Crystal Bayat

Crystal Bayat
کریستال بیات
Crystal Bayat giving interview objecting to the flaws in the Doha Peace Agreement (2020)
Born	(1997-01-16) 16 January 1997 Kabul, Afghanistan
Alma mater	Delhi University
Occupation(s)	Social and political activist, writer and entrepreneur

Crystal Bayat (Persian: کریستال بیات) is an Afghan writer, global social activist and human rights advocate known for her protests against the Taliban takeover and her advocacy for women's rights and political activism. A native of the Ghazni province and a member of the Shia Bayat family, a Turkic ethnic minority, Bayat was born in 1997 in Kabul. She grew up experiencing democracy and positive societal changes. Bayat is dedicated to preserving human rights achievements worldwide, with a focus on women and girls, and continues to be an influential agent of change.

Early life

Bayat was born in 1997 in Kabul and is a native of Ghazni province of Afghanistan. She is a member of the Bayat tribe, a Turkic ethnic minority. Her mother is a gynecologist, currently unable to work due to the Taliban takeover, and her father worked for the Ministry of Interior Affairs before the collapse of the republic.

Social activist contributions

Bayat adopted her last name from Faramarz to Bayat after facing significant discrimination as a member of religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan. In response, she launched the campaign “Bayat is Our Identity and Our Identity is Our Pride.” After writing a letter to former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and staging days of strikes, she succeeded in having the minority ethnic name inserted into national ID cards, a major country-wide achievement for Crystal Bayat. She was also an active peace activist and representative of minorities at peace negotiations between the Taliban and the former Afghan government.

Additionally, Bayat served as a minority representative to the Loya Jirga (elder assembly) in Afghanistan. Bayat survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2020 due to her active role in peace negotiations, narrowly escaping a car bomb in her personal vehicle.

That same year, Bayat started the civil rights political think tank, Justice and Equality Trend, and Hope For Her International, formerly known as the Crystal Bayat Foundation, a human rights charity foundation focused on helping women, girls and those at high risk globally.

In 2020, Bayat co-launched a campaign with her friends Fariha Essar, Hoda Khamosh, and Shukria called #MenstruationIsNotTaboo before she was forced to leave Afghanistan.

She helped lead Kabul’s Independence Day protests just days after the Taliban took over the city in mid-August 2021. One of seven women at a protest of roughly 900 people, she led the group, shouting, "Our flag is our identity!" Bayat remains firm in her belief that the Taliban still do "not believe in the freedom and demands of Afghan citizens, especially women, and that no one she has made an honest effort to hold them accountable." She is currently working on a campaign called #BanTaliban. Bayat continues to speak out to the media and at public and private events about the current geopolitical situation in Afghanistan. She is also active in supporting friends, family, and academic and professional colleagues to achieve a collective voice against today's inhumane treatment and poor governance by the Taliban. She writes on the plight of Afghan women and education and about Afghan minority challenges for national and international newspapers. Bayat edited a news and current affairs column in the telematic periodical Aleph & Other Tales entitled, "The Girl with the Afghan Flag."

Education

After graduating from high school, Bayat achieved a fifth ranking on the Kankor examination out of three hundred thousand students across Afghanistan. She was then accepted into the Faculty of Law at Kabul University. Bayat was awarded a scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, allowing her to attend Daulat Ram College in Delhi, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science in 2019, ranking first in her class. She also holds a diploma from the United Nations Institute in Delhi.

Upon her return to Afghanistan in 2019, Bayat began a master's program in international politics, specializing in regional diplomacy, at Payam-e-Noor University in Kabul. In 2021, she started her PhD in Political Management at Delhi University online, but her studies were interrupted by the Taliban takeover.

Bayat has been awarded a full-ride scholarship into the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh, USA. She plans to start the program in the fall of 2024.

Awards and recognitions

In 2020, Bayat received the Rumi Award in the "Literature Category" and was named one of 50 Influential Women by the Rumi Award organizers. She was also recognized by the former Afghan president and parliament in early 2020 for her activism in passing the minority rights bill.

On December 7, 2021, Crystal Bayat was named to the BBC 100 Women 2021 list for her social activism and human rights advocacy, particularly for her prominent role in protests against the Taliban takeover in 2021.

In 2022, she received the UMSDG 7-17 award through Utah Global Diplomacy and the Warrior Award from the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

External links

• "بایگانی‌های کریستال بیات". روزنامه ۸صبح (in Persian). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
• "یک‌دهه کار جدی و بی‌وقفه| ویژۀ ده‌سالگی".
• jomhornews.com (3 May 2020). "جمهور - مشارکت اقوام را نادیده نگیرید!". خبرگزاری جمهور (in Persian). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
• admins (11 May 2020). "قوم بیات خواستار درج نام این قوم در شناسنامه‌های برقی و مشارکت سیاسی در حکومت شدند". خبرگزاری معمار وحدت (in Persian). Retrieved 7 July 2022.