Fawzia Koofi

Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician and human rights advocate.  She served as Vice President of the National Assembly of Afghanistan.  She was also a member of the peace negotiation team in Doha.

Ms. Koofi’s family background and interest in public service propelled her to pave the road for many women.  After completing her baccalaureate degree, she entered a competitive medical school.  However, soon after the Taliban took over her country in 1995, they barred women from access to education, so she focused her energy on women’s rights organizations and worked closely with vulnerable groups, such as internally displaced people and marginalized women and children.  She also worked with UNICEF on women’s and children’s rights.

She decided to run for Parliament from the Badakhshan province and was elected in 2005 to the first democratically-elected parliament in 33 years.  She was also elected as the first woman Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan.  She successfully ran for reelection.  She chaired Parliament’s standing committee on women and human rights.  She was also a member and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Committee on Human Rights from 2016-2019.  Some of the key initiatives that she championed include the improvement of women’s living conditions in Afghan prisons, preventing violence against women and children, promoting women’s and girls’ access to education, creating opportunities for non-formal education for out-of-school children, and ensuring the protection of human rights for all citizens.

Ms. Koofi is the leader of a newly-established political party in Afghanistan, Movement for Change.  In 2021, the Taliban put her under house arrest as soon as they captured Kabul, but she eventually managed to flee the country.  Since then, she has traveled across the world to meet world leaders, human rights organizations, and civil society activists to keep the focus on Afghanistan, especially the repression of women and girls.  She continues to advocate for full protection of women’s rights and warns world leaders of the security consequences of ignoring the situation in Afghanistan.  She was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ms. Koofi is the author of The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future (originally published as Letters to my Daughters).  She has been recognized as one of BBC 100 Women, Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, the Fearless Mind by Times Magazine, 50 Great Leaders by Fortune Magazine, and has received many prestigious international awards.

Ms. Koofi holds a bachelor’s degree from Kabul University’s Law and Political Science faculty and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Human Rights from the Geneva School of Diplomacy.