Pakistan’s Jalila Haider Wins International Women Of Courage Award

(@fidahassanain)

Pakistan’s Jalila Haider wins International Women of Courage award

The US names Jalila Haider as “Iron Lady of Balochistan” for establishing a non-profit organization for the local community and to support the women in fight for their rights.

WASHINGTON: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-March 4th, 2020) Human Rights Activist and lawyer Jalila Haider has won the US International Women of Courage Award among 11 other women from across the world, the United States department announced here on Wednesday.

Announcing awards, the US named Jalila Haider as “Iron Lady” of Balochistan who established a non-profit organization to support the local communities by strengthening opportunities for vulnerable women and children in Balochistan.

“Jalila Haider fought against violence against women in public spaces,” the US said. She fought for women’s rights and provided free counseling and legal services to poverty-affected women. It also stated that she is the first female attorney of her Hazara community who led a peaceful hunger strike in fight for the right to life for Hazaras.

The awards recognizes women from around the globe who demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment at great personal risk.

Zarifa Ghafari from Afghanistan, Lucy Kocharyan from Armenia, Shahla Humbatova from Azerbaijan, Ximena Galarza from Bolivia, Claire Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso, Sayragul Sauytbay from China, Susanna Liew from Malaysia and Amaya Coppens from Nicaragua.

Jalila Haider is known human rights lawyer who is providing free legal services to women in poverty. Haider was nominated among the 100 most influential women of 2019 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) last year in October. She is also founder of “We the Humans”—a non-profit organization working for the local communities to provide opportunities for vulnerable women.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.