The Victorian Afghan Associations Network is hosting an Awards Night in recognition of young girls’ achievements in the community.
The event on Monday 8 December features internationally recognised human rights advocate, activist and Afghanistan’s first Minister for Women’s Affairs Dr Sima Samar, as well as MPs, women and young girls in the Greater Dandenong and surrounding areas.
VAAN president, Hafiz Asadi said the awards night is part of their settlement project, inspiring new arrivals, girls and women to contribute positively to the community.
“Our main focus is to provide support to Afghan new arrivals in the area of the South East.
“We award the role models, those who have great achievement and impact in our Afghan communities, to encourage the new arrivals.
“We try to invite women, especially young women, to participate, be active and involve in the community.”
Up to 75 nominations were submitted for the awards, in the fields of community engagement, sports, health and wellbeing, educations, arts, media, business and entrepreneurship.
In 2023, VAAN hosted a similar event to recognise Afghan girls in sports.
Six award winners were chosen and will be awarded in Dr Samar’s presence.
A Hazara doctor, Ms Samar is known to be a doctor for the poor and for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She established the Shuhada Organisation in 1989 with a mission to provide quality healthcare, education and women economic empowerment sectors.
The network operates four hospitals, 12 health clinics, and more than 50 schools for boys and girls in Afghanistan as well as four schools in Pakistan serving Afghan refugees.
Dr Samar returned to Afghanistan after the fall of Taliban in 2001 to help rebuild her country, serving as Vice-President of the Interim Administration and became the country’s first Minister of Women’s Affairs.
Despite setbacks and challenges because of her views on women empowerment, she continued to establish and lead the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), serving as its Chairperson from 2002 to 2019.
From 2005 to 2009, she served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, joined the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement as deputy chair, and the Advisory Board on Mediation.
She now lives in exile in the United States continuing her work from afar, founding the Afghanistan Human Rights Centre – an NGO in the US – to conduct human rights education and document human rights abuses in Afghanistan.
Her memoir Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan, written with Canadian journalist Sally Armstrong, was released in 2024.
Her relentless dedication has earned her numerous awards namely the Right Livelihood Award, which is an alternative Nobel Prize award, as well as being appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award and many more.
