today my greatest hope is for peace but
for the first 16 years of my life like
many other young people from my
community I wanted to sacrifice my life
in the name of violent jihad to become a
martyr I have experienced what it takes
to make a young person want to be a
hardest and I have learned what it takes
to prevent radicalization since then I
have created a movement for peace
unleashing young people’s potential to
create flourishing and prosperous
communities we have saved lives of more
than 10,000 young people by preventing
them from being recruited in militant
jihadi groups today I want to share my
journey with you I was born in cevapi
it’s a small village in the northwest of
Pakistan a deeply remote area
traditional and religious at that time
Pakistan was a perfect incubator for
producing militant mindsets we learned
to hate life believing that this life is
short and the real life is afterlife and
the earlier you start the luckier we are
and all Muslims will go to heaven so I
felt very lucky being born in a Muslim
family our village was conservative and
discriminations were deeply rooted in
the culture the birth of boys was
cherished celebrated by firing guns into
the year and by sharing delicious food
while the birth of girls was a matter of
shame and sadness I was 11 when
following local culture my parents told
me I was no longer a kid I had to wear a
scarf I could no longer play outside
while most of my time was spent behind
the walls outside I saw recruitment
slogans for jihad chopped on the walls
of my village encouraging young people
to go and fight in Afghanistan and
Kashmir in Islam though jihad means
struggle but the political Islamists
have limited its meaning to violent
jihad to war and we were told that under
Muslim Brotherhood it is our
responsibility to help Muslims who are
suffering in other countries in other
parts of the world thousands of young
people went to fight
I saw families receiving dead bodies of
their loved ones killed and violent
jihad their deaths were cherished in the
village their families were considered
more holier than other families and
everyone believed that the whole family
will go to heaven guaranteed
and then jihad was the real part of life
that was open to both men and women it
was glamorous it was exciting and then I
saw it as a way of breaking through
those walls of shame but there was a
problem my father he didn’t believe in
war in any jihad he believed in peace I
was 8 when we had to flee our village
because my father was accused of being
an infidel and we fear worse to come one
day he heard us talking about religion
and ever zeal for jihad he realised his
own children had been indoctrinated and
when he realized this he started a
mission of his own a mission to reverse
the harm that has been done a mission to
plant seedlings of Hope and peace
while others found while other people in
our family and neighborhood were
investing their money in buying land
buying new cars and and building new
homes my father decided he will invest
his money in our better education and he
started that by teaching us about local
heroes people who had used their voice
not weapons to make their communities
better places people like bachi han who
just like Gandhi has used non-violence
to ask for independence from
colonization people like Nelson Mandela
to teach us about reconciliation he
taught us about non-violent heroism and
he started introducing us to ideas like
secularism liberalism and pluralism and
all that sounded so crazy then he
introduced us to people who had very
different ideas people who are free
thinkers activists politicians and it
was one of those meetings that changed
my life
one day my father took me to hear a
woman sharing story of her 13 year old
son her son used to go to a local
madrasa after school to learn Quran and
like any typical Madras on Pakistan he
was taught the importance of violent
jihad he was taught that God comes first
parents come later so he did not need
permission of his parents to go for
jihad one day he disappeared his mother
had no idea where the Sun has gone until
one day she received his dead body and a
congratulatory message congratulation
you are the mother of a martyr you will
go to heaven I had never seen someone as
dua stated as that mother her tears of
did me deeply her son story was my story
too
the only difference was opportunity he
had the opportunity to go and fight in
Jihad and thanks to my father
I had not that was the day I knew I
didn’t want to be that kid I didn’t want
to bitch hardest anymore I don’t I
didn’t want to kill I didn’t want to get
killed
I learned jihad brings pain not glory I
was 16 I was transforming from the girl
that had the dream to go for jihad to
the girl that wanted to prevent it from
the girl that wanting freed that wanted
freedom for herself to someone who
wanted freedom independence and
decision-making for all woman me and my
sister Saba we became determined to do
something which will change the fate of
girls in our communities we started
visiting schools and neighborhoods and
started listening to girls about issues
which bothered them about things they
would like to change in their life and
we started giving them ideas on how to
make those changes and we called every
