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She’s A 27-Year-Old Poet, Humanitarian, And Rapper Who Has Been Fighting Against Child Marriage

Coetzee/peopleimages.com- Stock.Adobe.com, illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

What if I told you that one of today’s most influential young activists is a rapper?

Sonita Alizadeh is a 27-year-old poet, humanitarian, and rapper who has been fighting against child marriage with the power of her words. 

Sonita was born in Afghanistan in 1996. As a child, Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, so she fled to Iran with her parents and siblings as refugees.

After traveling hundreds of miles, her family finally settled at a refugee camp in Tehran.

Sonita began working at a young age to help support her family and eventually got an education through a local volunteer organization that taught Afghan girls in her area.

After learning to read and write, Sonita became very interested in writing poetry and music.

Sonita started writing songs about her life as a refugee and leaving her home. Although she started writing pop music, everything changed when she heard her first song by famous American rapper Eminem and found that she preferred rap music.

She loved how expressive and passionate Eminem was on the track, even if she didn’t understand the words. 

It was uncommon and, in some situations, illegal for a woman to speak her mind on political issues in Iran, but she did it anyway and wrote her first rap on child labor. 

Coetzee/peopleimages.com- Stock.Adobe.com, illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

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