Roya Rahmani is an Afghan diplomat who has served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-resident ambassador to Singapore.

Previously, she worked for Afghanistan's Ministry of Education as a Planning and Evaluation Advisor (2011). She later joined Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first as a senior advisor to the Deputy Foreign Minister (2011), then as Director General of Regional Cooperation Initiatives (2012-2016).

Before entering government, she worked for several nonprofits that primarily focused on women's rights and education.[2] She received a bachelor's degree in software engineering from McGill University in 2003 and a master's degree in public administration and international law at Columbia University in 2009.

On 14 December 2018, Rahmani was appointed Ambassador to the United States by President Ghani, the first woman to hold the position. She took up the post just as President Trump announced his intention to withdraw troops from her country. She said, "women have been treated like a minority, but they are not a minority. Together, the women and the youth are actually a majority, and they are not willing to give up their rights. They are not willing to compromise their human rights and go back to the old days." She replaced Hamdullah Mohib, who had resigned three months earlier to become National Security Adviser.

In May 2019, Rahmani criticized the Trump government after ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad engaged in direct talks with the Taliban, who have rejected engaging in talks with the Afghan government, saying "They are not our government, they are not our representatives" and that ending the war "should be decided by the people who are most affected by the process."

Ambassador, Afghanistan, Muslim, Women's Rights, Education, Education Policy & Reform, Human Rights, Political, Political Journalism, Media Professionals, Peacekeeping, Geopolitics