campaign aware girls I campaign which
will help girls to make them speak up
for their own rights by then my parents
were very proud of their children and at
the end of my first semester in
university he sent me to a two months
residential leadership course for young
people for the very first time I was on
my own with men and women with people
from different religions and ethnicities
yes we learnt hope peace and human
rights but most importantly we lived it
for two months and that was
transformative and I realized I can be
bold I can stand up
against my greatest fears it’s changed
my life
then in 2007 security situation in
Pakistan started getting worse savate
Valley was occupied by Taliban and the
news of suicide bomb attacks was common
my City Peshawar which was known as city
of flowers became the city of suicide
bomb attacks most of them done by young
people seeing young people killing and
being killed was heartbreaking for me I
felt so close to them I felt so close to
them I could relate to them because I
had been there I couldn’t close my eyes
it was my calling my calling to counter
radicalization my calling to prevent
young people from being recruited in
militant organizations and to give them
hope so that they can unleash their
potential to build peaceful and
prosperous communities so we formed a
youth Peace Network to stop more young
people from being sent to their deaths
in the name of religion while terrorist
organizations were recruiting people for
terrorist activities
I started recruiting young people for
peace building we started with a group
of 30 young people and we draw drawing
on our very own experiences we
identified five key factors which pull
young people’s towards militancy and
extremism let me take you through those
five elements number one militants
promote one uniform world we’ve and
reject all others as haram as wrong we
bring young people of different faiths
and ethnicities
is to gather and give them the
opportunity to know each other and to
celebrate the beauty of it to lift the
beauty of it number two they cut off
young people from their indigenous
identities making them vulnerable we
reconnect them and we help them
celebrate their indigenous history and
their indigenous culture number three
militants make young people feel worthy
worthy and valuable through Jihad we
make them feel celebrated too once young
people start making difference in the
lives of other young people in their
community they start realizing they are
valuable they are worthy number four
jihadists offer only one kind of hero
the martyr and offer only one kind of
glory the glory of war my mentors taught
me non violent heroism we support young
people to become heroes in their own
lives by rebuilding their communities by
saving lives by bringing prosperity by
bringing peace in their communities we
help them see glory and heroism in goals
higher than jihad number five we have
learned that it is very important to
engage young people individually while
the political and social circumstances
may might make them vulnerable to
extremism and recruitment but their
particular story their particular
trigger to radicalization is personal so
we get to know each individual
relationships are key young people
inspire other young people they become
heroes and role model for each other
when we started our work no one believed
we could bring any change but now we
have grown from that group of thirty
young people we are now more than 500
peer educator
who are reaching out to more than 3000
young people every year we have impacted
the lives of more than 10,000 young
people at the risk of radicalization
changing their lives and saving lives of
many countless more it is a powerful
strategy it works twenty years ago we
left our village
when my father was accused of being an
infidel three years back I went back to
work there with young people ahmud who
was 14 years old came to thank us for
saving his life he used to go to a local
madrasa where one of his teacher
inspired him to go for jihad but then he
met one of our peer educators and he
started and he started to ask himself
questions if going to jihad is so
important and duty of every Muslim then
why not children of these jihadi
teachers and Imams go to jihad he
decided not to go there is still so much
work to do in Pakistan and in other
parts of the world so many places in the
world are fertile grounds for
radicalization radicalization does not
happen in vacuum radicalization happens
when political circumstances and
individual circumstances collide with
opportunities extremist violence knows
no borders the militant groups and
militants attacks that we had seen for a
long time happening in my home in my
home region are now happening in many
parts of the world but I believe that if
every young person is presented with the
kind of opportunities I was presented
with that our network offers then like
me
they can make different choices we need
to tear down the walls in our minds and
offer a new and more hopeful vision
where everyone is valued and everyone is
able to contribute and even a more
powerful movement a movement for peace
this is the hope I want to share with
you this strategy is working in Pakistan
and I believe it can work everywhere in
the world thank you
you
