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A woman who defied the brutally oppressive Taliban to provide health care for women and educational opportunities for girls will present the inaugural University of Victoria guest lecture on "lived rights."
Dr. Sima Simar, former Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan and current chair of the Independent Afghan Human Rights Commission, will deliver her public lecture on
Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Fraser Building, room 159. A reception will follow her presentation.
Through the Shuhada Organization, a non-governmental, non-profit organization she established in 1989, Simar opened four hospitals, 10 health clinics and numerous schools for Afghan girls and women.
She was recently appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan and was a recipient, in 2004, of a Profiles in Courage Award for being "an international symbol of the steadfast courage required to demand basic human rights for girls and women in Afghanistan."
This annual public lecture by an internationally recognized human rights advocate was established to acknowledge and learn more about the courageous and transformative work being done—particularly by women—to turn words on the pages of constitutions and treaties into positive changes in the daily lives of disadvantaged people in conflict and post-conflict zones.
Simar's presentation is sponsored by UVic's centre for global studies, the International Women's Rights Project, the faculty of law dean's advisory committee on ethnicity and culture, the Human Rights Law Association, Telus and Monk Office Supplies.
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