Rula F. Saadah Ghani is the wife of Ashraf Ghani who served as fifth President of Afghanistan until his government was overthrown by the Taliban on August 15, 2021. The Ghani family fled from Afghanistan on the same day. Rula advocated for women’s rights as the First Lady and was named to the Time 100 list by Time magazine in 2015.
Afghan politician and women's rights activist Fawzia Koofi is the incumbent Member of the Wolesi Jirga for Badakhshan since 2005. She became the first woman in history of Afghanistan who served as Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament. She held office as Vice President of National Assembly and presently serves as Chairperson of Afghanistan's Women, Civil Society and Human Rights Commission.
Niloofar Rahmani is the first woman in Afghanistan’s history who became fixed-wing Air Force aviator. She is Afghan Air Force’s first female pilot since 2001 fall of Taliban. Despite receiving death threats, Rahmani completed her training which included training on C-130s with the US Air Force. She received International Women of Courage Award and was granted asylum in the US.
Afghan socialist and Marxist-Leninist politician Anahita Ratebzad is noted as one of the first four women who were elected to the Afghan parliament during 1965 election. A member of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and Revolutionary Council, Ratebzad held significant positions including as Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council, and Member of the Politburo of PDPA.
Afghan feminist politician and award-winning journalist Shukria Barakzai has previously been the Afghan ambassador to Norway. She has been under death threats from the Taliban for her views. She whispered voice notes from Kabul to the UK during the 2021 Taliban takeover and had a narrow escape from Afghanistan.
Afghan physician and politician Fatima Aziz was elected as a Member of the Afghanistan Parliament for Kunduz province during the 2005 Afghan parliamentary election, the first free parliamentary election that was held in Afghanistan after over three-decades. She got re-elected in subsequent elections in 2010 and 2018 and held office as an MP till she died of cancer in 2021.
A champion for human rights and women’s rights, Afghan social activist Sima Samar has also been Afghanistan’s minister of women's affairs during the reign of President Hamid Karzai. The Right Livelihood Award winner is a doctor who has worked for the betterment of Afghan women and children.
Former Afghan ambassador to the US, Adela Raz also scripted history as the first female politician to be the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations. She continued to serve as an ambassador even after the 2021 Taliban takeover but resigned in February 2022.
Former Afghan National Army brigadier general Khatool Mohammadzai scripted history as Afghanistan’s first female paratrooper. A 35-time decorated soldier, she has also worked as a military instructor. She was also the first female general since the Soviets left Afghanistan. In the Taliban regime of the 1990s, she ran a secret girls’ school.
Afghan hematologist and politician Habiba Sarābi scripted history as Afghanistan’s first female governor when she became the governor of Bamiyan. She was also her country’s 2nd minister of women's affairs. The 2013 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner has also been a member of Afghanistan’s Peace Negotiation Team.
Former Afghan Air Force helicopter pilot Latifa Nabizada scripted history as one of the first 2 Afghan women pilots who could fly a Mi-17 helicopter. In 2013, she quite her flying career amid death threats from the Taliban and switched to a desk job at the Afghan defense ministry instead.
Hosna Jalil scripted history as Afghanistan’s first female deputy minister of interior. She has also served as a deputy minister in Afghanistan’s Ministry for Women’s Affairs. She was in US for higher studies when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021. She now works as a board member at UNODC.
Afghan legislator Fauzia Gailani has been a Wolesi Jirga member for Herat Province. She had initially launched a chain of fitness centers and was an aerobics instructor. Forced to marry at 13, the mother of 6 later became a vocal champion of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Afghan physician and Harvard School of Public Health alumna Suraya Dalil has also been Afghanistan’s public health minister. She has also been Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN. She has worked with UNICEF and has been the director of the WHO program on primary health care.
Robina Muqimyar, one of the first two women who represented Afghanistan at the Olympics, competed during 2004 and 2008 Olympics and drew international-attention for wearing the hijab while running. She became an MP in 2019. After the Taliban seized power in 2021 resulting in fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, there is no-trace of Robina since August 29, 2021.
Former Afghan minister of mines, petroleum and industries Nargis Nehan was one of millions of refugees who fled Afghanistan during the Afghan Civil War and grew up in Pakistan. She has been the first Afghan woman to be part of the Afghan Central Bank’s leadership.
Apart from being the former Afghan minister of women’s affairs, Husn Banu Ghazanfar is also an author and a poet. She has been a part of the faculty program of Kabul University’s literature department. She has also penned various books, such as The Human Fate.
International Women of Courage Award-winning Afghan gynecologist and obstetrician Nasrin Oryakhil has not only headed a maternity hospital in Kabul but has also launched the first Afghan clinic for obstetric fistula repair. She later took over as Afghanistan’s minister of labor.
Afghan politician, legal advisor, and poet Qadria Yazdanparast has been an Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission commissioner. She has not just headed a law school in Afghanistan but has also organized a women’s rights conference in the country in spite of constant threat from the Taliban.
An International Affairs lecturer at the George Washington University, Nilofar Sakhi is an Afghan scholar and human rights activist. She is also the founder of Herat’s first women’s NGO, WASSA. She has also been associated with organizations such as McColm & Company and works extensively on human security and peace-building projects.
Apart from being a social affairs minister, Amina Afzali has also been a prominent women’s rights activist in Afghanistan. She has headed the Independent Human Rights Commission. While in Iran after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she worked for literacy of Afghan refugees. She also established Kabul’s first free school.
Afghan author and politician Masuma Esmati-Wardak has previously been a minister of education. She also became one of the first women to be part of the Afghan parliament. She has also served as the president of the Afghan Women's Council and is equipped with a business degree from the US.
Afghan women’s rights activist and politician Azra Jafari scripted history as the country’s first female mayor. While she initially grew up as a refugee in Iran, she later went back to Afghanistan. She contributed to a couple of books, founded an elementary school, and also worked for a cultural magazine.