WCRAN Chairperson Zarqa Yaftali Receives Prestigious Zayed Award for Human Fraternity

16 Dalu 1404 (February 2026)

The Women and Children Research and Advocacy Network (WCRAN) joyfully and proudly congratulates Ms. Zarqa Yaftali, the Network’s Chairperson, on receiving the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity. This major international achievement not only reflects Ms. Yaftali’s merit, commitment, and tireless efforts in defending human dignity, women’s and children’s rights, peace‑building, and justice‑based advocacy—it also echoes the voice of millions of women and girls in Afghanistan who resist discrimination, deprivation, and violence and continue their struggle for basic human rights.

WCRAN expresses its deep gratitude to the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity Foundation and the esteemed panel of judges for this valuable, justice‑centered, and humane selection.

The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity is a clear symbol of humanity’s collective conscience and a shared global commitment to promoting lasting peace, tolerance, justice, peaceful coexistence, and respect for human dignity. By honoring peace‑seeking and humanitarian endeavors, the award brings fresh hope to victims of injustice and inspires human‑rights defenders around the world.

At the same time, WCRAN calls on the international community, the United Nations, human‑rights institutions, governments, and awakened consciences worldwide not to remain silent in the face of the catastrophic situation of women and girls in Afghanistan. We urge them to take practical, responsible actions to end gender apartheid and the systematic exclusion of women from social, educational, political, and economic life in Afghanistan.

Today, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban, women and girls in Afghanistan are not only deprived of the right to education, work, and social participation—their human dignity and most fundamental rights are being systematically stripped away. We ask the world to increase its support for the just, civil struggle of women in Afghanistan and to fulfill its moral and legal responsibility in confronting organized discrimination and structural violence against them.

WCRAN regards this honor not as an individual success, but as a collective achievement on the path of justice‑seeking and solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan. With renewed commitment, we will continue our struggle for justice, equality, education, and meaningful participation of women.