Afghanistan

Rafi Behroozian was born in Herat in 1978 and lived in Iran as a migrant for 23 years. He returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. In the last decade he has been a musician and audiovisual media activist. He is the founder of the Daf Cultural Centre.

Professor Seifuddin Sayhoun was one of the principal planners for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs strategy on economic rights and the security of women. He studied economics at university and started teaching at Kabul University’s Economics School in 1994.

This is Security Council Report’s fourth Cross-Cutting Report on Women, Peace and Security. These reports systematically track the Security Council’s work on women, peace and security, highlighting trends that have developed since the matter first emerged as a distinct thematic issue in 2000.

This report assesses the overall situation of women in Afghanistan across key sectors, acting as a follow-up to the report published by the World Bank in 2005 entitled, Afghanistan: National Reconstruction and Poverty Reduction – Role of Women in Afghanistan’s Future.

Torpikai Nawabi is an elected Member of the Kabul Provincial Council. She has an MA in Administration and Management from India. She has been a long-term activist in favour of women’s rights.

Ahmad Fahim Hakim is a civil society and human rights activist. He was previously the Deputy Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. He is a graduate of York University in Britain.

Saeed Haqiqi is a journalist and writer from Herat.

Mary Nabard Ayeen is a journalist. She is the Deputy Director of Bhakhtar News Agency, the official state news agency of Afghanistan, and Managing Editor of the weekly publication Seerat.

The contents of this newsletter focus on World Bank Group support, ongoing operations, the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust, project results, and IFC Advisroy Services Projects. The ongoing operations mentioned in this newsletter concern education and training, the financial sector, health, infrastructure, rural development, social safety nets, and urban development.

Mohammad Yaqub Mashuf is an economist and writer. He also collaborates with mainstream Afghan media and produces articles on economic and political affairs.