WASHINGTON, DC, November 29, 2024 – Afghan educator, humanitarian and women’s rights champion Shabana Basij-Rasikh received the 2024 OXI Courage Award at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on October 30.  Presenting the award to Basij-Rasikh was 2016 OXI Courage Award and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad. 

To see the video of this presentation and Basij-Rasikh acceptance, click here. 

To see photos from the OXI Courage Awards, click here.  

In her introduction of Basij-Rasikh, Danialle Karmanos noted: 

“OXI is not just about facing danger. It’s also about the stillness before the storm. The moments of defiance and determination when faith, the size of a mustard seed, is the only chance of moving a mountain. It’s the courage to keep putting one foot in front of the other when the entire world feels suffocating and every possibility feels both impossible and paralyzing. It’s finding your voice when words cannot be found. Shabana is the embodiment of that kind of courage, that kind of OXI.  
 
The courage to walk through the door toward a better future is why we are here tonight. That is OXI. Shabana believes true courage isn’t always about being the loudest voice. Sometimes it’s simply about persistence in the face of uncertainty. But her ‘OXI’ isn’t just about physical bravery, it’s about defying the limitations placed on her by society and daring to dream about a different world, not just for herself, but for generations of Afghan girls, a world of educators and change makers and thought leaders.” 

 

In her acceptance remarks, Shabana Basij-Rasikh said: 
 
“Hello to those who for the last three years have lived in my homeland under the shadow. For the last three years, your rights have been torn from you, one by one, piece by piece. The right to travel where you want, the right to work in the job you want, the right to wear clothes you want, the right to speak the words you want, the right to attend the school you want, the right to attend school at all. Torn from you, lost in the shadow. But in that darkness, I see you. 
  
I see the light you hold, and I will never look away. ‘Hello’ tonight to the women and girls of Afghanistan. Your bravery is my beating heart. I’m honored to stand here and tell you that I am an Afghan woman, and I am the inheritor of the generational bravery of Afghan women. All those who came before me, all those who carried hope in their hands like fire in the darkness. That hope, that fire, it illuminates everything we do at SOLA. Our mission is education, and our outlook is global. And we aspire to create the best educated generation of women in Afghanistan’s history. The Taliban know exactly what educated women are capable of, and so do I.” 

Basij-Rasikh was honored alongside Russian political prisoners Alexei Gorinov and Maria Ponomarenko who keep fighting for democracy and freedom. 
 

Previous honorees of the OXI Courage Award have included:  

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022; 
• President Joe Biden and his son Beau Biden (posthumously) in 2016; 
• Escaped survivor of ISIS atrocities Nadia Murad (nominated by Amal Clooney) in 2016 who then received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018; 
• TIME Magazine Persons of the Year and journalists in 2019: Maria Ressa of the Philippines – who then received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 – and Jamal Khashoggi (posthumously) of Saudi Arabia; 
• Recently released from Russian prison and twice-poisoned Russian democracy activist Vladimir Kara-Murza in 2018; 
• US conflict journalist James Foley (posthumously) [introduced by President Bill Clinton], months after he became the first American publicly executed by ISIS in 2014;  
• North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho in 2017 who three months later was featured before millions around the world in the President’s State of the Union address.