Gulalai Ismail is a Pashtun human rights activist, who is the chairperson for Aware Girls and Seeds of Peace Network. She is a advocate for womens empowerment and peace in both Pakistan and international conferences. She has been the recipeint of International Humanist of the Year Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and of the Fondation Chirac Peace Prize for the Prevention of Conflict.
Gulalai is the daughter of teacher and human rights activist Muhammad Ismail, and was exposed to gender discrimination from a young age. She went on to graduate from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad in 2012 with a Master of philosophy degree in biotechnology. Gulalai Ismail started Aware Girls with her sister, Saba Ismail, at the age of 16 to help teach young Pashtun girls how to negotiate and advocate for their rights to education and life choices at home. In 2010 she created Seeds of Peace to provide young people training in human rights, political leadership and encourge female participation in politics.
Since creating Aware Girls, her organsations have widened their agendas to include education in topics such as HIV and Aids prevention and access to safe abortions. Her increasing protests and advocacy for women, especially young girls who have gone missing, led to her fleeing Pakistan in 2019. Although she had been harassed, intimidated and arressted on a number of occaisons over the years, her security risk escalated when she began to protest for women claiming to have experienced sexual harrassment by Pakistan’s security forces. In May 2019 Gulalai Ismail was participating in a protest against the murder of a 10-year-old Pashtun girl, who had been kidnapped, allegedly raped and murdered. This led to her becoming the subject of accusations of anti-state and hate speech. The Report forced her to go into hiding and eventually seeking political asylum in New York City, where she now resides with her sister.
Gulalai Ismail advocated for the rights of women all over Pakistan and her organisations, protests and education efforts have paved the way for many of us to make better life choices.
Gulalai Ismail is a Pashtun human rights activist, who is the chairperson for Aware Girls and Seeds of Peace Network. She is a advocate for womens empowerment and peace in both Pakistan and international conferences. She has been the recipeint of International Humanist of the Year Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and of the Fondation Chirac Peace Prize for the Prevention of Conflict.
Gulalai is the daughter of teacher and human rights activist Muhammad Ismail, and was exposed to gender discrimination from a young age. She went on to graduate from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad in 2012 with a Master of philosophy degree in biotechnology. Gulalai Ismail started Aware Girls with her sister, Saba Ismail, at the age of 16 to help teach young Pashtun girls how to negotiate and advocate for their rights to education and life choices at home. In 2010 she created Seeds of Peace to provide young people training in human rights, political leadership and encourge female participation in politics.
Since creating Aware Girls, her organsations have widened their agendas to include education in topics such as HIV and Aids prevention and access to safe abortions. Her increasing protests and advocacy for women, especially young girls who have gone missing, led to her fleeing Pakistan in 2019. Although she had been harassed, intimidated and arressted on a number of occaisons over the years, her security risk escalated when she began to protest for women claiming to have experienced sexual harrassment by Pakistan’s security forces. In May 2019 Gulalai Ismail was participating in a protest against the murder of a 10-year-old Pashtun girl, who had been kidnapped, allegedly raped and murdered. This led to her becoming the subject of accusations of anti-state and hate speech. The Report forced her to go into hiding and eventually seeking political asylum in New York City, where she now resides with her sister.
Gulalai Ismail advocated for the rights of women all over Pakistan and her organisations, protests and education efforts have paved the way for many of us to make better life choices.
