2003 award
Winner: Dr. Sima Samar
When: Wednesday, June 11th, 2003
Where: Institute for International Economics, Washington DC
AWARD CEREMONY PHOTOS
Dr. Sima Samar being presented the first annual PHHRA award by one of Perdita's grandchild, Eliza Paynel.
The first award ceremony on June 11th 2003, was a great success and very well attended.
Dr. Sima Samar accompanied by Gloria Steinem and Perdita's children; Pierre-Marc Diennet, Françoise Champey-Pommier and Jeanne-Marie Paynel.
Nancy Birdsall welcoming guests at the Institute for International Economics.
Page Wilson a long time friend and mentor of Perdita presented the award on behalf of the UNA-NCA.
Gloria Steinem accompanied by Ellie Smeal from the Ms. Foundation gave remarks and information on Afghanistan.
Dr. Sima Samar meeting with guests at the reception honoring her as the first recipient of the PHHRA award.
TRANSCRIPT
- Nancy Birdsall
- Pierre-Marc Diennet
- Excerpt of "AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED"
- Pierre-Marc Diennet
- Gloria Steinem
- Ellie Smeal
- Gloria Steinem
- Dr. Sima Samar
- Pierre-Marc Diennet
- Page Wilson
- Pierre-Marc Diennet
Nancy Birdsall
I am the president of the Center for Global Development and we are in a space that the CFGD shares with the Institute for International Economics. I need to thank the institute again for this great deal we have, where we have the opportunity in bringing people together who care about development issues in what is very a beautiful space. The CFGD is a center is concerned with developing country issues and in particular with how the rich world affects the poor world. Tonight, we are here to celebrate the awarding of the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award. What does human rights have to do with development and with Perdita Huston? I was thinking about it, and in thinking about it, I realized it took a very long time, much too long, for the official development community to recognize the importance of women to development. But there's been a lot of progress over the last two decades. It's taking too long for the development community to understand the relevance of the idea of human rights to development, and in particular the rights of women in the context of human rights, to development. That is why I am honored, and am proud to have the chance for the CFGD to give you this space for your event tonight. Because the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award is way to remind people around the world that there are all these champions following Perdita Huston, who are bringing together those issues of development, women, and human rights. And it is so critical to give those champions, around the world, many women, as many platforms as possible to create more visibility for what those three issues really mean for the lives of the poor. And that's what, for us, development is about and that's why I am very pleased to take this small role tonight, and then to turn it over to the real Pierre-Marc.
Pierre-Marc Diennet
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the inaugural Perdita Huston Human Rights Award Ceremony. On behalf of the award committee and on behalf of Perdita's family, let me thank you for joining us and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area in honoring Dr. Sima Samar for her dedication and committed work for women in Afghanistan. This award is meant both to commemorate Perdita Huston and also to continue her advocacy for the rights of women and for the evolution of gender rules for society as a whole. When looking back on Perdita's life, her friends and family were inspired to continue her committed life work. This inspiration was, I think, the best of all the many gifts that my mother left us when she died. When she was alive, Perdita was an inspiration to many simply by being who she was; an ambitious professional, woman, a single mother of three, a pioneering feminist, and a generous, kind-hearted person. She inspired a great deal of the young women she came in contact with in her professional life by being an example of the liberated woman; unbound by traditional gender rules and antiquated social conventions she showed how a woman could demand equal respect, equal power, and equal compensation in the professional world. She inspired many men, myself included, to unfetter themselves from conventional ideas of manhood and success, by illuminating the successes of fatherhood and the rewards of familial responsibility. She inspired many people including heads of state and government officials to change their policies concerning women's rights, reproductive health, prisoners of conscience, and ecology. Through her work with organizations like such as Amnesty International, the International Planned Parenthood organization, and the Peace Corps. Most of all, she inspired, through her writing, hundreds of people around the world, to share their stories that the greater understanding of global trends could influence public policy. There is no question that Perdita was an inspirational woman, and it is that inspiration that we have come together tonight to pass on to this year's award recipient. It was my great pleasure to be on the selection committee for this inaugural year. I had the honor of reviewing all of the 42 incredible nominations. I was awestruck at the number of beautiful people doing selfless, hard work to preserve and maintain human rights all over the world. From a Bangladesh lawyer fighting a corrupt system to stop human trafficking for the sex trade, to a Jordanian woman who first fought for women's suffrage in her country and then, herself, was elected to Parliament. From a farmer's daughter in Mali who went to France to become a doctor, came back to Mali and opened three clinics around her home town, to a tireless Iranian exile fighting for education of women in her own country. All of our nominees were outstanding individuals, which is why it is hard to believe that one individual stood out. But she did. To give you an idea of where Dr. Samar is doing a good deal of her work, and the kind of challenges she is facing, we would like to show you a quick except from a documentary entitled, "Afghanistan Unveiled". It was produced by IDA, a French NGO, who, in an attempt to train young women from Kabul in journalism, gave them digital video cameras and sent them out into the provinces to interview whomever they wanted. The selection we've chosen was shot in the Banyan region where Dr. Samar has been helping the helping the persecuted Hazaras. Incidentally, this is where the Taliban destroyed the ancient statue of Buddha, before they were defeated last year. Please roll the film.
