Dr Mahrang Baloch, a human rights activist and leader of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has been featured among Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People 2024’ list for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights”.
The list, which includes leaders, innovators, advocates and artists, recognise many of today’s most influential leaders “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact,” the magazine said on Wednesday.
Mahrang was selected for “advocating peacefully” for Baloch rights and leading the December 2023 march to Islamabad, where hundreds of women sought “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers”.
The 31-year-old doctor took to her official Facebook account to share a post with a picture of magazine featuring herself and announce that she has made it to TIME Magazine's "100 most influential people of 2024" list.
“I am deeply honored and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by TIME,” she wrote on a Facebook post after receiving the recognition.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh student leader Nahid Islam and Gazan food blogger Hamada Shaqoura also made it to the list.
“The sociology graduate is one of the faces of a student movement that kick-started countrywide protests against Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. One of many protest leaders, he became more widely known after being tortured by the country’s notorious intelligence services,” the magazine wrote.
Anti-government protests in Bangladesh — which began as student-led demonstrations against government hiring rules in July — concluded with the country's "autocratic" prime minister Hasina fleeing to India.
Hamada Shaqoura, who ran a marketing business promoting Gaza’s once thriving food scene, found a new platform as a “wartime food blogger” after the destruction by Israeli bombing.
Shaqoura’s videos, showing him cooking and distributing meals, have earned him hundreds of thousands of followers and offer a glimpse of life and resilience under bombardment.
The 33-year-old told the magazine that he posts his videos in part to spotlight how vital it is for the children around him to receive proper nutrition. This summer, UNICEF reported that 90% of children in Gaza suffered from severe food poverty, putting their growth, and their health, at risk.