User:Popo 56

Orzala Ashraf Nemat (born May 24, 1977) is an Afghan civil society and human rights/women's activist.

Orzala is the founder of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) and worked as executive director between 1999 and 2007 for this organization.

Orzala has devoted ten years of experience in leading, establishing and delivering training programs to Afghan women & children in Pakistan & Afghanistan. Often putting herself directly at risk under the Taliban regime, she launched underground literacy & health education programs for women. Her organization initiated a Safe House for women and girls victims of violence. Orzala is a leading activist in the legal reform and advocacy for human rights and gender.

Orzala has been awarded recently with Young Global Leaders 2009 by World Economic Forum and Yale World Fellows 2008, Chevening Fellowship 2005 and several other awards and scholarships. Orzala holds Masters in Development Planning from the University of London. She has worked with different international organizations as a consultant and officer, including Human Rights Watch, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNDP and UNIFEM. She is on the executive board of several civil society & human rights networks in Afghanistan. She represented Afghan Women in the recent International Conference for Afghanistan in The Hague, Netherlands in March 2009. Currently she is working as an independent consultant to an international NGO working on conflict transformation and peace-building.

References:

1- Yale World Fellow's webpage: http://www.yale.edu/worldfellows/fellows/ashrafnemat.html

2- Women Waging Peace Network:  http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/7673_orzala_ashraf.cfm

3- World Economic Forum: http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Young%20Global%20Leaders/Whoweare/profiles/index.htm?per_id=218198&cgr_code=YGL09&Country=2