Hadiqa Bashir

(Last updated during their term as a Commissioner - January 2022)

Hadiqa Bashir is a confident young feminist, visionary and citizen leader. She was born into a patriarchal society in Saidu Sharif, which is located in the Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan’s Tribal Belt and which motivated her to work against early and forced marriages in Pakistan’s tribal regions. To that end, she founded Girls United for Human Rights to protect and promote girls’ rights. In doing so, she has worked to sensitize her community to the negative effects that child marriages have on children’s mental and physical health. Hadiqa is on the volunteer board of directors at Eve Alliance and has previously volunteered at A Society for Women’s Rights and the Sister’s Council (Khwendo Jirga, a women’s advocacy group in Pakistan that supports gender equality). She has been recognized as a Women Deliver Young Leader, the winner of the With and For Girls Award (2018-19), a Commonwealth Youth Award Finalist (2017), a two-time Children’s Peace Prize Nominee (2016 and 2017), a winner of the Asian Girls Rights Award (2016), a winner of the Muhammad Ali International Humanitarian Award (2015), a recipient of an honorary award from the Honorable Chairman Senate Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and an Asian Girls Ambassador.