Pierre-Marc Diennet
The full title of that documentary is, "Afghanistan Unveiled". It was produced by AINA (a French NGO) and The Asia Foundation. To introduce Dr. Samar, we will have a few remarks from Ms. Gloria Steinem whom I'm sure you all know, but I have to introduce you. She is the co-founder of "Ms. Magazine", "New York Magazine", the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the political action committee Voters for Choice. Please welcome Gloria Steinem.
Gloria Steinem
Hard to speak, isn't it, after seeing that ("Afghanistan Unveiled"). But we are here to honor two women who look at those realities and insist that we also bear witness and that we try to follow their example in being bridges. In being bridges of compassion and courage to human beings who, because they were born female, took on that especially clear view that comes from looking from the bottom where you can see everything. Perdita bridged countries and cultures and, as much as any one person can say they have invented any one concept, really was the source of the idea of looking at development as if women mattered. And she looked at families seriously, too, and understood they were the birthplace of democracy, but only if we have democratic families. I hope those of you who might not have read Perdita's work might take home the book that is on the table back there. And she was also as all of us, (how many of us in this room, actually know Perdita? See, she's with now as you raise your hands.) We, who knew her, want to say to the rest of you who might not have known her, that she was a person of grace and kindness and charisma, and a person in whose presence we all expanded like flowers. I knew her for more than thirty years but I would say that I regret only that I wasn't in her presence more. Thanks to her family, especially, and to the friends who have put together this very first award in her name. I want you to be assured that the process of choosing and soliciting nominations also reflected this spirit. Karen Mulhauser who is really the central force behind all this, gave me one of the letters from one of the people who did not win, so that I could read this to you and you would know the spirit of the selection process and really that it has changed many, many lives who were part of the process. She's from the Partnership Assistance Treatment Hope, a women's human rights and development organization creating real opportunities for women worldwide, doing work that bridges California and Africa, says "I am writing to thank you very and the entire Perdita Huston Award selection committee for your hard work in promoting Perdita Huston's commitment to rural women. I am very honored to be a nominee, and will cherish this nomination for the rest of my life. This nomination has energized me to work harder in advocating for the rights of women worldwide. Here is a small handicraft made by some of the rural women that I work with in Africa. Signed, Margaret Gallabey." So we have this. And this story is multiplied many, many times over. We wish that we could share them all with you.
