Peace activists urge young to play a part

Azoora Ali (left) and Tayyaba Khan received the peace award for their work with other Muslim women. Picture / Dean Purcell

Two award-winning young Auckland Muslim women hope their work will help this country avoid the race-fuelled riots taking place in France.

Tertiary students Tayyaba Khan, 24, and Azoora Ali, 17, work for the four-year-old Auckland Muslim Girls' Association, which runs camps encouraging members to take on peace-promoting activities.

Last night in Wellington, they received the Sonja Davies Peace Award and its $2500 purse from Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The award is given to a woman, or group of women, who are undertaking training or developing an activity that will help them build a more peaceful world.

It was set up last year in honour of Sonja Davies, the activist and former Labour MP, who died in June this year, aged 80.

The event last night also marked what would have been her 81st birthday.

The association's next three-day camp, to be held in January, aims to educate 60 secondary school- and university-age Muslim women on the importance of peace and moderation.

It encourages them to take a role in peace promotion, whether by explaining Islam or engaging in broader activities.

Ms Khan, an Auckland University of Technology health sciences student and one of the association's seven founders, hopes that well-known groups such as the Peace Foundation will also take part.

Young people need to understand they have a part to play in creating a better world, she said.

Ms Khan said she felt the extensive rioting in France, in which some of the troublemakers were Muslim youth, illustrated what happened when young people felt they didn't have a role - or responsibilities - in society.

The pair, both born outside New Zealand but thoroughly Kiwi, said they had difficulty understanding the disaffection fuelling the riots: camp co-ordinator Ms Ali, a second-year commerce and engineering student at the University of Auckland, said her life in this country "has been perfect".

But, added Ms Khan, "we're hoping we can use what's happening in France to make sure we don't end up in that situation".

"That will only happen if we are educated and develop young people to integrate into society and feel a part of society, rather than an outcast or discriminated against."