Aware Girls is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

, Pakistan. Established in 2002, it aims to address violence and discrimination against women and young girls in Pakistan. Their mission is to advocate for women's rights, education, and access to sexual and reproductive health resources. They state their objective as "to strengthen the leadership capacity of young women enabling them to act as agents of social change and women empowerment in their communities."

Gulalai Ismail Gulalai Ismail (; ; born 30 October 1986) is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is the chairperson of Aware Girls, a global ambassador for Humanists International, and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movemen ...

, a human rights activist based in Peshawar, served as the chairperson of Aware Girls. In 2018, the Pakistani government shut down Aware Girls after Gulalai became associated with the

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM; , ''Paṣtūn Zhghōrənē Ghōrźang''; , ''Pashtūn Tahaffuz Tehreek'' ) is a social movement for Pashtuns, Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. It was found ...

(PTM), a social movement advocating for Pashtun human rights.

Formation

Aware Girls was formed in

in 2002 by sisters

and Saba Ismail, at the time aged 16 and 15 respectively. They began by campaigning in the

area against

gender based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence (GBV) refers to any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification, culture may have a role to play, being lower in egalitarianism societies and higher, sexist ( ...

such as

honour killings An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

and

acid attacks An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, tort ...

and then by educating girls and women about their human rights, giving them negotiating skills to use within their families and empowering them to become leaders and educate others in their own local communities. Saba Ismail explained the catalyst for the organisation's formation was experiencing gender inequality while growing up in

Swabi Swabi (; ) is a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located near the bank of the Indus River. It is the 73rd largest city of Pakistan and eighth largest in the province in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Swabi is also a major city in ...

and an incident when a girl cousin who had wanted to study and become a pilot was, age 12, made to marry a man 15 years her senior and discontinue her education. Sana was already active in promoting women's right to education and healthcare while in college and Jahangir met the others at a seminar about violence against women and was a co-founder of an organisation called the Child Rights Advocates Forum.

Campaigns

In addition to empowering young women at home and in their communities, Aware Girls also aims to educate young people against extremism with peaceful resistance to the Taliban by educating peers against radicalisation and to encourage more women into positions of political influence. This is done through their Youth Peace Network outreach work including workshops and seminars, creating local youth groups and using peer to peer education and support to reach at-risk young people in rural areas.

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai (; , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, ...

was an attendee of Aware Girls training in 2011 and in 2016 the

Malala Fund Malala Fund is an international, non-profit organization that advocates for girls' education. It was co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and her father, Ziauddin. The ...

, with financial sponsorship from the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

set up the Gulmakai Network to support local organisations such as Aware Girls who campaign and work on the front line of education for girls and who aim to influence policy change, making Gulalai Ismail one of the Gulmakai Champions. Aware Girls also runs a programme of

HIV prevention HIV prevention refers to practices that aim to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV prevention practices may be undertaken by individuals to protect their own health and the health of those in their community, or may ...

amongst women in Pakistan which aims to educate women about sexual health, the transmission and treatment of HIV as well as reducing the stigma of living with a diagnosis. This programme is sponsored by the

MTV Staying Alive Staying Alive is an MTV international initiative to encourage HIV prevention, promote safer lifestyle choices and fight the stigma and discrimination that fuels the HIV epidemic. Staying Alive is the world's largest HIV mass media awareness and p ...

initiative. Aware Girls also conducts research, provides support and counselling and advocates for policy change for women in Pakistan affected by trauma as a result of terrorism and violence. Saba Ismail's research has revealed that women are disproportionately affected by the economic problems associated with terrorism and by the increase in domestic violence associated with family psychological problems. She said in 2015, "Terrorism has destroyed houses, properties, businesses and livelihoods. Children are frightened and weep. Women have lost hope." Aware Girls also runs a referral helpline for victims of domestic gender based violence. The Marastyal helpline connects women with providers of emotional support, legal advice and emergency medical treatment.

