Sonita Alizadeh
Sonita Alizadeh (b. 1996) was born in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule. Her family fled to Iran, where they stayed as undocumented refugees. When she was ten, she faced a forced child marriage, but the arrangement fell through. At the age of 16, she was again told that she had to get married – her family needed the dowry so that her brother would be able to buy his own bride. In her native country, this is an all-too-common story. Almost 60% of all girls in Afghanistan are married before the age of 19, and the most common age for girls to get married is 15.
Sonita rebelled and refused to yield. She was finally given permission to finish her education in Iran, and that is where she discovered rap and hip hop. Eminem, in particular, became one of her biggest influences. The music really appealed to her, and she saw it as an opportunity to express her feelings and to bring out her message.
Living in Iran, she challenged the authorities, defying Iranian law that prohibited women from singing. She recorded songs about the challenges of being a refugee and a young woman, and about the Afghan war. One of her recordings – 'Daughters for Sale' – was uploaded to YouTube.
She could never have foreseen the video’s impact: within a few days, it went viral. It was played on TV in Afghanistan, but it also reached other parts of the world. In the United States, the non-profit organisation Strongheart noticed the video, and the group reached out to Sonita and facilitated her move to the United States, where she was given a full scholarship for Wasatch Academy in Utah. She later moved on to American University in Washington D.C. and Bard College in the state of New York.
Alizadeh is today a global activist performing everywhere, from the United Nations to the Clinton Foundation. In 2015, BBC listed her as one of its 100 women people should recognise. In 2016, a documentary based on her life premiered. Today, she is a passionate advocate for ending child marriage, and her message is reaching the highest levels of global leadership and civil society. Her aim is to study law, but she also wants to continue with her music and raise awareness about child marriage and other demeaning and destructive traditions. In Sonita’s words: “I think I will be a lawyer who can rap.”