Meena Keshwar Kamal, Righteous Reported by Civil Society
Meena Keshwar Kamal, founder of RAWA, assassinated by Afghan intelligence in 1987, was honored as a “Righteous Person Reported by Civil Society” at a ceremony on Wednesday, March 11.
Over the years, the Day of the Righteous has honored exemplary figures from citizen research and the world of associations. Their nominations are approved by the Assembly of the Association for the Garden of the Righteous in Milan (composed of the Gariwo Foundation, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and the City of Milan). The Assembly also chose the theme for the 2026 Day of the Righteous of Humanity celebrations: “The Righteous for Democracy. Dialogue and Nonviolence to Build Peace.”
Born in 1956, Meena has been actively involved in social struggles in her country since a very young age, especially on behalf of women. In 1977, she founded RAWA specifically to give a voice to the women of Afghanistan who were deprived of their rights and forced into silence. And she was still on the front lines two years later when Soviet forces invaded her country: she organized marches and school meetings, and then, when she was forced to flee to Pakistan, she organized schools for refugee children and laid the foundations for the construction of a hospital. She was unable to attend the inauguration because she was assassinated in February 1987 in an attempt to silence a voice that had already crossed Afghanistan’s borders.
A voice that still rings loud and clear in RAWA’s work in Afghanistan and that today, thanks to the reporting of Civil Words, receives this important recognition. CISDA, on behalf of the RAWA comrades, received the certificate of recognition during a ceremony attended by city officials, a large audience, and numerous young men and women, honoring the new “Righteous” of 2026: Piero Calamandrei, Italian jurist and politician, and founding father of the Italian Constitution, who dedicated his life to the defense of democracy, anti-fascism, and the Constitution. Martin Luther King, an activist and Protestant pastor, a global symbol of nonviolence, fought to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. Vivian Silver, an Israeli women’s rights activist, fought for dialogue and peace in the Middle East and was killed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attacks. Reem Al-Hajajreh, a Palestinian activist and founder of Women of the Sun, fights to give voice and protection to women and to encourage a nonviolent end to the conflict in the Middle East. Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko, a Russian artist and activist, held a personal protest to spread messages against the war in Ukraine, resulting in her arrest and detention.