Washington, DC – September 30, 2015 – the El-Hibri
Foundation is delighted to announce that Raz Mohammed Dalili has been
awarded the 2015 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize. Mr. Dalili will accept
an award of $30,000 for his organization at a private ceremony in late
October. Three graduate students will also receive $5,000 scholarships
at the ceremony to further their peace education studies.
Raz Dalili is one of Afghanistan’s most recognized peace educators.
In a career spanning 25 years covering a multitude of peacebuilding
projects, Dalili has championed the use of cultural and religious values
and practices for building community, promoting reconciliation, and
teaching peace education skills and tools.
From pioneering peace education work in Pakistan’s Afghan refugee
community during the Soviet occupation to authoring a comprehensive K-12
peace education curricula for hundreds of schools reaching over 35,000
students throughout Afghanistan, Dalili embodies the personal virtues
and professional commitment of a lifelong peace educator and leader. He
founded the Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) in 1990 to help
further peace education, which he continued to expand under Taliban
rule, including rescuing over 3,000 Afghan girls from illiteracy.
Outside of the classroom, Dalili and SDO provide nonviolent conflict
resolution training to teachers, community leaders and politicians. To
date, SDO has trained more than 50,000 new leaders across age and
gender. Dalili helped to redefine the role of the Islamic shura council,
long recognized in Afghanistan as a vital resource for resolving
conflicts. Dalili’s innovative programs have led to the establishment of
more than 600 peace shuras in nine different provinces across
Afghanistan.
Dalili has been a longtime advocate for community development and
social justice, arguing that “development across [Afghanistan] needs to
be equitable, with a focus on education and empowering Afghan youth.
Citizens are frustrated by a peace process that is led by power brokers
and elites. We must protect and promote human rights, women’s rights and
the rule of law.” In these efforts, Dalili and SDO have partnered with
such organizations as the US Institute of Peace, USAID, the United
Nations and the World Bank.

Dalili’s programs seek to encourage a peaceful society by confronting
the myriad of roadblocks which exist to such peace. A champion for the
rights of ordinary Afghans, Dalili has stated that he is “convinced that
peace education is an antibiotic for society,” and has been a vocal
advocate for the need to establish mechanisms for civil dialogue that
aims to understand and advance community needs and concerns for all
Afghans.
Through SDO, he has produced short films and instructive videos
dealing with topics ranging from water, land and animal rights to the
oft-problematic issue of marriage finance. For children, SDO produces a
number of magazines and videos, such as the Deow Wa Pari (Devil
and Angel) series. These short movies show children the benefit of
acting in a peaceful way and include songs and lively images which make
learning fun and inviting.
Dalili is the ninth of a distinguished cohort of El-Hibri Foundation Peace Education Prize Laureates, including:
Pietro Ameglio (2014),
founder of numerous nonviolence coalitions throughout Mexico, including
the Mexican Peace and Justice Service, Thinking Out Loud, and the
Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. His is also the author of Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: Mexico Today (2002).
Betty A. Reardon (2013), founding
director emeritus of the International Institute on Peace Education,
and founding academic director of the Global Campaign for Peace
Education for the Hague Appeal for Peace;
Chaiwat Satha-Anand (2012),
pioneer in Islam and nonviolence theory and founder and director of the
Peace Information Centre at Thammasat University in Bangkok, the
Foundation for Democracy and Development Studies and the Thailand
Research Fund;
Gene Sharp (2011),
founder and senior scholar at the Albert Einstein Institution
in Boston, MA, and author of many globally influential works on
strategic nonviolent activism;
Colman McCarthy (2010), founder of the Center for Teaching Peace, Washington, D.C., and former Washington Post columnist whose unwavering opposition to militarism and violence of any kind inspired generations of readers;
Mary Elizabeth King (2009),
professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace and
Rothermere American Institute Fellow at the University of Oxford whose
distinguished scholarship on Dr. Martin Luther King and nonviolence have
advanced the field of peace education;
Scott Kennedy (2008), co-founder of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, and former mayor of Santa Cruz, CA; and
Abdul Aziz Said (2007),
Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace at American University, and
founder and professor at AU’s International Peace and Conflict
Resolution Program and mentor and teacher for hundreds of thousands of
students over 58 years of educating at American University.
Farhan Latif,
President of the El-Hibri Foundation, remarked that Dalili was selected
from a large number of impressive peace educators who are making a
difference around the world. Chosen by an independent selection
committee managed by Nonviolence International,
Latif added that EHF was proud to recognize an outstanding peace
educator who has dedicated his life to empowering and healing Afghan
communities.
To learn more about Raz Dalili and to support his pioneering
peacebuilding work in Afghanistan, please visit the Foundations website:
www.elhibrifoundation.org.

About the El-Hibri Foundation
Founded in 2001, the El-Hibri Foundation is an American 501(c)(3)
charitable foundation based in Washington, D.C.  It seeks to build a
better world by embracing two universally shared values of Islam—peace
and respect for diversity—and it fulfills its mission through grants,
programs and other activities designed to advance the field of peace
education and promote respect for diversity.  EHF and its grantees
incubate new ideas, create programs that address unmet needs, and
stimulate intellectual exchanges and networking.  More information about
the Foundation is available at www.elhibrifoundation.org.