Hasina Jalal

Hasina Jalal (Persian: حسینه جلال) is an advocate for women's rights and democracy in Afghanistan. In 2014, Jalal was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the National Association of Afghanistan Civil Society and the first alliance of South Asian women on women's economic, social, and cultural rights in Sri Lanka. Jalal served in the government of Afghanistan as a research team lead and policy expert at the Presidential Palace and as a Policy Advisor to Minister and Director of Program Design and Donor Coordination Directorate at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of the Government of Afghanistan.

Personal life
Jalal is the daughter of Afghanistan's first female Presidential candidate and former Minister of Women's Affairs Massouda Jalal and former Professor of Law and Political Science and Vice-Chancellor of the Kabul University Faizullah Jalal.

She is fluent in Persian, Pashto, English, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Hindi/Urdu, and somewhat fluent in Punjabi, Arabic, and Uzbek languages.

Education
Hasina Jalal has obtained her undergraduate degree in economics with a minor in political science from the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI)--a Central University in India—as an ICCR scholar. Before joining the JMI University, she had studied economics at the Kabul University for one academic year. She has a Master of Business Administration from the American University of Afghanistan as a USAID scholar and an MA in Women's and Gender Studies from the University of Northern Iowa as a Fulbright scholar. Jalal has been a Fellow and graduate student at the School of Foreign Affairs, Georgetown University. She is working on her Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh.

Career
Hasina has established and managed several civil society organizations in Afghanistan and at the South Asian regional level. Since 2012, she is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the National Association of Afghanistan Civil Society and the first alliance of South Asian women on women's economic, social, and cultural rights in Sri Lanka. Hasina has given talks and participated in panel discussions in U.S.'s top universities such as the Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Georgetown University, American University, and by doing so, she has raised the voices of Afghan girls and women, strived to promote human rights and democracy, and challenged the institutionalized and normalized inequities and injustices including gender based inequities in Afghanistan.

Jalal has served in the government of Afghanistan as a Research Team Lead and Policy Expert at the Presidential Palace/Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan where she led a team of researchers, conducted policy-oriented research, and presented findings and recommendations to the former President of Afghanistan. She also worked as a Policy Advisor to Minister and Director of Program Design and Donor Coordination Directorate at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of the Government of Afghanistan. In this role, among other things, she oversaw the management and implementation of all programs and initiatives funded by foreign aid to the oil, gas, and mining sectors of Afghanistan, and provided policy advice to the Minister of Mines and Petroleum. Additionally, Hasina has taught economics to the bachelor of business administration students in several Kabul based universities.

Hasina's efforts and activism for gender equality, human rights, women's empowerment, and democracy has been recognized by several regional and international awards and honors: In 2012, Asian Rural Women’s Coalitions (ARWC) recognized her efforts with the "Honoring 100 Asian Women Award". In 2014, she was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace. In 2016, she has received the "Global Women Leadership Award" by the World-CSR, and she received the "World Super Achiever Award" by World Human Rights Congress in 2017. Hasina was also awarded the "Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All Award" by the Women's Economic Forum in 2020, and the Afghan public voted for her to be elected as one of the "45 Most Influential Afghan Women".