Farida Nekzad

Farida Nekzad is a senior journalist and media trainer, who established the Center for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists in Afghanistan (CPAWJ) in 2017. She led this organization until the return of the Taliban with their capture of Kabul on 15 August 2021. Two weeks later, she left Afghanistan and started her work and education in Canada. She started her master's program in journalism and remains committed to working for journalists and supporting press freedom in Afghanistan. Nekzad is a co-founder, managing editor and former deputy director of Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghanistan's leading independent news agency, and former vice president of the South Asia Free Media Association for the South Asia Media Commission.

She won the 2008 International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award and an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The latter award is given for journalists who show courage in defending press freedom in the face of attacks, threats or imprisonment. In 2014, she was awarded the "Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media" of the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig public savings bank.

Personal life
She is married to Rahimullah Samander and has one daughter.