The state of war in Afghanistan over the past decades has exacted a toll not too widely recognized. In the midst of the country’s civil strife, the bombings, looting, and willful destruction by the Taliban of what they considered “non-Muslim” heritage have resulted in the massive loss of priceless historical and cultural treasures. Called the “crossroads of civilizations,” Afghanistan is a country rich in an ancient, cosmopolitan heritage of Hellenistic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic cultures. The loss of this heritage is of profound importance to Afghanistan and to the world.

One man has been engaged, against great odds, in preserving the Afghan heritage for generations present and future. Trained in history, sixty-six-year-old OMARA KHAN MASOUDI joined the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul in 1978 and became its deputy director in 1998. He witnessed the ferocious assault on his country’s cultural patrimony. The museum was bombed and looted. Under a Taliban decree that authorized the destruction of objects considered un-Islamic, the famous, sixth-century Buddha statues of Bamyan were rocket-blasted and reduced to rubble, and hammer-wielding Taliban entered the museum and smashed works of art they deemed “idolatrous.” In 1979, the museum had some one hundred thousand objects; by the mid-1990s, 70 percent of these treasures had been destroyed, looted, or lost.

At great risk to his life, MASOUDI led his colleagues in moving some of the most precious objects—including the world-famous Bactrian treasure of some twenty thousand ancient gold ornaments—to the safety of other locations, and secret vaults deep underneath Kabul’s city streets. Their locations were known only to MASOUDI and a few other colleagues, who swore never to reveal to the Taliban the secret. Forced out of the museum by the collapse of government, MASOUDI stayed on in Kabul and supported his family by selling onions and potatoes on the sidewalk, while keeping an eye on the museum.

It was only when the Taliban rule ended in 2002 that he could return to the museum. Appointed museum director under the Karzai government, MASOUDI faced the herculean task of rebuilding a damaged and depleted museum. Despite the extremely difficult circumstances, he succeeded: resurrecting the collections he and his colleagues had hidden and saved, restoring historical monuments, and repairing broken museum objects. He also successfully negotiated the return of Afghan cultural treasures that had been moved or smuggled to foreign countries, and organized expositions in foreign countries to raise funds and promote international appreciation and support for Afghan cultural preservation. For more than a decade, MASOUDI has supervised the physical rehabilitation of the museum, and initiated training programs to build a pool of museological expertise. He even upgraded and expanded the country’s network of provincial and satellite museums.

The museum in Kabul was reopened to the public in 2004; its depleted collections have been built up to sixty-five thousand items and up to twenty-five thousand visitors now come to the museum yearly. Much work still needs to be done and the political situation in Afghanistan remains fragile, but the National Museum has been amazingly resurrected from the ashes.

In front of the museum in Kabul these words are encrypted in stone: “A nation stays alive only when it can keep its history and culture alive.” These are words MASOUDI takes to heart. The museum, he says, is a ‘storyteller of the past,’ and it tells the story of how, for thousands of years, Afghanistan was enriched by the confluence of civilizations, and how Afghans have used these influences in positive ways, producing high forms of spirituality and great art. Torn apart by rabid intolerance in recent times, Afghans need to listen to this great story. MASOUDI says, “I’m hopeful that our culture can play a big role in creating space, in restoring national unity.”

In electing OMARA KHAN MASOUDI to receive the 2014 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his courage, labor, and leadership in protecting Afghan cultural heritage, rebuilding an institution vital for Afghanistan’s future, and reminding his countrymen and peoples everywhere that in recognizing humanity’s shared patrimony, we can be inspired to stand together in peace.

I am very happy to be here with you today to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the foundation. I feel honored, humbled, and deeply moved by the decision to give me that important distinction.

I feel that I alone do not deserve this. Rather, it is my work and the work of my colleagues that has earned this honor. And, therefore, I accept it with profound gratitude on behalf of my staff at the National Museum.

I think that culture is an essential component of human development. It represents a source of identity, innovation and creativity for individuals and amongst communities. Thus, culture must become an integral part of development strategies and policies and should involve all development partners and stakeholders.

Safeguarding all aspects of cultural property in my country—including museums, monuments, archaeological sites, music, the arts, and traditional crafts—is of particular significance in terms of strengthening cultural identity. And it is preserving a sense of national integrity. Cultural heritage is a point of mutual interest, enabling us to rebuild ties, to engage in dialogue, and to work together in shaping a common future.

We—I and my team at the National Museum of Afghanistan—have helped protect the extraordinary collection of the Museum over many years. We are also making efforts to safeguard this Afghan history for future generations. Our strategy is to re-establish links between Afghans and their cultural history, helping to develop a sense of common ownership, while at the same time representing the cultural heritage of our diverse society. Our overall objective is to raise public awareness throughout Afghanistan about the value of its cultural history, and about the responsibilities for protection and preservation that the next generation will inherit.

International relationships are crucial to the future of the National Museum. The future lies in working together.

