Geuzen Medal for Laila Haidari

Princess Margriet presented the Geuzenpenning (Geuzen Medal) to Afghan activist Laila Haidari today at the Grote Kerk (Great Church) in Vlaardingen. By awarding the medal, the Geuzenpenning Foundation expresses its appreciation for Haidari's courageous and socially relevant work.

At twelve, Laila was married off to a mullah, a Muslim cleric. She had three children with him. At nineteen, they divorced. The house, money, and children went to her husband. She ended up on the streets; her family refused to support her. She had to fend for herself. She learned that people need two things to survive: money and knowledge.

Laureate Laila Haidari fights for the freedom of girls and women, as in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban regime, women and girls face severe restrictions in their freedom of movement and development. At the Geuzenpenning award ceremony, Laila Haidari spoke about her work in Kabul, where she secretly allows girls and women to study in an educational and craft center.

Last year, documentary filmmaker Thomas Erdbrink made a compelling report, "Our Man in the Taliban," about life in Afghanistan. This afternoon, he spoke at the Grote Kerk about his findings and showed us the work of Laila Haidari in Kabul.

As civil-law notaries, we are inspired by Laila. After all, a civil-law notary exercises his or her office independently and represents the interests of all parties involved in a legal transaction impartially and with the utmost care. A civil-law notary may not exercise his or her office as an employee or in any other capacity that affects or could affect his or her independence or impartiality (Section 17, Sections 1 and 2 of the Dutch Civil-Law Notaries Act). A special manifestation of notarial impartiality is "compensatory impartiality," which means that the civil-law notary—as one of the guardians of the rule of law—must lean a little more towards the legally less knowledgeable or socially vulnerable party in order to achieve an equal position for the parties. And that is what Laila does so courageously in her own environment, in her own unique way, and at the risk of her own life.