Give 15 young people an alternative to extremism

This is the story of Nabila, who found an alternative to extremism with the help of Aware Girls.

Nabila lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Pakistan. When she was nine years old, her parents sent her to a madrassa. Nabila explains, "It is a place where mothers select small girls for their grown up boys." For five years, she was taught about extremism by mullahs under the influence of militants. 

She studied in a small room with 18 other girls, who were all forced by their parents to join the school. Her family told her, "the place for girls is within four walls."

Militants regularly threatened to blow up the madrassa if the mullahs did not teach extemist ideologies. Teachers and parents were scared to challenge the mullahs.

Every year, Nabila received marriage proposals from men three times her age. Her parents expected her to marry once her education at the madrassa was complete.

However, Nabila refused. She was 14 years old when she decided to leave home. Alone, she had to take on three jobs to survive. Nabila could only see a life of poverty and loneliness in front of her. 

Luckily, with the help of Aware Girls, she escaped this fate. Aware Girls leads intensive training sessions to empower young people to stand up for their rights and challenge messages of extremism. Nabila took part in Aware Girls’ training programme along with other young men and women. She learnt to speak for her rights and the right of other young people.

Nabila’s story could have turned tragic but thanks to our local partner her story was turned around. She was able to take her life into her own hands and decide her own future. Thank you for your support. But many others need help. Please donate to our project.

Here is the story of Sail Muhammad, a young man who has changed minds and prevented extremism in his community thanks to Aware Girls.

Sail is 19. He is a land surveyor in Swabi, Pakistan. Sail noticed that many youth in his village went to religious schools. He knew they were exploited by the Taliban and even received specialist militant training. Sail wanted them to lead positive lives, but didn’t know how to approach their very conservative mindset.

In early 2015, Sail found Aware Girls’ training course. He realised he could reach out to the youth and prevent more lives being lost to terrorism.

Sail began to talk to the youth using what he’d learned about peace, constitutional human rights and religious tolerance. At first, some were unwilling to listen.

“Some understood my message and others ignored. But, with the passage of time, I had more youth coming to join me in the peace talks. With a small group of 15 youth, I made an organisation, ‘We Can Bring Peace’.”

Sail recruited, Mufti Munir Ahmad, a progressive religious scholar, who educates boys from the training camps on the true meaning of Jihad and explains the Taliban’s misleading teachings. He also included the messages of peace in his Friday sermons.

Sail taught the young boys that all humans are equal and we have no right to kill on the grounds of ideological differences.

Thanks to his brave efforts, several boys have returned to their families with changed minds and six have even joined him. We Bring Peace now has 50 youth who mentor students and organise positive activities, such as cricket matches and coaching, to keep them engaged.

Sail has also used his new skills to establish constructive community initiatives to combat violence and extremism. Working with the Police, Sail has launched a Gun Control Campaign. Many people have stopped keeping guns and shots are no longer fired during public festivities. Sail also created a Peace and Human Rights Awareness Program, which has been taught at local high schools since September 2015.

“It has been 4 to 5 months since I attended Aware Girls’ training on peace and I have been able to bring a considerable change in my surroundings.”

Aware Girls are able to reach young people, showing them an alternative to extremism. Their training courses enable young people to spread the message of peace and so turn young minds away from extremism. Thank you for supporting this life-changing work.

Here is the story of Jahangir, a young woman who has been helped by Aware Girls.

Jahangir is a university graduate from Jamrud. Despite studying International Relations, while at university she and her friends did not engage in discussions about religion and held conservative views about women’s rights. Jahangir had heard about Gulalai Ismail of Aware Girls from her friends. However, their view of Gulalai was coloured by their misunderstanding of her mission; they believed her to preach negatively about Islam, while openly flouting Islamic beliefs.

Jahangir decided to join an Aware Girls training programme to form her own view about their work. She was amazed to see that Gulalai’s sessions were not for anti-Islamic preaching, but for advocating peace, human rights and respect for all religions. By the end of the course, Jahangir was so changed that she became an Aware Girls volunteer, countering extremism in her community.

Putting her training into practice, Jahangir is now dedicated to promoting women’s rights. She took her mother to cast her very first vote and is ensuring that her sisters are properly educated. Jahangir has now created an online page to promote peace by reaching other youth with her messages.

“Previously, I never liked to interact with the people of other religions, but now I respect them and I have many friends from different faiths. I consider every human being to be equal in every way.”

Jahangir shared her experience with her university friends who were negative about Gulalai and Aware Girls. Now they are also staunch supporters of the cause. Among them is Muhammad; Jahangir’s message encouraged him to question what he was being taught in his madrassa. One day he asked the teacher a question to which he did not have an answer. This helped Muhummad understand and support Jahangir instead of criticising her. He started a polio awareness campaign, which are opposed by the Taliban, and has ensured education, employment and equal rights within the home for women in his family.

Aware Girls are able to reach young people, showing them an alternative to extremism. Their training courses enable these young people to spread the message of peace and so turn many more young minds away from extremism and showing that war is not inevitable. By supporting our campaign, you can help. Thank you.