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and tried to ban girls over the age of 12 from singing in public. The attempted command did not run.
“It was then that I really understood the importance of performance, of speaking out and talking about these issues,” explains Nila, who was part of a group called Sound of Affinity.
But less than six months later, everything changed. At age 14, she had to flee with her family when the Taliban arrived.
The family, a member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority, made the difficult journey to Pakistan and spent a year there before being granted asylum in Canada.
After being out of education for 12 months, it was “a breath of fresh air”, she says.
There, Nila reunited with her friends from the singing group.
She was also invited to the event so she could advocate for all the girls left behind about their experiences in Afghanistan.
She said people were amazed by her speaking skills. But Nila knew that there were millions of women and girls in Afghanistan who were just as capable as she was. Even though he had limited access to opportunities.
“So what if my potential could surprise these people and they don’t know what it’s like for educated girls in Afghanistan to have access to that information?”
getty imagesHerStory, a website based on this idea, was launched in 2023. The website includes interviews and first-person accounts from both refugees and women in Afghanistan.
The idea is to create a safe space for a group that ‘grew up with the stories of the first Taliban era and how terrible women’s lives were at the time’ to share their stories and ‘shock and anger.’ You find yourself in more and more similar situations.
Anger feels like Nila is trying to escape from her work.
“When you see Afghanistan going back to the way it was after 20 years, of course you get scared,” she says.
“It’s a shared feeling. It’s an experience shared by girls everywhere.”
She said the award was an opportunity to once again remind the world of the restrictions Afghan girls face every day. This means “don’t forget the girls of Afghanistan.”
Marc Dullaert, founder of the KidsRights Foundation, which runs the awards, pointed out that a “huge” number of young women are currently excluded from education.
“Nila’s inspiring work in giving them a voice that resonates around the world makes her a truly worthy recipient of this year’s 20th International Peace Prize,” he added.
It’s also a reminder, Nila hopes, that even though her generation is young, they can make a difference.
“When we talk about problems and different causes, we often talk about them in a very adult approach: Oh, this is very serious,” she says.
“The world is a very scary place, but there is an approach that is more like Gen Z: We can take small steps… and do whatever we can.”
