Biography
Azra Jafari, Afghanistan’s first female mayor (Nili, Daikundi Province, Dec 2008- Jan 2014), was born in 1978 in the Ghor province of Afghanistan. She obtained a midwifery diploma from I.H.S Kabul in 2006 and studied at the Nonviolence and Peace Studies center at Rhode Island university from 2015-2016. Azra began her work as a social activist at the age of 17 where she established a non-profit school for Afghan refugees living in Iran. Her school taught more than 8,000 students that graduated and continued their education in universities all over the globe. She returned to Afghanistan in 2002 to join the Emergency Loya Jirga (Great Council). Azra joined the Research Committee of Secretariats for the Afghanistan Constitution Commission. Her team helped commissioners draft a new constitution for Afghanistan in 2004. Later on in December of 2008 Azra Jafari made history by becoming Afghanistan's first female mayor in Nili the capital of Daikundi province. As a mayor, Azra put great efforts in bringing positive change to the city infrastracture, public service and women’s rights. She also wrote a book on the rights of Afghan women in the labor market titled “I’m a woman worker,” and was a co-writer for, “The New Afghanistan Constitution.” As a result of her commitment to peace, human and women’s rights, Azra received the Meeto Memorial Award for Young South Asians in 2011. Today Azra continues to support and advocate for women, Afghan refugees, and Hazara communities all around the globe.