Thanks to her spirit, we are here to honor Sima Samar, a sister from around the globe who also bridges countries and cultures and who has the special task of bringing the realities of women suffering the most inequality to those of us who however much we still suffer, are experiencing very much less. It's painful to be this kind of bridge. It's full of stress and frustration, and literal danger, the kind that requires body guards and involves physical threats. Dr. Samar has been doing this work for a very long time. Even if you count only from 1989, when she founded the Shuhada Organization and this also you will take home because you can read much more about it.it's the oldest Afghan NGO (Gloria shows a pamphlet about Shuhada), and the largest woman-led NGO. It runs 55 schools and the difficulty in running those schools can be gauged in many many ways, but perhaps you've seen in the press in recent weeks, 11 schools for girls have been set fire or otherwise destroyed. So you can begin to understand how difficult it is, in addition to all the economic and physical deprivation, to run 55 schools, 4 hospitals, and 12 clinics. Also, I wanted to tell you that you can benefit Shuhada by buying the beautiful handicrafts on the table in the back, and 100% of the money from those handicrafts will go to benefit this organization and all of its work. She's the former Minister of Women's Affairs and played a very crucial role in creating the interim government of Afghanistan, and is now, as you know, the chair of the Human Rights Commission. I heard her truth-telling this afternoon on The Hill, trying to say there is not peace without justice, there is no democracy without security, and being very brave in coming here from Afghanistan to bring the news of the reality of what is going on there instead of the unreality that this administration would like to point to as an example of how good It has been there, and therefore how good it will be in Iraq. It is not easy to tell these truths, and I think those of us who are responsible for this administration in one way or another (laughter), have a duty to tell the truth to that power and, I know that there was a lobbying effort going on this afternoon that it is our duty to speak about, not Sima's. So, Ellie would you mind? I don't think that Perdita would approve of any meeting at which there was no organizing. So that we don't place the burden of saying this on Sima, because this is our problem as US citizens. I'd like to ask Ellie Smiel, of the Feminist Majority Foundation to tell us about the lobbying efforts.
Ellie Smeal
Thank you, Gloria. We're trying to get funded, an authorization bill that was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, for Afghanistan. It's a bill that would dramatically increase the reconstruction and the peace keeping and the maintenance and the support of the government. This bill has earmarks for the Ministry for Women. (It would give them $60 million dollars for the ministry over four years. It would also provide 20 million over four years for the Human Rights Commission which Dr. Samar is heading, and it also has earmarks for hospitals and education facilities. It is desperately needed. The president signed it with a lot of photos and said they were going to do this, but, to this day, it is not appropriated. It is a two step process, you've got to get both the authorization (and it passed overwhelmingly by everybody in both houses, it was overwhelming) but it is now trapped, with no appropriations. We are lobbying to get it appropriated, please help. We will be sending out alerts. We cannot desert the people of Afghanistan, or Dr. Samar. They desperately need this money, and right now it is not there, and conditions are very bad, indeed. Thank you.
Gloria Steinem
Thank you, it's so important that we know that what was announced in the press is not real in real life, and that we are responsible for building that bridge. I want you to hear Sima because she is here only for the day, right? and she has to go back again, tomorrow, but I want to tell you that in the midst of bad times, and difficult times, there is also good news, and that is that many, many, many girl babies in Afghanistan are named, "Sima Samar". And imagine, because they will have to hear the story and understand their names, and understand the courage and so no matter how difficult it is, her spirit is being multiplied many many, many times. I was looking for something to read that kind of reflected both Perdita's spirit and Sima's spirit. Fortunately, someone sent me a wonderful quote I had never read before, from Lorraine Hansbury, who if times were better would be with us, too, right now, today. I think this so describes you both, she's speaking of herself. "I am a fool who believes that death is waste, and love is sweet, and that the earth turns, and that we change every day, and that rivers run, and that people want to be better than they are, and the flowers smell good, and that I hurt terribly today, and that hurt is desperation, and desperation is energy, and energy can move things".
I bring you Dr. Sima Samar
(Applause)
Dr. Sima Samar
Thank you for the honor of receiving the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award. It is a pleasure to be here tonight among the people who are committed to the rights of women and women's empowerment in countries such as Afghanistan.
I would like to take this opportunity to speak about the current situation in my country and what is happening with women's rights. Afghanistan is at a critical juncture. It has been a year and a half since the Taliban fell and since an interim administration was appointed to restore peace and democracy. It has been 12 months since the Emergency Loya Jirga was held, which elected a president of the country and began the next stage of the transitional government. The coming months will be even more crucial for the country's long term economic and political development and for the future of human rights and women's rights. This October, another Loya Jirga will assemble to approve a Constitution. Afghanistan's elections - which we ho9pe to be the most democratic ones in over two decades - will be held next year at this time.
We have begun to experience some peace in the country but progress is very slow, and there still are many obstacles to forward movement. The economic situation in the country is very bad. Despite all the promises there has been very little reconstruction or development. There are now 1400 NGOs working in the country, but reconstruction is hardly visible at all.