for the first 16 years of my life like
many other young people from my
community I wanted to sacrifice my life
in the name of violent jihad to become a
martyr I have experienced what it takes
to make a young person want to be a
hardest and I have learned what it takes
to prevent radicalization since then I
have created a movement for peace
unleashing young people’s potential to
create flourishing and prosperous
communities we have saved lives of more
than 10,000 young people by preventing
them from being recruited in militant
jihadi groups today I want to share my
journey with you I was born in cevapi
it’s a small village in the northwest of
Pakistan a deeply remote area
traditional and religious at that time
Pakistan was a perfect incubator for
producing militant mindsets we learned
to hate life believing that this life is
short and the real life is afterlife and
the earlier you start the luckier we are
and all Muslims will go to heaven so I
felt very lucky being born in a Muslim
family our village was conservative and
discriminations were deeply rooted in
the culture the birth of boys was
cherished celebrated by firing guns into
the year and by sharing delicious food
while the birth of girls was a matter of
shame and sadness I was 11 when
following local culture my parents told
me I was no longer a kid I had to wear a
scarf I could no longer play outside
while most of my time was spent behind
the walls outside I saw recruitment
slogans for jihad chopped on the walls
of my village encouraging young people
to go and fight in Afghanistan and
Kashmir in Islam though jihad means
struggle but the political Islamists
have limited its meaning to violent
jihad to war and we were told that under
Muslim Brotherhood it is our
responsibility to help Muslims who are
suffering in other countries in other
parts of the world thousands of young
people went to fight
I saw families receiving dead bodies of
their loved ones killed and violent
jihad their deaths were cherished in the
village their families were considered
more holier than other families and
everyone believed that the whole family
will go to heaven guaranteed
and then jihad was the real part of life
that was open to both men and women it
was glamorous it was exciting and then I
saw it as a way of breaking through
those walls of shame but there was a
problem my father he didn’t believe in
war in any jihad he believed in peace I
was 8 when we had to flee our village
because my father was accused of being
an infidel and we fear worse to come one
day he heard us talking about religion
and ever zeal for jihad he realised his
own children had been indoctrinated and
when he realized this he started a
mission of his own a mission to reverse
the harm that has been done a mission to
plant seedlings of Hope and peace
while others found while other people in
our family and neighborhood were
investing their money in buying land
buying new cars and and building new
homes my father decided he will invest
his money in our better education and he
started that by teaching us about local
heroes people who had used their voice
not weapons to make their communities
better places people like bachi han who
just like Gandhi has used non-violence
to ask for independence from
colonization people like Nelson Mandela
to teach us about reconciliation he
taught us about non-violent heroism and
he started introducing us to ideas like
secularism liberalism and pluralism and
all that sounded so crazy then he
introduced us to people who had very
different ideas people who are free
thinkers activists politicians and it
was one of those meetings that changed
my life
one day my father took me to hear a
woman sharing story of her 13 year old
son her son used to go to a local
madrasa after school to learn Quran and
like any typical Madras on Pakistan he
was taught the importance of violent
jihad he was taught that God comes first
parents come later so he did not need
permission of his parents to go for
jihad one day he disappeared his mother
had no idea where the Sun has gone until
one day she received his dead body and a
congratulatory message congratulation
you are the mother of a martyr you will
go to heaven I had never seen someone as
dua stated as that mother her tears of
did me deeply her son story was my story
too
the only difference was opportunity he
had the opportunity to go and fight in
Jihad and thanks to my father
I had not that was the day I knew I
didn’t want to be that kid I didn’t want
to bitch hardest anymore I don’t I
didn’t want to kill I didn’t want to get
killed
I learned jihad brings pain not glory I
was 16 I was transforming from the girl
that had the dream to go for jihad to
the girl that wanted to prevent it from
the girl that wanting freed that wanted
freedom for herself to someone who
wanted freedom independence and
decision-making for all woman me and my
sister Saba we became determined to do
something which will change the fate of
girls in our communities we started
visiting schools and neighborhoods and
started listening to girls about issues
which bothered them about things they
would like to change in their life and
we started giving them ideas on how to
make those changes and we called every
campaign aware girls I campaign which
will help girls to make them speak up
