Dr. Anarkali Kaur
Honaryar


Sikh relations with Afghanistan date back to Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, who is believed to have visited
Kabul and other places in the country. We find a mention of Kabul Sangat in old Sikh records. Before
the outbreak of hostilities in Afghanistan there were around 50,000 Sikhs and Hindus running prosperous
business in Kabul, Kandhar and other cities. A large number of them left the country because of Taliban
presence. Those who stayed there included one Sikh family which gave birth to a girl, who later on made
all the Sikhs proud of her. The girl who grew up in turbulent times, is Dr. Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, who is
a dentist, Sikh afghan politician, a women’s right activist and a former member of Afghanistan Parliament.
When Taliban was ousted from Afghanistan in 2001, Anarkali Kaur after studying medicine at the Kabul
University, used her qualification as a dentist for welfare of the people and became popular as a social
activist.

She led the campaign for the civil rights of the embattled communities who stayed on, including
one to get crematoriums built for their dead. “Some people still think we are foreigners. They think we are
Indians who are working and living here for a while. But we are Afghans too, and we should have all the
rights and opportunities that other Afghans have”, says the demure yet outspoken doctor. She became a
member of the Loya Jirga which chose Afghanistan’s interim government after the decline of Taliban, and
also an Afghan Constitution Committee member. In 2006, she became a member of Afghan Independent
Human Rights Commission. In 2010, Honaryar was elected for the country’s Meshranoi Jirga (Parliament),
and she was the first non-Muslim woman to achieve this milestone, she stayed on this post for 5 years (Till
mid 2015). As a Sikh, she has been helping the people in different ways, particularly the women who suffer
from domestic abuse, forced marriages and gender discrimination. She has a deep sense of commitment to
promote the ideals of human dignity, human rights, mutual respect and tolerance in her country. That is
why she was awarded with the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and NonViolence. She was also chosen by Radio Free Europe’s Afghan chapter as person of the year in 2009. As a
Sikh it is her ardent desire to visit Golden Temple in Amritsar, but that opportunity has not yet come. It is,
therefore, duty of all the Sikhs to pray for her desired visit so that she may get an opportunity to interact with
her co-religionists and Punjabis.