People are really beginning to lose hope because there is so little rebuilding going on. In West Kabul, for example, the majority of the buildings in the area are bombed out, shattered, and have bullet holes. Not much has been done to improve the area since the civil war destroyed it in the early 1990s. Other than shopkeepers trying to repair their own stores located amount this devastation, there are no reconstruction projects. Instead, people are living among the ruins without sanitation and electricity because they have nowhere else to go. How can people keep any hope when they live in an area that still looks like a war zone?
In Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan, the Taliban destroyed nearly all of the houses and market because it is a Hazara area. We have to build houses because people are living in the caves. But this program, which is run by my NGO, is one of the few construction projects in the area.
There have been some improvements in the overall situation for human rights and women's rights, but there is still a long way to go. With the removal of the Taliban's restrictions and the beginnings of a new government, women's lives are better. They can go outside. No one beating them. There is no law to wear the burqa. Girls are in school, and some women have jobs.
The country's first Ministry of Women's Affairs has been established. It took months and a lot of pressure before we were even able to obtain adequate buildings for the Ministry. But now the Ministry is running some programs, and women's centers have opened across the country.
Women are becoming more active and are coming together. Since March 8 of last year, when hundreds of women participated in the first celebration of International Women's Day in over a decade, there have been constant meetings, conferences, and workshops of women activists. The two hundred women delegates in the Loya Jirga in June were the most vocal participants peaking against warlords and for health care and education. A woman ran for president, and I was elected as Vice Chair of the Loya Jirga. We hope to have even more women in the upcoming Constitutional loya jirga and participation of women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections.
We have no established the Human Rights Commission. Again, it was another struggle before adequate offices were secured and it was not until this February that any of the promised funding was available. But, still the Commission has opened its regional offices in Bamiyan, Mazar-E-Sharif, Jalalabad, Heart, Gardez, Badakhshan, and Kandahar. Our work is in the five areas of human rights education, women's rights, children's rights, monitoring and investigation of human rights abuses and transitional justice.
With some peace in the country, the Shuhada Organization, my NGO, has been able to expand its programs. In the absence of any significant reconstruction activity by the government or others, the Shuhada Organization has been building and opening new schools and expanding existing ones ourselves. We now have more than 40,000 students in our 61 schools, and we have build other schools and given them to the government. We also have been building an orphanage in Jaghori and the houses in Bamiyan.
The Shuhada Organization operates 4 hospitals and 12 clinics. We hope to find funding to build a hospital in west Kabul, relocating our main hospital from Quetta, because women in West Kabul currently do not have access to a maternity hospital. We train health care workers because there is such a shortage and we are running programs for reproductive health and literacy that are making family planning information and birth control available.
Among the other programs that Shuhada operates is a shelter in Kabul for vulnerable women. We are now launching anew program to provide women's rights awareness training and legal services to women in Kabul and Central Afghanistan. And we run English and computer literacy course for women to give them the skills needed to find jobs with NGOs, the government and the UN so that they can contribute to reconstruction. We also run income generation programs for widows and other women who have no other way to earn a living.
The new gains for women in Afghanistan and the building of institutions and programs for women's right shave been the result of our very hard work in Afghanistan along with global solidarity.
However, these advances have come at a very steep price because opponents of women's rights remain a strong force in our country. There are still a lot of threats against anyone who speaks out for human rights and women's rights, including myself. The Taliban's decrees may be gone, but its legacy and that of other who seek to oppress women continues. The Taliban and other who oppose women's rights also appear to be asserting themselves even more in recent months.
Despite the threats, we have continued to stand up for ourselves, for women's rights, and for a peaceful democratic Afghanistan. Someone has to take the risk in our country if women and girls are to have freedom in the future.
I would like to mention several points about what I think is needed to improve the situation in Afghanistan.
First, one of the main reasons advances for women's rights in our country are so fragile and women's rights opponents till have such power is the lack of security. If there is no security, women's situation cannot get better. In some parts of the country, humanitarian aid cannot be delivered because of the bad security. Today we are again seeing some of the local authorities making restrictions on women. We really need help from the international community to support us and to send more peace troops to different parts of the country who can start disarming the political parties. Our government now has a plan for disarmament, but how will this be possible without the help of international peace troops? We need the presence of international peacekeeping troops throughout the country until a national army, police force, and judiciary system that people can trust can enforce one system of laws. We especially need an expansion of ISAF as we prepare to adopt a constitution and to hold elections.
