Sonita Alizadeh

Biography

Alizadeh grew up in Herat, Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban. Her family first considered selling her as a bride when she was 10; she has said that at the time, she did not fully understand what that meant. Instead, her family fled to Iran to escape the Taliban. In Iran, Alizadeh worked by cleaning bathrooms, while she taught herself to read and write.

During this time, she also discovered the music of Iranian rapper Yas and American rapper Eminem. Inspired by their music, she started writing her own songs. In 2014, Alizadeh entered a U.S. competition to write a song to get Afghan people to vote in their elections.

She won a $1,000 prize, which she sent to her mother, who had moved back to Afghanistan. Shortly after winning, her mother sent for her to return to Afghanistan, saying she had found a man to buy her. She was 16. Her mother was trying to earn a $9,000 dowry so that her elder brother could purchase a bride, and thought she could get at least $9,000 by selling her daughter.

After Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami paid $2,000 to Sonita's mother and asked for six months of time for Sonita, she wrote "Brides for Sale" and Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami filmed the music video, which gained international attention. The video drew the attention of the nonprofit Strongheart Group, which arranged to bring Alizadeh to the U.S. She came to the United States and received her high school diploma from Wasatch Academy, an international college preparatory boarding school. Alizadeh graduated from Bard College in 2023. In 2022, she was awarded a 2023 Rhodes Scholarship.

Popular media

A documentary, called Sonita, premiered at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam in November 2015. The film gained positive reviews. It was entered into the Sundance Film Festival and won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for a documentary film. The film also showed at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2016, and Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger designated it a "don't miss" feature.