There are few places in the world where the challenge of governance is as daunting and dangerous as in Afghanistan. A country ravaged by foreign powers, warlordism, civil war, and in 1996-2001, the regime of vicious fundamentalism under the Taliban, Afghanistan is embarked today on a perilous process of democratic state-building and development. The challenge is forbidding: widespread poverty and illiteracy, continuing disunity and violence, and the expected decline in foreign aid with the impending withdrawal of international forces. It is a place and time when true examples of hope are urgently needed.

One shining example is HABIBA SARABI, a fifty-seven-year-old doctor and mother of three, who, in a fiercely patriarchal society, is the only female governor in Afghanistan, and the first woman to hold this position in the country’s history. Of a relatively privileged background, SARABI attended university in Kabul and studied hematology in India. She was professor at the Kabul Medical Science College when the Taliban took power in 1996 and imposed draconian measures on the population, particularly women. Fleeing to Pakistan to ensure that her children could continue their education, she became a teacher and an activist. Organizing together with other Afghan women the Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), she conducted women’s rights classes in refugee camps and organized mobile doctors to work in these camps. She also secretly traveled on foot, back and forth across the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, to supervise at great personal risk some eighty underground literacy courses in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, SARABI immediately set up the HAWCA office in Kabul, resumed teaching at the Medical Science College, and continued her volunteer work in literacy and women’s rights.

Her work brought her public notice. In 2003, SARABI was appointed to head the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and, in 2005, governor of Bamyan, a poor, agricultural province in the country’s central highlands, with a population of half a million. In these positions, SARABI vigorously pushed her advocacies for public education and women empowerment. In Bamyan, public education has not only expanded; forty-five percent of the 135,000 schoolchildren are female. In 2005, there was only one female police officer; there are now twenty, and more women are taking up careers that were forbidden in the Taliban regime. As governor, SARABI has effectively worked with various stakeholders in road construction and other infrastructure projects, agricultural development and improvement of health facilities and health workers. Recognizing Bamyan’s unique natural, historical, and archaeological assets, and their potential for eco-tourism, she pioneered in establishing the 570-kilometer Band-e-Amir National Park, Afghanistan’s first national park.

SARABI has consistently been assessed by international donor standards as among the top performers among her peers in local government. Bamyan has benefitted from budgetary rewards resulting from such recognition. In the Afghan context of continuing violence, political uncertainty, and weak institutions, SARABI’s accomplishments are truly inspiring. A member of an ethnic and religious minority—she is a Hazara and a Shi’ite—SARABI lives and works in a society where ethnic conflicts are deadly; and in the face of widespread hostility towards women assuming public roles, her courage and determination are astounding. Asked what drives her, she says, simply but firmly, “I’m not a warlord. I’m just a modern woman.”

In electing HABIBA SARABI to receive the 2013 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her bold exercise of leadership to build up a functioning local government against great odds—intractable political adversities, a harsh and impoverished environment, and pervasive cultural discrimination—serving her people with a hopeful persistence grounded in her abiding commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan.

Salamaalakum…. And Good Afternoon! Please accept the warm greetings of the Afghan people and the government.

I feel very honored and proud to be selected for this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award. I would like to sincerely thank this esteemed Foundation for the recognition. I also want to thank those who believed in me and my work and nominated me.

This Award also is your recognition of the citizens of Afghanistan, and especially women who have dedicated their lives and services to building our country through their daily hard work with great honor, dignity and perseverance.

As citizens of the world, we can aspire to live a happy and simple life and yet achieve great heights. That is what President Ramon Magsaysay, as well those who lived during his generation, proved. In today’s complex world ravaged by geo-political interests and conflicts resulting in economic hardships to the poor, we need to emulate such values of humility, simplicity, justice and dignity.

I feel honored because with this Award, I am also being associated with my personal passion and goal for a greater role for women in my transitioning country. Women in Afghanistan today have risen above the confines of their homes. We have now prominent women politicians fighting for equality, housewives and businesswoman who are successful in their own rights, and activists and human rights champions who are working with a very proactive civil society. Within the government bureaucracy itself, we have raised ourselves above common expectations and worked hard to promote balanced development and good governance. That is why I feel this Award recognizes all of these achievements.

In accepting this Award, I call upon the people and governments of our two countries to further strengthen the bonds of friendship. Our two nations are located in the same continent, and we are bound much closer than we sometimes like to imagine.

Upon returning to my country, one message I want to take back is the importance of selflessness in public service. I want to convey to my friends, colleagues and the youth that we should never be selfish in our dedication to serve the people, even when we are faced with adversaries and challenges.

I will convey to my government to operationalize various good legislations that have been put in place so that they support wholesome development in a transitioning society. And I want to tell Afghan women to continue their quest for knowledge and learning to be competitive.

Within a year, my country will witness a turning point in our history. Again, women will be subjected to great tests. This period, without doubt, is a confusing period of uncertainty for us. But I am convinced that Afghans, both men and women, will prevail and democracy will succeed ultimately.

