Zarifa Ghafari

Zarifa Ghafari is a courageous civil rights activist who is devoted to defending women’s rights.

Her story begins in Kabul in 1992 where she soon fled from the Taliban to Germany, where she now lives and fights for human rights in Afghanistan and in the world.

After completing her higher education, Zarifa worked in various fields and quickly began to advocate for the protection and rights of Afghan women.

As part of this initiative, Zarifa established the Afghan Women's Development and Help Foundation. The mission of this foundation was to advocate for the enlistment of women in the Afghan National Army, especially for girls living in slums who have reached the minimum legal age.

Zarifa was later appointed as the representative of the Youth Parliament of Maidan Wardak Province where she worked for youth empowerment, social development and solving problems.

By establishing a close relationship between the people and the state, she soon established PEGHAL FM radio in Maidan Wardak, one of the most marginalized provinces.

Zarifa became the first female mayor of Maidan Wardak province in 2017 and in July 2018, men barricaded her official residence and threatened her for trying to disseminate information about women’s rights, political, economic and social development initiatives via her radio program.

In 2019 Zarifa made the list of "BBC's 100 Inspiring and Influential Women from Around the World".

In 2020, Zarifa was honored by the U.S. Department of State as an “International Women of Courage”, was included in "The Badass 50 list" and received the “Women Who Can Change the World" award from InStyle.

Zarifa speaks passionately about Global Politics, The Right to Education, Women's Rights, Human Rights and Afghanistan. She is an impactful speaker who uses her incredible story to transform the lives of audiences worldwide.