Formerly, the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation announced that it had selected three individuals and two organizations as this year's awardees, including a Filipino doctor, an independent commission eradicating corruption in Indonesia and a civil society organization in Nepal created and run by human trafficking victims. With inclusion to them, Afghanistan's first and only female governor and a humanitarian worker from Myanmar's Kachin minority were among this year's recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, often regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize. Indeed it’s great honor for the war torn Afghanistan and Habiba Sarabi worth huge appreciation by the country fellowmen. Nonetheless, she is not given a quarter of that appreciation.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government. The awards, named after a popular Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, honor people and groups who change their societies for the better.
Habiba Sarabi, was chosen for helping build a functioning local government and pushing for education and women's rights in Afghanistan's Bamyan province despite working in a violent and impoverished environment in which discrimination was pervasive. She has tirelessly worked on women’s education and public education and the ratio of female students have increased in her province, where more women are taking up careers that were forbidden under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
"In the face of widespread hostilities toward women assuming public roles, her courage and determination are outstanding," the foundation said of Sarabi, a member of an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan. Working for women cause in a country like Afghanisan is hard enough to be carried forth where cultural barriers blockades women participation in socio-political arenas. The parliament has already reduced the number of reserved seats from 25 to 20 for women.
Sarabi is a hematologist, politician, and reformer of the post-Taliban reconstruction of Afghanistan. In 2005, she was appointed as governor of Bamyan Province by President Hamid Karzai, becoming the first woman to ever be a governor of any province in the country. She previously served in Karzai’s government as Minister of Women’s Affairs as well as Minister of Culture and Education. Sarabi has been instrumental in promoting women’s rights and representation and environment issues. She belongs to the ethnic Hazara people of Afghanistan.
Her award clearly manifests women can successfully perform their duties and effectively participate in socio-political activities. Consequently, the Afghan government had to acquire the ability to increase women’s participation in the decision-making process instead of undoing the already granted meager opportunities.