for their own rights by then my parents
were very proud of their children and at
the end of my first semester in
university he sent me to a two months
residential leadership course for young
people for the very first time I was on
my own with men and women with people
from different religions and ethnicities
yes we learnt hope peace and human
rights but most importantly we lived it
for two months and that was
transformative and I realized I can be
bold I can stand up
against my greatest fears it’s changed
my life
then in 2007 security situation in
Pakistan started getting worse savate
Valley was occupied by Taliban and the
news of suicide bomb attacks was common
my City Peshawar which was known as city
of flowers became the city of suicide
bomb attacks most of them done by young
people seeing young people killing and
being killed was heartbreaking for me I
felt so close to them I felt so close to
them I could relate to them because I
had been there I couldn’t close my eyes
it was my calling my calling to counter
radicalization my calling to prevent
young people from being recruited in
militant organizations and to give them
hope so that they can unleash their
potential to build peaceful and
prosperous communities so we formed a
youth Peace Network to stop more young
people from being sent to their deaths
in the name of religion while terrorist
organizations were recruiting people for
terrorist activities
I started recruiting young people for
peace building we started with a group
of 30 young people and we draw drawing
on our very own experiences we
identified five key factors which pull
young people’s towards militancy and
extremism let me take you through those
five elements number one militants
promote one uniform world we’ve and
reject all others as haram as wrong we
bring young people of different faiths
and ethnicities
is to gather and give them the
opportunity to know each other and to
celebrate the beauty of it to lift the
beauty of it number two they cut off
young people from their indigenous
identities making them vulnerable we
reconnect them and we help them
celebrate their indigenous history and
their indigenous culture number three
militants make young people feel worthy
worthy and valuable through Jihad we
make them feel celebrated too once young
people start making difference in the
lives of other young people in their
community they start realizing they are
valuable they are worthy number four
jihadists offer only one kind of hero
the martyr and offer only one kind of
glory the glory of war my mentors taught
me non violent heroism we support young
people to become heroes in their own
lives by rebuilding their communities by
saving lives by bringing prosperity by
bringing peace in their communities we
help them see glory and heroism in goals
higher than jihad number five we have
learned that it is very important to
engage young people individually while
the political and social circumstances
may might make them vulnerable to
extremism and recruitment but their
particular story their particular
trigger to radicalization is personal so
we get to know each individual
relationships are key young people
inspire other young people they become
heroes and role model for each other
when we started our work no one believed
we could bring any change but now we
have grown from that group of thirty
young people we are now more than 500
peer educator
who are reaching out to more than 3000
young people every year we have impacted
the lives of more than 10,000 young
people at the risk of radicalization
changing their lives and saving lives of
many countless more it is a powerful
strategy it works twenty years ago we
left our village
when my father was accused of being an
infidel three years back I went back to
work there with young people ahmud who
was 14 years old came to thank us for
saving his life he used to go to a local
madrasa where one of his teacher
inspired him to go for jihad but then he
met one of our peer educators and he
started and he started to ask himself
questions if going to jihad is so
important and duty of every Muslim then
why not children of these jihadi
teachers and Imams go to jihad he
decided not to go there is still so much
work to do in Pakistan and in other
parts of the world so many places in the
world are fertile grounds for
radicalization radicalization does not
happen in vacuum radicalization happens
when political circumstances and
individual circumstances collide with
opportunities extremist violence knows
no borders the militant groups and
militants attacks that we had seen for a
long time happening in my home in my
home region are now happening in many
parts of the world but I believe that if
every young person is presented with the
kind of opportunities I was presented
with that our network offers then like
me
they can make different choices we need
to tear down the walls in our minds and
offer a new and more hopeful vision
where everyone is valued and everyone is
able to contribute and even a more
powerful movement a movement for peace
this is the hope I want to share with
you this strategy is working in Pakistan
and I believe it can work everywhere in
the world thank you
you
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