Nila Ibrahimi of Afghanistan wins Children’s Peace Prize

When Nila Ibrahimi started building a website that tells the stories of Afghan girls, it wasn’t just about giving them a voice.

The 17-year-old Afghan refugee was also keen to remind her fellow Gen Zs in her adopted country, Canada, that they were the same – even listening to Taylor Swift like other teenage girls around the world.

“I want to make them as real as possible so that other people, especially young people, Gen Z specifically, can put themselves in their shoes,” he told the BBC.

Nila spoke to the BBC earlier this week, before picking up the International Children’s Peace Prize previously won by the education campaigner. Malala Yousafzai and climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Nila’s, perhaps, is not an easy task. The plight of women and girls in Afghanistan can feel distant to young people living in Canada, where Nila found a home after fleeing her country as the Taliban took over three years ago.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have barred teenage girls from education, barring women from walking long distances without a male guardian, and now ordering them to keep their voices down in public – silencing half the population.

The Taliban have previously defended these decisions to the BBC by saying they are in line with religious scriptures.

“The difference [between Afghanistan and Canada] they are big, so it makes it difficult for them to feel connected,” Nila agreed.

That’s why she helped found HerStory – a place where she and others help share the stories of Afghan women and girls in their own words, both inside and outside the country.

“Many times we are so lost in the differences that we don’t see the similarities and that is our goal, to show that to the world.”

Nila Ibrahim was selected from 165 nominees as the 20th winner of the prestigious award.

The award recognizes not only the work done on HerStory, but also her passion for fighting for women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Nila’s first step towards women’s rights came in March 2021, when she joined other Afghan girls in sharing a video of herself singing online.

It was a small but powerful protest against the law of the then director of education in the Afghan capital, Kabul, who tried to ban more than 12 girls from singing in public. The order attempt was not executed.

“That’s when I understood the importance of playing, the importance of speaking and talking about these problems,” explained Nila, who was part of a group called Sound of Afghanistan.

But less than six months later, everything would change – and, at the age of 14, he would have to flee with his family as the Taliban arrived.

The family – part of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority – made the arduous journey to Pakistan, where they spent a year before being granted asylum in Canada.

It was, after 12 months without education, “a breath of fresh air”, she said.

There, Nila was reunited with her friends from the singing group.

She has also been invited to speak at events, about her experience in Afghanistan, which allows her to speak for all the remaining girls.

He says people were surprised by the way he spoke. But Nila knew there were millions of women and girls in Afghanistan who could do the same – even though they didn’t have as easy access to the opportunities she had.

“So I thought if my power can surprise these people and they don’t know how educated the girls in Afghanistan are, what if that knowledge was accessible to them?”

HerStory – a website that grew out of this idea – started in 2023. It includes interviews and first-person accounts from both refugees and women inside Afghanistan.

The idea is to create a safe space where a group of people who “grew up with stories of the early Taliban era and how horrible women’s lives were then” share their stories – and their “shock and anger” at finding themselves in the same situation.

Anger is a feeling that Nila tries to separate from her work.

“When you see Afghanistan going back 20 years, it scares you,” he said.

“It’s a feeling you share. It’s a shared feeling for girls everywhere.”

She says the award is an opportunity for Afghan girls to once again remind the world of the limitations they face every day – a reminder to “not forget Afghan girls”.

Marc Dullaert, founder of the KidsRights Foundation, which runs the award, said an “amazing” number of young women are currently excluded from education.

“Nila’s inspiring work to give them a voice that will be heard around the world makes her a truly deserving winner of this year’s 20th International Peace Prize,” he added.

It’s also a reminder that her generation – still young – can make a difference, Nila hopes.

“I think a lot of times when we talk about different problems and causes, we talk about it with an adult like oh, this is terrible,” he said.

“The world is a very scary place, but there is a Gen Z-like way… and we can take small steps and… do whatever we can.”