Sonita Alizadeh got into rap music around the age of 14, at a karate studio in Iran when she first heard an Eminem song. She couldn’t understand the words but she liked the way it sounded. Instinctively, she knew she wanted to create songs similar to that.
The rapper who grew up speaking Dari in western Afghanistan before her family fled the war to Iran, received wide acclaim with the release of her first song, ‘Daughters for Sale,’ where she rapped about young girls in Afghanistan being forcefully sold into marriage. This was personal for her because at the time, the 17 year old Afghan had discovered that she was about to be married off for the price of $9,000 in order for her family to be able to afford her older brother’s wedding.
With lyrics like these, Sonita is raising awareness about this child marriage:
Let me whisper some words to your earno one should hear it, I wanna speak of Brides for Saleno one should hear my voice cause isn’t against religionthey say a woman should remain silent , it’s the tradition of this city
The video to her single which has garnered over 1 million views has become a symbol of the fight against Child marriage in Afghanistan and surrounding environs where child marriage is still rampant.
After the video’s release in which she donned a wedding gown for the first time, garnered world-wide attention, Sonita was awarded a full scholarship to a music school in the U.S. Since then, the rapper has not only lent her voice to the fight against child marriage but has also done so through writing. She co-authored a curriculum on child marriage that has reached over 1.5 million high school students and can be found at speaking engagements spreading the word on this human rights violation. One such event was the recent, World Bank’s Fragility Forum.
She was recently featured on TIME Magazine‘s Next Generation Leaders issue alongside other trend setters around the world, who are using their talent for the betterment of the society. The list also includes, Kevin Kühnert, The Weeknd, Kerstin Forsberg, Farida Ado, Chris LongHou, Yifan Adwoa Aboah, Anthony Boyle, and Ariana Grande
The activist has expressed her optimism for the future of Afghanistan saying that “the future in Afghanistan is going to be better than now, they [the girls] have energy and power to fight for themselves and they’re going to be able to choose who to marry and who to be in the future”.
What an inspiration! We need our very own Sonita Alizadeh here in Africa. That would be so dope.
