Sima Samar was
(born 3 February 1957) is a well-known woman’s and human rights advocate,
activist and a social worker within national and international forums, who served
as Minister
of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2003.
She is currently the Chairperson of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and, since 2005, United
Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan.
In 2011, she was part of the newly founded Justice party
Early life and education
Samar was born in Jaghori, in Ghazni Province of Afghanistan, on 3
February 1957. She belongs to the ethnic Hazara. She obtained her degree in medicine
in February 1982 Kabul University.
She practiced medicine at a government hospital in Kabul,
but after a few months was forced to flee for her safety to her native Jaghori,
where she provided medical treatment to patients throughout the remote areas of
central Afghanistan. She was an active member Hazara group under the leadership
of Baba ghts in Afghanistan; she is head of human rights commission in
Afghanistan. Baba Mazari was a remarkable supporter of Women Rights.
Career
In 1984, the communist
regime arrested her husband, and Samar and her young son fled
to neighboring Pakistan. She then
worked as a doctor at the refugee branch of the Mission Hospital. Distressed by
the total lack of health care facilities for refugee women, she
established in 1989 the Shuhada
Organization and Shuhada Clinic in Quetta, Pakistan. The
Shuhada Organization was dedicated to the provision of health care to Afghan
women and girls, training of medical staff and to education. In the following
years further branches of the clinic/hospital were opened throughout
Afghanistan.
Former U.S. Senator Hagel,
Afghan Hamid Karzai and
Sima Simar in January 2002.
After living
as refugee for over a decade, Samar returned to Afghanistan in 2002 to assume a
cabinet post in the Afghan Transitional Administration led by Hamid Karzai. In
the interim government, she served as Deputy President and then as Minister for
Women's Affairs. She was forced into resignation from her post after she was
threatened with death and harassed for questioning conservative Islamic laws,
especially sharia law, during an interview in Canada with a Persian-language newspaper. During the 2003 Loya Jirga, several religious
conservatives took out an advertisement in a local newspaper calling Samar the Salman Rushdie of Afghanistan.
She is
currently the head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
(AIHRC).She established Gawharshad Institute of Higher Education in 2010, which
has attracted more than 1200 students in a very short amount of its activities She
is one of the 4 main subjects in Sally
Armstrong's 2004 documentary Daughters of Afghanistan. In the
documentary, Sima Samar's work as the Minister
of Women's Affairs and her subsequent fall from power is shown.
Dr. Samar
publicly refuses to accept that women must be kept in purdah (secluded from the
public) and speaks out against the practice of wearing the burqa (head-to-foot
wrap), which was enforced first by the fundamentalist mujahideen and
then by the Taliban. She also has drawn attention to the fact that many women
in Afghanistan suffer from osteomalacia, a softening of the bones, due
to an inadequate diet. Wearing the burqa reduces exposure to sunlight and
aggravates the situation for women suffering from osteomalacia she became a
member of the Truth
and Justice party which was formed in 2011.U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Crocker
meet with Sima Samar inside the American Embassy in Kabul.
Awards
Dr. Sima
Samar has received numerous international awards for her work on human
rights and democracy, including:
- 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership;
- 1995 Global Leader for Tomorrow from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland;
- The 1998 100 Heroines Award in the United States;
- The Paul Gruninger Human Rights Award, Paul Gruninger Foundation, Switzerland March 2001;
- The Voices of Courage Award, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, New York, June 2001;
- The John Humphrey Freedom Award, Rights & Democracy, Canada 2001
- Ms. Magazine, Women of the Year on behalf of Afghan Women, USA December 2001
- Women of the Month, Toronto, Canada, December 2001;
- Best Social Worker Award, Mailo Trust Foundation, Quetta, Pakistan March 2001;
- International Human Rights Award, International Human Rights Law Group, Washington, DC April 2002;
- Freedom Award, Women’s Association for Freedom and Democracy, Barcelona July 2002;
- Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, New York October 2002;
- The Partita Huston Human Rights Award 2003;
- Profile in Courage Award 2004; and
- One of a Different View's 15 Champions of World Democracy in January 2008
- Peace Prize of the City of Ieper (Ypres) Belgium, 2008
- Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award, December 2008
- Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, 2009
- Right Livelihood Award, 2012
- Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice in November 2012
- Honorary Doctorate from Salem State University in May 2013
- 2013 Allard Prize for International Integrity, Finalist award of CDN$25,000
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