Second, we need a lot more money for the reconstruction of the country, which was promised to us. We need resources if we really want to bring democracy and peace to the country and to give women and girls rights - at least the basic human rights such as access to education and health care. We need job opportunities for men so they will put down their kaliznokovs and for women who really do not have any way to earn a living to feed themselves and their children.
But the amount of aid that Afghanistan has receive is still very small compared with the need and with the promises. The world cannot expect Afghanistan to be rebuilt or stability to be sustained in this region of the world without substantial resources. If it is going to succeed, the central Afghan government needs financial resources to demonstrate that peace creates changes in the conditions of people's lives. Resources also must be distributed equally to regions and ethnic groups according to need, not political power.
Third, women's rights and human rights must be included in the Constitution for women to ever be treated as human beings in the judicial system or in family law. The Human Rights Commission has urged that the constitution be based on international standards of women's rights and human rights, women's equal rights and full citizenship, that compulsory education, and the age of marriage for girls be raised. We also believe that the Constitution must be implemented as the law of the land above local rules and traditions.
Fourth, I strongly believe that education is a main component of achieving peace, women's rights and human rights. Widespread illiteracy was one of the main reasons that ware in Afghanistan has been so violent and lasted so long.
Girls are allowed to go to school now, but there are not enough schools and facilities are horrible. The media shows thousands of girls going to school, but they do not show where they go and where they sit and what is the quality of the education. We must construct and repair schools across the country so that madrassas are no the only "educational" options for boys and so girls finally have a chance to learn. We must also promote public awareness to both women and men in women's rights and human rights so human rights abuses can be prevented and stopped. The best way to reach most of the people in the country is through radio because the majority of the people are illiterate. The Human Rights Commission is trying to raise funds for an independence t radio station that we can use to create public awareness.
Fifth, to bring about women's rights and human rights, we must also have justice. All factions bear some responsibility for the human rights abuses in the country over the past 23 years. Education, monitoring, and investigations are necessary to achieve human rights and women's rights in Afghanistan. The international community needs to play a role in transitional justice, bringing to justice human rights violators, and protecting members of the Human Rights Commission and all other who are working on human rights. We also cannot forget that many of the human rights violations were caused by people from outside our country, which is why the international community has an obligation to take some of the responsibility and assume some of the risk of holding violators accountable for their actions.
Finally, women's participation in public decision-making is a major concern that effects everything. If we speak about democracy and women's participation in Afghanistan, it should not be only symbolic; it should have some reality.
In conclusion, the support of the international community is needed for women's rights and human rights in Afghanistan as much now as ever before. Along with providing much more security and resources, the international community must create constant pressure for women's rights and human rights. Donor aid must be conditioned on the incorporation of women's and human rights. Donors also must press for the inclusion of women's right and human rights in the constitution, and for the participation of more women in all levels of the Afghan government.
In Afghanistan, the door to freedom for women has opened a crack, but it will take a tremendous amount of our work within the country and much global support before women and girls will be able to walk through this door. I hope that Afghanistan is not abandoned again.
I receive this prestigious award on behalf of millions of Afghan women, who lost everything on their life but waiting for peace in justice in Afghanistan.
Thank you for this important award, and I know we all share the hope for a future peace, justice, equality and non-violent culture in the world.
Pierre-Marc Diennet
Thank you Dr. Samar. It is our honor and our pleasure to bring you here and to give you this award. Thank you for your words. To give you the award officially, I would like to call on Page Wilson. Page was a friend and mentor for my mother for many, many years. From Perdita's first job, that started her on her way philosophically and politically at the Bicentennial Commission. She walked in pregnant, and she's going to tell you that story. Page is an accomplished advocate and a leader for social justice. One of her first jobs was working on Joe Kennedy's staff when he was ambassador in London. She filled her career working on the most pressing social issues that have formed progress in American society, whether it be women's rights, children, population, or the environment. Page has been at the forefront. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and more. She is currently working on her memoirs and is deeply committed to volunteerism and serves on several boards. Page is a long-time member of the UNA-NCA, and she is serving on the board in the capacity of chair of the task force on Sustainable Development. Please join me in welcoming Page Wilson.
