Sima Samar is an internationally recognised human rights and women’s rights advocate. She is the founder of The Shuhada Organisation, which operates 55 schools for girls and boys in Afghanistan and three schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She was forced to work for 17 years out of Pakistan after her husband was arrested in 1979 during Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. She never saw him again. Samar convened and currently chairs the Independent Afghanistan Human Rights Commission and she established Afghanistan’s first Ministry of Women’s Affairs. She also served as the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan.
Afghanistan
