WASHINGTON – A Muslim mother, whose son was killed by a terrorist, has been honored by US State Department for her courageous fight against radicalization of youth.

“If we’re afraid, we’ll make no progress, and that’s what the terrorists want. If we cede to fear, it is they who gain ground,” Latifa Ibn Ziaten told Agence France Presse (AFP) after Tuesday’s ceremony.

Ibn Ziaten is one of 14 women who were honored by US government as “International Women of Courage”.

She is the mother of the French Muslim soldier Imad, a sergeant in France’s 1st Parachute Regiment, who was killed in 2012 after he refused to lie on the ground after being threatened by a radicalized gunman.

Gunman Mohamed Merah killed her son at point blank range during the sale of a motor scooter that Merah had advertised.

“No more Merahs,” she declared, after the troubled Merah killed her boy.

After he son’s death, she formed an association in memory of her son and began to tour prisons and schools to preach inter-faith respect.

“I dissuaded three young men from leaving for Syria,” she said.

“I work with young women who have converted. I work with a lot of parents who are having difficulty coping.”

In one of her biggest operations, Ibn Ziaten took more than a dozen young people from a Paris suburb to Israel and the Palestinian territories as “peace ambassadors.”

In another, she opened a center in Paris’ underprivileged immigrant suburbs from where many radicals emerged to listen to the concerns of young people and their families.

Dialogue

Ibn Zaiten’s association works to identify early signs of violent extremism.

“Today, some parents say: ‘We didn’t pay attention. We didn’t notice’,” she warned.

“A child left alone, living in his own head, this is what happens. That’s why I forgave Mohamed Merah,” she said.

“When I looked at his journey and I saw that he grew up in a vacuum, without love, affection, that he knew pain, prison, drugs — that’s what made him a monster.

“I forgave him for what he was but not for what he had done.”

The mother is already a recipient of France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor. Yet, she said the US award would only encourage her in her mission.

During a ceremony held on Tuesday, she was invited to explain her anti-radicalization message in American cities.

“We need to open up the housing projects, the ghettos. We need to promote diversity in schools, equality of opportunity,” she explained.

“We need to listen to those young people who, when they speak at all, say ‘the republic has forgotten us’,” she said.

“That’s where the malaise lies.”

Honor List

Here follows a list of 14 honored women as compiled by AFP:

Bangladeshi barrister Sara Hossain helped draft her country’s laws on violence against women and has argued landmark rights cases before the supreme court.

Debra Baptist-Estrada is commander of the immigration department at Belize’s main airport and has worked with US officials against corruption and trafficking.

Ni Yulan, a disabled Chinese property rights lawyer, was the only honoree not to receive her award in person, having been forbidden from traveling by her government.

France’s Latifa Ibn Ziaten became an activist promoting interfaith dialogue in 2012 after her soldier son was slain by Islamist extremist Mohamed Merah.

Attorney General Thelma Aldana of Guatemala began her career as a courtroom janitor and has now brought corruption charges against the highest in the land.

Nagham Nawzat Hasan is an Iraqi gynecologist and a member of the country’s persecuted Yazidi minority. She works with girls kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.

Transgender rights advocate Nisha Ayub continues to work for justice despite being sexually abused after being sentenced to a men’s prison for wearing women’s clothing.

Mauritania’s first female attorney Fatimata M’baye was honored as co-founder and president of the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights and fights slavery.

Russian journalist Zhanna Nemtsova has braved death threats to campaign for justice for her father, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, assassinated last year.

Zuzana Stevulova, director of the Human Rights League of Slovakia, is the foremost champion of the rights of refugees flowing into Europe from war in the Middle East.

Awadeya Mahmoud, founder of the Women’s Food and Tea Sellers’ Cooperative in Sudan has championed the rights of small businesswomen against authoritarian government.

Former BBC journalist Vicky Ntetema exposed the trade in the body parts of murdered albinos used in ritual magic and now leads an NGO dedicated to ending it.

Thai bookseller Rodjaraeg Wattanapanit has twice been sent to re-education camps by her country’s military junta but still provides a space for political free expression.

Nihal Naj Ali Al-Awlaqi, Yemen’s minister of legal affairs, helped put women’s rights in a draft constitution and is involved in talks to end her country’s civil war.

Next month, the honorees will tour US cities to meet American people and discuss their work to improve the lives of women and girls around the world.

Ibn Ziaten found the inspiration for her quest at the scene of Merah’s last stand, cut down in a hail of police bullets after the siege of his apartment.