KATHMANDU: Late Pakistani rights activist Sabeen Mahmud was honoured with the fifth Meeto Memorial Award in Kathmandu on Friday.

“Sabeen was working for peace, harmony, rights, justice and peace so she is in our hearts and will always be. Though anti-humanity elements eliminated her body but her vision will always be alive so I salute her courage, I salute her vision,” Indian feminism activist Kamla Bhasin told Dawn.

She said Sabeen was the hope and message of love and courage. “Her message is an inspiring factor for us. Though, geographically, she was in Pakistan but what she fought against is the same beyond borders,” she added.

Mona Sherpa a representative of Sangat honouring Sabeen said that it was an unfortunate moment that the brave icon lost her life.

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“If I remember one thing about her, it is her courage and saying 'fear is nothing but just a line',” she said, adding, “If we really want to honor Sabeen then we have to have that fearlessness and live our lives as she did, being the voice of those people who are traumatised, those who are in very difficult situation.”

Hundreds of women from across the South Asian countries gathered in a ceremony held here in Kathmandu to honour the young Pakistani rights activists for her bravery and struggle for rights, peace and justice.

The ceremony was organised by civil society organisations in collaboration with Sangat, a South Asian Feminist Network.

The award is given to young South Asians whose work demonstrates a commitment to communal harmony, peace, justice and human rights.

Meeto Memorial Award was established to remember Meeto — Kamaljit Bhasin Malik — a young Indian activist who was working on how Ganga Jamna culture ended. She died at the age of 27.