Nila Ibrahimi, a 17-year-old Afghanistan-native girls' rights activist, proudly accepted her award after being named the winner of the KidsRights International Children's Peace Prize during a ceremony held at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on November 19, 2024. — AFP
A teenager who narrowly escaped the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan three years ago, Nila Ibrahimi, 17, was honored with the prestigious KidsRights Prize for her relentless fight for women's rights. Following in the footsteps of environmental activist Greta Thunberg and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, Ibrahimi claimed the International Children's Peace Prize.
"Ibrahimi, an Afghanistan-native now residing in Canada, is courageously advocating for the rights of girls and women in her homeland," organizers stated during the event in Amsterdam.
After creating a powerful protest song that gained widespread attention online, she continues to motivate other Afghan girls to assert their rights and confront the injustices they face through public speaking and advocacy at global events, according to KidsRights, the Dutch children's rights foundation behind the initiative.
Since the Taliban regained control in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led forces, they have enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Women and girls are now prohibited from pursuing education beyond primary school, visiting parks, gyms, or beauty salons, and are advised to leave their homes only with a male chaperone. A recent morality law also forbids women from speaking loudly in public.
The United Nations has described the situation as "gender apartheid," but the Taliban government dismisses these concerns as "unfounded... and propaganda based on the accounts of a few escaped women."
"Winning the International Children's Peace Prize means that the voices of Afghan women and girls will resonate across the globe," Ibrahimi said. "We must all continue to provide them with strength and hope, especially in the darkest of times," she added in a statement after receiving the award.
Ibrahimi recounted last year how her family fled to Pakistan just five days after the fall of Afghanistan. She now resides in Canada.
"While I feel safer in my new home, I think of the girls left behind in Afghanistan every single day," she told a human rights summit in Geneva last year. "They are left with no hope," she added.
Nila was chosen from 165 nominees from 47 countries, and her prize was presented by Nobel Prize-winning Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman.
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