Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the south, Punjab to the south-east, the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and north-east, Islamabad Capital Territory to the east and Azad Kashmir to the north-east. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied landscape ranging from rugged mountain ranges, valleys, plains surrounded by hills, undulating submontane areas and dense agricultural farms.
Humanists International is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 secular humanist, atheist, rationalist, agnostic, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.
Swabi District is a district in the Mardan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It lies between the Indus and Kabul Rivers. Before becoming a district in 1988, it was a tehsil within the Mardan District. 96% of the population speaks Pashto as their first language.
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
Maria Toorpakai Wazir is a professional Pakistani squash player. She dressed like a boy for the first 16 years of her life in order to participate in competitive sports as a Muslim girl, using the name Genghis Khan, fully supported by her Muslim parents.
Samar Minallah is a documentary filmmaker, and human rights activist from Pakistan.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
Ziauddin Yousafzai is a Pakistani education activist best known as the father of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who protested against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan opposition to the education rights of girls, especially for Pakistani girls.
Adnan Rashid is a Pakistani cricket umpire and militant commander of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and former junior technician of the Pakistan Air Force. He is the chief of Ansar Al-Aseer, the TTP's unit tasked to free militant prisoners.
Violence against women in Pakistan, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is a major public health problem and a violation of women's human rights in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan mainly encounter violence by being forced into marriage, through workplace sexual harassment, domestic violence and by honour killings.
Gulalai Ismail is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is the chairperson of Aware Girls, a global ambassador for Humanists International, and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). She speaks on the subject of promoting peace and women's empowerment at conferences internationally, and is the recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award, the Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award.
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. It was founded in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan. On 1 February 2018, the name of the movement was changed from "Mahsud Tahafuz Movement" to "Pashtun Tahafuz Movement."
Malala Fund is an international, non-profit organization that advocates for girls' education. It was co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and her father, Ziauddin. The stated goal of the organization is to ensure 12 years of free, safe and quality education for every girl. As of July 2020, the organization has 48 staff and supports 58 advocates working across Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Mohammad Ibrahim Arman Loni, commonly known as Arman Loni, was a Pakistani teacher of Pashto literature, poet, and one of the founding leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). Arman died on 2 February 2019 after a clash with the police, which followed his participation at a protest sit-in outside Loralai Press Club.
Alamzaib Khan Mahsud is a Pakistani human rights activist from South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He is one of the founding members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, and is instrumental in gathering data on missing persons and landmine victims in the merged tribal districts.
Ismat Raza Shahjahan is a socialist-feminist political leader from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She is the president of Women Democratic Front (WDF), the deputy general-secretary of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).
Said Alam Mahsud is a pediatric surgeon, political activist, and one of the leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). He is also the chairman of the civil society organisation Pashtunkhwa Ulasi Tehrik, and a technical expert on China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He was formerly the provincial senior vice-president of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP). Although based in Peshawar, he belongs to the Mahsud tribe of South Waziristan, Pakistan.
Saba Ismail is a Pakistani human-rights activist who co-founded Aware Girls with her sister Gulalai Ismail in 2002.
Gul Wareen or Gulwareen Bacha is a Pakistani Pashtun singer, musician, civil engineer and composer.
