Gulalai Ismail

Gulalai Ismail (ګلالۍ اسماعیل; ; born 30 October 1986) is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

She is the chairperson of Aware Girls, a global ambassador for Humanists International, and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).

She speaks on the subject of promoting peace and women's empowerment at conferences internationally, and is the recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award, the Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award.

In 2002, when she was a 16-year-old first-year pre-medical student at Frontier College for Women, Peshawar, she founded the non-governmental organization Aware Girls with her 15-year-old sister Saba Ismail, aiming to challenge the culture of violence and the oppression of women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Ismail aimed to bring peace activists together in order to discuss ways to promote peaceful resistance to the Pakistani Taliban and encourage more women into politics, and investigate the psychological impact of terrorism on children and families.

Between 2009 and 2011, Ismail was on the Executive Committee of the Young Humanists International, and between 2010 and 2012 she was a Board Member of the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights.

She also works for the Gender Working Group of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY), and is a member of the Asian Democracy Network.

In addition to 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, encouraging the participation of women in politics in Pakistan, and encouraging tolerance between people of differing faiths.

Seeds of Peace was a response to what Ismail saw as the increased "Talibanisation" of young men and women vulnerable to militants in Swabi District and other Pashtun rural areas.

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."

In an interview in 2011, Ismail said: I set up Aware Girls when I was 16 because all around me, I saw girls being treated differently to boys.

My girl cousin was 15 when her marriage was arranged to someone twice her age; she couldn't finish her education while my boy cousins were [doing so].

This was considered normal.

Girls have internalised all this discrimination – a woman who suffers violence but doesn't say anything is much admired in the village as a role model.

A good woman submits to her husband or father.

Aware Girls raised awareness of equal status.

We did training that women have human rights and taught leadership skills and how to negotiate with their families and with their parents to get an education and to have control over their own lives.

Ismail's organisation widened its scope to include education on topics such as access to HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment, access to safe abortions, and she continues to speak at international conferences to promote awareness of peace-building, tolerance and women's rights.

Both Gulalai and her sister Saba Ismail have also acted as advisers on peace and women's rights to the United Nations and US governmental departments.

She graduated from Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad in 2012 with a Master of Philosophy degree in biotechnology.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban at the age of 15 in 2012 because of her activism for female education, was an attendee of Aware Girls in 2011.

In 2013, Ismail set up the Marastyal Helpline to give advice and assistance to women at risk from, and victims of, gender-based violence.

The service gives advice on legal and medical aid as well as emergency ambulance information and emotional counseling and operates from Peshawar.

Ismail criticised the British government's prevent strategy, saying it could lead to alienation of Muslims and could turn vulnerable individuals towards extremism.

Ismail also spoke out against the laws of blasphemy in Pakistan and the effect this had on progressive speech, secular activism, and the safety of secular activists.

She said: "I am convinced that without a secular democracy, we will not achieve peace in Pakistan."

On 16 May 2014, four armed gunmen attempted to force their way into her family home in Peshawar, shouting for Ismail who was luckily not home at the time; she had been delayed at the airport because she had lost her luggage after a flight.

The gunmen were making threats and started shooting guns into the air when her father refused to open the door.

"I thought that sooner or later I’d be attacked, but I never thought it would happen to my family," Gulalai Ismail said.

She did not know if the gunmen were Taliban, Pakistan's security services, or criminals trying to kidnap her for ransom.

“We cannot trust anyone,” she added.

In an interview with the BBC, she said: I am aware that the security risks are high.

Ismail was a board member of Humanists International from 2017 until 2021 and now serves as its global ambassador.

Aware Girls have been forced to organise their community meetings by invitation only, in hotel rooms protected by armed guards, where they know the owners and staff.

Its delegates suspect they are being monitored by Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Ismail has been threatened and forced to flee her home in the past because of her activism.

In 2019, Ismail fled Pakistan and took refuge in the United States after fearing for her life for speaking out against sexual assaults and disappearances allegedly carried out by the Pakistani military.

In March 2021, she became a global ambassador for Humanists International.

Ismail was born to a Pashtun family in Swabi and from the age of nine was brought up in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The daughter of teacher and human rights activist Muhammad Ismail, she was educated from a young age about gender discrimination and women's rights.