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SALR LAKE CITY — Crystal Bayat thought her fight for Afghan human rights was over when she fled Afghanistan after receiving threats from the Taliban.
Bayat's work organizing protests on the streets of Kabul made international news. That exposure reached Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who helped organize Bayat's evacuation from Afghanistan to Utah.
"I didn't want to leave Afghanistan," she said. "When Afghanistan fell into hands of Taliban, I thought that everything is finished and ended. But when I came to Utah, the understanding, support and love of this people gave me another life, another hope, another vision that now my fight just started, it's not finished."
Since coming to Utah as a refugee, Bayat has continued to fight for women's and girls' rights through her foundation, gaining her a spot on BBC's 100 women of 2021. Her work has included opening a library in Kabul, advocating in international media and helping hundreds of women who were sole breadwinners with survival food items since the Taliban has mostly restricted women from working outside the home.
Reyes awarded Bayat the "Warrior Award" earlier this week at the state Capitol in recognition of her work.
"Crystal's humanitarian work has become a beacon of hope for all women and children in present day Afghanistan as the Taliban continue to revoke basic human rights such as education, employment and free movement," reads a prepared statement from the attorney general's office. "Her own story is an inspiration to women worldwide as she continues to advocate for justice for those who struggle to fight effectively themselves."
Bayat, 26, said the award is bigger than herself and thanked Utahns for supporting her in her "second home."
"This recognition is not only for me; this is recognizing those voices that are unable to be heard or be helped in Afghanistan under the terrorist regime of Taliban," she said. "I believe that these recognitions and awards open a platform for the pain, misery and the voices of Afghan women to be heard. We need more platforms and more support for the voices in Afghanistan."
She added that international organizations and leaders share the responsibility to recognize the "devastating" suffering of Afghans under the Taliban regime.
"We don't want to give up. We want to international community to raise their voices and their support for Afghans," she said.
"It's heartbreaking for me each moment to see people that are suffering and being deprived," Bayat continued. "Today it's been 520 days that girls are deprived from their school and more than four months that college students are banned just for being female. Definitely, it's hard, but as I see that they're fighting on the ground, it gives me more hope, energy, incentive and motivation to continue and support them."