(Applause)
Page Wilson
I want to say how tremendously fortunate we are to be here tonight and to have heard a few words from a woman with such a deep, deep commitment to human rights and the courage to fight for that cause under such dreadful circumstances. Just to think of it reanimates our own determination to see that the light that Perdita lived will continue to shine and to make us realize how absolutely imperative is to work for the delivery of human rights for one and all and, most important of all, to try to close the gap between the "have nots" of the world and the "have gots" of the world. This is a fundamental part of what we're talking about, I think, here.
It was my great good luck to have known Perdita for about thirty years. She first came to me when I was the liaison for international NGO's for the population crisis committee, where my personal crusade there was to try to make people understand that where there are more babies than their family can support are the ones that pay the dearest price, and the women who have more pregnancies than they want certainly pay a dreadful price. I don't remember who suggested that Perdita come by to see me, but it is easy for me to remember what year it was, because Perdita was very pregnant at the time. It turned out that the bonnie baby she had grew up to be our master of ceremonies, Pierre Diennet, and I maintain that after Robert Redford, Pierre is my favorite actor in the world. Anyway, Perdita and I talked about various things, I learned what she had done for women in Algeria, and the job she had had in Paris and how she was not planning to train women in their issues in the job she had with the American Revolutionary Bicentennial. She was much amused when I told her of my horror on reading the draft plan of action for the United Nations population conference. I was horrified because I discovered there was practically no mention of women in the entire dozens of pages of the draft plan of action on population, women had been utterly ignored. At that time, most of the people involved in population issues were demographers, practically all male. They honestly didn't realize that women bore babies. They really thought that the countries had babies. And of course we know that over the next fifteen or so years, Perdita traveled the world, mostly the third world, becoming in effect, the major advocate for women, with deep understanding and sympathy about them and for them, for their needs and hopes. Actually, she became known as the "voice of the voiceless". I imagine most of us here have read her works, if not, you really have something to look forward to. One of the qualities that I like especially about Perdita's attitude and her writing was that, she did not love people in a general, abstract way, instead her love and understanding was very concrete and certainly consistent. She certainly wasn't like Mrs. Jelaby in Dickens' Bleek House, show spent a lot of time concentrating on children in Africa, but she totally neglected her own children. It was always clear how much Perdita loved her children and her grandchildren (who, some of them you'll see in a few minutes). She really loved people and people loved her in return. My children and my grandchildren felt very close to her. My husband, Tom Wilson, particularly admired Perdita, not only for herself, but her work for a more human and equitable world. Their minds ran along the same grooves, and he, indeed, is one of the people to whom her last book, "Families as We Are", is dedicated. So tonight, we honor this wonderful human rights activist, Sima Samar, in the name of Perdita. Both of them really understand ( I talk about Perdita, as if she were still alive and of course her spirit is alive and will always be) the deep level of social change which must take place for the full empowerment of women and the far implications inherent in this change. Sima Samar does all she can to speed this happy day on its way. I'm going to ask Perdita's grandchildren who are here to join us now.
This is Gabriel and Elie Pommier, and Eliza Paynel. They are going to present the first ever: National Capital Area United Nations Association Perdita Huston Human Rights Award to our glorious recipient, Sima Samar.
(Applause)
Thank you.
Pierre-Marc Diennet
Thank you all for coming. Thank you Dr. Samar for accepting this award. I'd like to thank Karen Mulhauser, and Mullhauser Associates for being our Secretariat and dream, Thoraya Obaid, for being on the selection committee, Verago Designs, Buxton Media, the Feminist Majority, The UNA-NCA, the Center for Global Development, the Institute for International Economics, my sister Jenny Paynel and Francoise Pommier, Anna Ekindjian: our do-all, all of you for coming. Of course, the arts and crafts are on your way out. I hope you will join me in wishing Dr. Samar a safe journey home, I think it's and 18 hour flight. Thank you all for coming, good bye.
