Hannah Arendt Center presents:
Speak Truth to Power: Sonita Alizada on Courage
Attendance at this event is required for students enrolled in CC108. There are a limited number of additional seats available for Bard community members by RSVP only: If interested in attending please contact Tara Needham, Assistant Academic Director at HAC and Common Course coordinator @[email protected].
Monday, March 14, 2022
Weis Cinema
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
This event occurred on:
Event presented by The Courage to Be Program and Common Course.
Sonita Alizada is a young Afghan rapper working to end child marriage. With a poet’s soul and activist’s passion, she uses rap, courage to stand up for women’s and girls’ rights. Sonita was born in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
Being almost sold into marriage twice at age 10 and again 16, Alizadeh’s mother, who had moved back to Afghanistan, instructed her to return home to meet her future husband. With the help of Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, an Iranian filmmaker, who recorded her journey in a documentary called “Sonita” helped Alizadeh record a powerful and evocative video, "Daughters for Sale,” which was seen around the world. The rap song and her story helped
Sonita to obtain a full scholarship to come to the US in 2015. Today, Alizadeh lives in the United States, doing a joint major at Bard college in Human rights and Music. Besides school, she is still a passionate advocate to end child marriage and promote the rights of other women around the world. She has shared the stage with heads of state, Nobel Laureates, and renowned change-makers and helped develop a curriculum on child marriage for over one million students. Her message about ending child marriage is reaching the highest levels of global leadership and civil society, and her story and vision have been shared worldwide. Through her music and advocacy, she wants to encourage world leaders, policymakers to take urgent action to end child marriage. "If girls are forced into early marriages, the societies, the world will be in the cycle of poverty and illiteracy,” she says, "if you want to see the world in peace, better health, and condition, prevent girls from early marriages and keep them in school.”
Sonita Alizada is a young Afghan rapper working to end child marriage. With a poet’s soul and activist’s passion, she uses rap, courage to stand up for women’s and girls’ rights. Sonita was born in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
Being almost sold into marriage twice at age 10 and again 16, Alizadeh’s mother, who had moved back to Afghanistan, instructed her to return home to meet her future husband. With the help of Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, an Iranian filmmaker, who recorded her journey in a documentary called “Sonita” helped Alizadeh record a powerful and evocative video, "Daughters for Sale,” which was seen around the world. The rap song and her story helped
Sonita to obtain a full scholarship to come to the US in 2015. Today, Alizadeh lives in the United States, doing a joint major at Bard college in Human rights and Music. Besides school, she is still a passionate advocate to end child marriage and promote the rights of other women around the world. She has shared the stage with heads of state, Nobel Laureates, and renowned change-makers and helped develop a curriculum on child marriage for over one million students. Her message about ending child marriage is reaching the highest levels of global leadership and civil society, and her story and vision have been shared worldwide. Through her music and advocacy, she wants to encourage world leaders, policymakers to take urgent action to end child marriage. "If girls are forced into early marriages, the societies, the world will be in the cycle of poverty and illiteracy,” she says, "if you want to see the world in peace, better health, and condition, prevent girls from early marriages and keep them in school.”