Safeena Husain, founder of the non-profit organisation Educate Girls, was named to TIME magazine's Women of the Year 2026 list (announced around February 27 – March 5, 2026), joining 16 global leaders recognised for advancing equity and opportunity for women and girls worldwide.

Safeena founded Educate Girls in 2007 to address the challenge of out-of-school girls in India's rural, remote, and tribal communities, beginning with just 50 villages in Rajasthan. The organisation has since scaled to over 30,000 villages across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, working through the Team Balika network of over 55,000 community champions to identify, enrol, and retain girls in education. To date, Educate Girls has helped over 2 million girls return to school.

In 2025, the organisation became the first Indian non-profit to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award — often called Asia's Nobel Prize — for its grassroots model that transforms community attitudes toward girls' education. Safeena is also the author of 'Every Last Girl: A Journey to Educate India's Forgotten Daughters' (2026). The recognition is significant for Rajasthan, where female literacy (52.66% as per Census 2011) and girl child school dropout rates remain challenges in rural and tribal districts like Barmer, Jaisalmer, and Jalor.