Awards

In 2014 Aware Girls received the Global Rising Star award from the Star Foundation. On November 24, 2016, Aware Girls was the recipient of the

Fondation Chirac The Fondation Chirac was launched by former French President Jacques Chirac, after having served two terms in office between 1995 and 2007. Since 2008, this foundation strives for peace through five advocacy programmes: * conflict prevention * ...

Peace Prize for its contribution to the prevention of conflict in Pakistan which was presented by the then French president Francois Hollande. In her capacity as the chairperson of Aware Girls, Gulalai Ismail has won several awards including International Humanist of the Year Award, given by the

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Fou ...

at the World Humanist Congress, the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

Youth Award (2015), the 2013 Democracy Award from

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...

and was joint winner, with murdered journalist and activist

Gauri Lankesh Gauri Lankesh (29 January 1962 – 5 September 2017) was an Indian activist and journalist from Bangalore, Karnataka. She worked as an editor in ''Lankesh Patrike'', a Kannada weekly started by her father P. Lankesh, and ran her own weekly call ...

, of the

Anna Politkovskaya Award The Anna Politkovskaya Award was established in 2006 to remember and honor the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006), murdered in Moscow on 7 October 2006 in order to silence her reporting about the war in Chechnya. The aw ...

, Reach All Women in WAR (RAW in WAR) award for campaigning against religious extremism. Gulalai and Saba Ismail were also featured in ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 for empowering girls in Pakistan.

Criticism

Aware Girls is being criticised in

for violating

cultural norms A social norm is a shared standard of acceptable behavior by a group. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws. Social normative influences or so ...

and making people liberated from culture and religion which directly impact the society's sentiment. Gulalai's video went viral when she was explaining rural girls about how they feel awkward and discomfort for putting ''chail'' -

shawl A shawl (from ''shāl'') is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular piece of Textile, cloth, but can also be Square (geometry), square or tr ...

used widely in

which is considered as symbol of modesty and resistance historically.

Sponsors and affiliations

Aware Girls has received funding from several organisations and among them lists the following as partners and/or donors: *

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

education and prevention *

The Global Fund for Children Global Fund for Children (GFC) is a Washington, DC–based nonprofit organization whose mission is to transform the lives of the world's most vulnerable children. GFC pursues this mission by making small grants to innovative community-based organ ...

venture philanthropy Venture philanthropy is a type of impact investment that takes concepts and techniques from venture capital finance and business management and applies them to achieving philanthropic goals. The term was first used in 1969 by John D. Rockefeller ...

group based in Washington which provides capital to

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

organisations helping deprived children * Urgent Action Fund financial sponsor based in San Francisco * Peace Direct, a British charity working in conflict areas with grassroots organisations promoting peace * NCCR (NGOs Coalition on Child Rights), an organisation which implements the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Aware Girls is a member of numerous national and international organisations including: *

All Pakistan Women's Association The All Pakistan Women's Association, or APWA, () as it is commonly known, is a voluntary, non-profit and non-political Pakistani organisation whose fundamental aim is the promotion of moral, social and economic welfare of the women of Pakistan ...

Association for Women's Rights in Development The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), formerly the Association for Women in Development, is an international feminist membership and movement support organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development ...

* Friends of AASHA (Alliance Against Sexual Harassment) *

Humanists International Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Fou ...

International Association for Impact Assessment The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) is an international association of professionals involved with impact assessment, including both social impact assessment and environmental impact assessment. History The United States' ...

Young Humanists International Young Humanists International, known as the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation or IHEYO from 2002 to 2019, is the youth wing of Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union from 1952 to 2019) ...

* Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights

References

External links

*
Marastyal helpline

Gulalai Ismail's TedX talk on combatting extremism
{Dead link, date=September 2024 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Women's rights organisations based in Pakistan Women's health organizations Women's rights in Pakistan Humanist associations Peace organizations