Country/region: Pakistan
Conflict: (Religious) radicalization
Organisation: Paiman Alumni Trust
Field of work: De-Radicalization, strenthening of women in peace processes
Mossarat Qadeem works directly with mothers of radicalized youths, using her skill as a communicator and her detailed knowledge of the Quran, she rescues young men—including potential suicide bombers—who are being exploited by extremists. Afterwards, she ensures they are de-radicalized, receive job training and education and helps them with the difficult process of reintegrating into their communities.
From the platform of her organization, PAIMAN she has been able to de-radicalize, rehabilitate and reintegrate 1137 youth and prevented thousands from becoming extremists. Ms. Qadeem is co-founder of PAIMAN Alumni Trust, a nonprofit group promoting sociopolitical and economic empowerment of marginalized Pakistanis. With PAIMAN, she established the country’s first center for conflict transformation and peacebuilding, which has helped thousands of young people and women across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pukhtunkwa province to prevent and resolve conflict.
Her contribution is the development of PAIMAN’s Mothers and Youth Peace Groups (TOLANA) an innovative way of community mobilization for resolving conflicts and building social cohesion, a model which has received international recognition and appreciation.
Ms. Qadeem is internationally known expert on countering violent extremism and de-radicalization and has contributed to the policy framework development of UNDTEC New York, UNWomen on the subject and works as resource person with many international organizations like ICAN, Institute for Inclusive Security, etc.. She now works across South Asia on women peace and security, and developed her own training materials on these themes. An innovator and reformer, she helped expand Amn-O-Nisa, a coalition of women leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, binding women peace activists to raise their voices for a peaceful region.