Born and raised in Afghanistan, one of Freshta Karimi’s earliest jobs at an international organization had the most significant impact in charting her career trajectory. In 2003, while on a site visit to an orphanage, Freshta met a seven-year-old girl who had been married at the age of 5. “She came to me and she was holding my hands and she was asking me to bring her bangles,” Freshta explains. “She looked like she was 80 or 85 years old, from the wrinkles on her face.” The girl had been badly beaten and injured at the hands of her father-in-law. “I couldn’t stop holding her and hugging her, and I was trying not to cry.”
After leaving the orphanage, Freshta couldn’t stop thinking about this young girl. “I came back home and told my mom about this girl, and again, I was crying. I told her that I want to bring her home and adopt her,” says Freshta. “Of course, I was still young and couldn’t do this. And I knew this girl was just one case out of thousands out there. And I needed to help more of them.”
In 2006, Freshta made a huge move in doing exactly that, as she received funding to launch her own legal aid organization focused specifically on supporting marginalized women, survivors of gender-based violence, and victims of forced marriage. Over the next 15 years, Freshta’s incredible work in advancing access to justice and education on gender equality led her to receiving international recognition, including the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize (one of the world’s most respected awards for human rights defenders) and the MDG3 Torch (a global symbol of commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment).
Although she always wanted to stay in Afghanistan and continue to bring positive change to her country, after the Taliban re-sieged Kabul in August 2021, Freshta and her family quickly made plans to flee the country to keep herself, her husband, and her two young children safe. “We left Afghanistan with nothing,” she explains. “I had a small backpack with some diapers and formula for my [10 month old] daughter, but we couldn’t take anything else. We only had maybe $100 in our pockets.”
Starting over in Canada was incredibly challenging for her entire family, but both Freshta and her husband (who was also a lawyer in Afghanistan) were determined to continue working in their field. While her husband completed paralegal training, Freshta landed a job as a Settlement Counsellor, Project and Volunteer Coordinator at the Afghan Women’s Organization in Toronto. “I realized that while previously I was trying to help the women and girls in Afghanistan, now I have to expand my personal mission and vision,” she explains. “Now I believe that I need to help women and girls wherever I am, and I think it’s my job to help them around the world, wherever I can.”
Although Freshta still volunteers as a board member with some organizations working in Afghanistan, she started looking for ways to deepen her impact here in her second home. When she saw that Nellie’s was seeking new board members, the alignment felt immediate.
“The work they’re doing is incredible,” she says. “With gender-based violence increasing, there is such a demand for this kind of support. It aligns with everything I’ve done before.”
There are moments, of course, when Freshta still feels the weight of what she had to leave behind. “I felt bad that I couldn’t continue my work in Afghanistan,” she says. “So now I’m trying to establish myself here, to make a difference here. To find myself again as a valuable human who can help other humans defend their rights.”
Thank you, Freshta, for sharing your story and for your time and service to Nellie’s.