It is used by politicians as bait before elections, then forgotten and then used again at the next elections”, points out Sima. “Rights and freedom will not be gifted to you. She believes women will have to fight for their own rights. “I just took action-not calculated action, but just what I thought was right.” Her sister being pushed into marriage against her will at 17, made her even more determined to resist. “The discrimination that I saw within the family and within society (being a girl) as well as amongst the different ethnic and religious groups living in Afghanistan, motivated me to prove that we are no less human. She has stood up for human rights and fought discrimination at multiple levels-gender, religion, ethnicity-right through the Russian invasion and the Taliban oppression, and continues to do what she thinks is right. This little Afghan girl from the minority Hazara community, who wanted to grow up to be a road construction engineer, “perhaps because I loved their yellow metal hats”, grew up to become a doctor, open schools and hospitals in war-ravaged countries and now chairs the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Girls around the world experience various degrees of restriction, but Sima believes this can all change with education. Yet she keeps returning to the country of her birth, in the hope of making a difference to the lives of young women and bringing war criminals to justice. Where does she feel safe? “Everywhere outside Afghanistan!” she tells us. You can be visiting a restaurant with your family and end up dead,” she states matter-of-factly. In the place she calls home, “You can go to a wedding and end up dead. For over three decades, she has been raising her voice for women's rights and against war crimes, making her a prime target for those who would not want to upset status quo. But this soft-spoken woman is tougher than you might think. Her kindly face and gentle eyes make it hard to imagine any reason why someone would want her dead. We met Sima Samar whilst she was in India for the First Regional Conference of the Right Livelihood Laureates of the Asia-Pacific Region at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She has hidden in a hotel kitchen, while a suicide attack was underway at the Serena Hotel in 2008, only to walk out later past lifeless bodies on a bloody floor. She's watched young women die for no greater cause than a lack of adequate medical facilities. Yes, these are nightmares-but not ones she hasn't lived through. She runs as fast as she her legs can carry her to get as far from the shooters as she can, but they are closing in and she still can't find a place to hide. She runs and runs but has no idea which way to go. There's a woman bleeding to death on her operating table and there's absolutely nothing she can do about it.
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