Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan parliamentary lawmaker, accomplished author, and internationally known outspoken advocate for the rights of women and children, democracy, and moderate Islam. She is the first woman in the Afghan parliament to be elected as Second Deputy Speaker, and she heads the parliament’s Women Affairs Commission. Not only has Koofi humanized the otherwise faceless international discussion of the struggles and abuse of Afghan women, she is on the forefront of educating the international community as to the consequences for her, and other advocates of reform should the international community and their security forces be withdrawn. Koofi has also been part of the negotiation delegation with the Taliban.

Koofi started her political career in 2001 when she began to promote a “Back To School” campaign targeted at the rights of women in Afghanistan to an education. By 2002 she took employment as a Child Protection Officer with UNICEF, and in 2005 she was elected as a parliamentary representative for Badakhshan province, her native region in the rural mountains of northern Afghanistan.

Through the WPHF Funding Window for Women Human Rights Defenders, Koofi traveled to Geneva in June 2022 to request the Human Rights Council to hold an urgent debate on the women’s and girls’ rights crisis in Afghanistan, which took place thanks to her advocacy efforts together with other Afghan women leaders. Three months later, in September, she also received travel assistance from WPHF to brief the UN Security Council in New York on the situation in Afghanistan.

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