In conclusion, I like to say that this Award is one that I will cherish in my current work and future aspirations. The messages that this Award conveys will help me to commit myself to work harder to build an efficient bureaucracy and support a vibrant democracy in my country. In my humble words, I hope to serve as a role model to young men and women.

Last but not least, let me express that I commit myself to live up to the expectations and ideals of this esteemed Ramon Magsaysay Award, and I thank you once again for this great honor.

Divided by language and custom and by competition for farm and pasture lands, Afghanistan’s many peoples—Pushtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Nuristani, Hazara—warred endlessly through the centuries. In modern times, matters of religion and ideology divided them further and reinforced ancient habits of mistrust. Contained tenuously for decades by the dream of a unified Afghanistan, these divisive forces exploded in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded. The civil war that followed made Afghanistan one of the last violent crucibles of the Cold War. Yet long after the Soviets departed, the fratricidal bloodbath continues.

As a child in school, SIMA SAMAR learned what it meant to be a scorned minority in Pushtun-dominated Afghanistan; she is Hazara. She discerned, moreover, that as a female in a conservative Muslim society she was doubly “second class.” She strove to prove her own worth and embraced the reforming winds that released Muslim women from the veil. At eighteen she married and embarked on her medical education. By the time she completed her MD degree—one of the first Hazara women to do so—the Soviets had arrived and SAMAR had been politicized. As a doctor, she aided the anti-Soviet resistance movement, the mujahideen. When in 1979 her husband was arrested, never to be seen again, SAMAR and her small son fled to the safety of nearby Pakistan.

She landed in Quetta. Here thousands of refugees from war-ravaged Afghanistan lived in appalling misery. Especially wretched were the Muslim women, whose efforts to cope and care for their children were hampered by conservative mullahs who forbad them to visit male doctors and harassed those who ventured from their homes to work or attend school. Spurning a safe haven with her brothers in North America, SAMAR devoted herself to her fellow refugees.

With other women, she established a hospital for women. Later, she founded the Shuhada Clinic, which she now runs. In this small, fifteen-bed hospital, she and her staff deliver babies, perform surgery, operate a laboratory, and treat some 250 outpatients a day. Fees are low, medicines are free, and all refugees are welcome, male or female. Ariana School also founded by SAMAR, is the community’s first school for girls. Here, in a converted house, educated refugee women that she recruited lead hundreds of girls through grades one to eight; older women attend literacy classes and learn useful money-making skills. In spite of the hazards of operating in a war zone, SAMAR also runs a medical clinic in the Afghan capital of Kabul and has rehabilitated a hospital in Hazara-populated Ghazni Province, where she supports several primary schools and a high school for girls as well.

Although she is lauded by many, SAMAR’s independence and refusal to observe purdah are an anathema to religious fundamentalists. They also assail her schools for leading girls away from the cloistered women’s world of the past. SAMAR hopes to motivate other Muslim women to think and act for themselves, as she has done, but this is difficult. “Even the educated ones,” she says, “are fearful of the consequences.”

As the war in her native land grinds on interminably, SAMAR is aware that Western donors are tiring of Afghanistan. Pakistan, too, is weary of its millions of refugees. “Doctor SIMA” herself is also weary. Nevertheless, undeterred by fatigue and the mullahs and even threats to her own safety, she perseveres—practicing medicine, guiding her projects, and mobilizing international concern and financial support for Afghanistan’s many victims of war.

In electing Dr. SIMA SAMAR to receive the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her acting courageously to heal the sick and instruct the young among the Afghan refugee community in Pakistan and in her war-torn homeland.

Correction: In earlier editions of this citation, the date given for the disappearance of Sima Samar’s husband was incorrect. It is 1979 not 1984.

I congratulate all the people of the Philippines upon the birth anniversary of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, the great hero and patriot of Asia. I believe that if all of us followed in the footsteps of the honorable late president, this world would become a cradle of equality and life would be worth living for all people.

It is a great honor for me to receive this prestigious and honored award. I consider my efforts to be too small and unworthy of this award; still, it is very encouraging to see my work recognized by the Foundation. It is an indication that Afghanistan and its unfortunate, war-stricken masses are not yet forgotten by the international community and still have some friends who bear sympathy for them and their cause.

It is the obsession of my life to serve the underprivileged of humanity, especially women, and to extend to them the recognition and the rights they deserve.

I accept this award on behalf of Afghan women who have been the most oppressed and forgotten people of the Afghan community. I have only done what I consider to be essential for the unfortunate people of Afghanistan. My attempts are too small to heal all wounds inflicted on millions of my fellow countrymen and women; I shall always need the support of others, especially the sisterhood of women, for the continuation of my work.

I thank all those who have promoted my nomination for this award, all those who have been supportive in my work, the kind donors who have made my work possible, and all the people of the Philippines for their warm hospitality.