Bio

Noorjahan Akbar is a feminist advocate and author from Afghanistan. She has worked with several Afghan and global organizations focusing on women’s empowerment and ending gender-based violence and led nation-wide campaigns and protests in defense of human rights. She currently runs Free Women Writers, a collective of activists and writers in Afghanistan and the diaspora advocating for gender equality and social justice, where she’s published two books, دختران رابعه and You Are Not Alone/تو تنها نیستی, a booklet for Afghan women facing violence at home.

Noorjahan has been recognized for her efforts for gender equality at home and internationally and published on Al Jazeera and The New York Times, among other outlets. She was Glamour Magazine’s College Women of the Year in 2013 and featured on Forbes’s Women Changing the World, Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women, and The Daily Beast’s Women Who Shake the World lists.

Noorjahan has a BA in Sociology from Dickinson College and a Masters in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University.

For more information, visit her website.

Sub-specialties: Women’s rights and issues, feminism, Afghan women, gender-based violence, education, the intersection of international development and women’s rights.

Articles, Publications, Appearances