Background
Ismail was brought up in Peshawar, the daughter of a human rights activist.
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Gulalai Ismail
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Career
She established the organisation Aware Girls in 2002, aiming to challenge the culture of violence and the oppression of women in the rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area in the north west of Pakistan. In an interview in 2011, she said:
As well as Aware Girls, which she continues to chair, Ismail set up the Seeds of Peace network in 2010, training young people in human rights and political leadership and encouraging the participation of women in politics in Pakistan. She studied biotechnology at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, graduating in 2012.
Achievements
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She won the 2009 YouthActionNet Fellowship, and the 2013 Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy. And was acknowledged as one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 by Foreign Policy magazine. In August 2014 she was awarded the International Humanist of the Year Award by the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the World Humanist Congress in Oxford, England. She received 215 Common Wealth Youth Award for Excellence in Development, under the theme of Democracy and Human Rights.
Politics
According to the World Humanist Congress, "her work is characterised by promoting peace and pluralism. Challenging religious extremism and militancy. Promoting good governance in areas stricken by militancy, providing civic education to young people.
Strengthening democracy. And political mainstreaming of young women.".
Membership
Between 2010 and 2012 she was a Board Member of the Women's Global Network on Reproductive Rights, and between 2009 and 2011 was on the Executive Committee of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization.
