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Adeena Niazi

fighting for Afghani women's rights in Kabul and Toronto

YWCA Toronto
women of distinction award 2004: global action for women's rights

Adeena Niazi is a determined and effective advocate for Afghani women both in Toronto and in Afghanistan. Adeena Niazi's work is, in fact, so comprehensive and unique that the Women of Distinction Selection Committee invented a new category for her excellence: Ms. Niazi is the first recipient in the category Global Action for Women's Rights.

Born and raised in Afghanistan, Adeena was a lecturer at Kabul University until she received a scholarship to study in India. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Adeena could not return home and became a refugee. Never forgetting her own experience, Adeena supported clandestine schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the rule of the Taliban, when education for girls was forbidden.

Ms. Niazi travelled to Canada in 1988 where she worked with the Afghan Association of Ontario assisting refugees and served as a board member until 1994. In 1990 - convinced that women's issues were not being addressed - Ms. Niazi founded the Afghan Women's Organization (AWO) in Toronto. Under her vision and leadership as Executive Director, AWO has created important opportunities for Afghan refugees by offering language training, settlement services, an employment program, and refugee sponsorship in Canada.

The organization has also played a vital role in advocating for the rights of women and children who continue to live in Afghanistan. Under treacherous conditions infamous around the world, Ms. Niazi has regularly travelled to Afghanistan regularly since 1997. Both in Kabul and in Peshawar, Pakistan her quiet defiance led the establishment of eight girls' schools and several women's income generation projects. She is also one of the founders of the Canadian Coalition in Support of Women in Afghanistan, which has recruited members from across the country, held successful awareness and lobbying campaigns, and met with government and UN officials.

As a respected opinion leader, Ms. Niazi has participated in policy consultations on human rights in Afghanistan held by the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as community consultations led by federal Ministers, leaders of political parties, and government officials.

In June 2002, Ms. Niazi was one of two Afghan Canadians elected to Afghanistan's Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly), to vote in the Transitional Government in Kabul. As the lone woman on the General Assembly, Ms. Niazi maintained her learned and devoted representation of the rights of women to live free of sexual violence and to undertake the same leadership and educational opportunities as proffered to men in a transitional Afghanistan.

No stranger to recognition, Ms. Niazi is a recipient of the Persons' Award, given by the Legal Education Action Fund and Women's Intercultural Network. She was also awarded the Vincent Kelly Award of the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. She has also received the New Pioneers Award, of Skills for Change. McLean's Magazine recognized her as one of the top ten Canadians in 2002. These awards recognised her contributions and community work - spanning more than a decade - and the countless volunteer hours she has worked for Afghan refugees.

Ms. Niazi has served on the boards of several advocacy groups and community organizations, including the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture, the Refugee Law Office and Women in Transition. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Council for Refugees.

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