SURAYA PAKZAD

“HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS” Award

A life led with love, a love that could move, as only great loves can do. The ones which mix joy with sadness together, generosity with violence, altruism with fear, certain that the future in Afghanistan, is extremely uncertain, however her land survives although it has become a battle field. She is able to listen and talk like a mother; Suraya is a great mother with her children and she tries to mitigate the precarious daily life by spreading confidence. Walking with your own man, was the first heroic attempt and from here started the first challenge. This challenge was not meant to diminish an authority, daughter of an anachronistic condition, but to recover a natural instinct of equality. In her Afghanistan, harassed by conflicts, dreaming is almost impossible. Suraya in a decisive way started all step by step, in a land where the world powers are always in conflict and where the sand covers, but does not erase, materials, uniforms and religious extremism. She was very determined and so she deserved the world appreciation and she was seen by her compatriot as a step toward change, a change that is already bearing fruit. In 2008 she was celebrated with the Woman of Courage award but thanks to the Voice of Women Organization, that she led, she remembers every day that each conquest should be protected and spread. Suraya knows that she has become the target of threats from a sick and ferocious religiosity but she does not give in. She visited the shelters for women and children that she opened thanks to help of 250 collaborators. Physical and psychological assistance are offered to these people as a symbol that intolerance is becoming an individual matter. Suraya, the professor, Suraya the anti-Taliban, Suraya listened by the United Nations and Suraya, symbol of half of the sky of a land had to suffer that violence that she fought and is now fighting.

Honor to you, splendid she of a sweet and tormented land that you fight for the wounds of the soul of all the Afghan women.

Honor and Respect to you.

Text by Giovanni Melani