Herat is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan,located in the western part of the country. Together with Badghis,Farah,and Ghor provinces,it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city and administrative capital is Herat City. The province of Herat is divided into about 17 districts and contains over 2,000 villages. It has a population of about 3,780,000,making it the second most populated province in Afghanistan behind Kabul Province. The population is multi-ethnic but largely Persian-speaking. Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites,including the Herat Citadel and the Musalla Complex. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan,as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan.
General Abdul Rahim Wardak is an Afghan politician and former Defense Minister of Afghanistan. He was appointed on December 23,2004,by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Before this appointment,Wardak was the deputy Defense Minister to the former minister,Mohammed Fahim. During the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War,Wardak had been a national Mujahideen resistance leader who fought the Soviet forces. He is an ethnic Pashtun from the Wardak province. His diplomacy has been instrumental in promoting ethnic reconciliation due to his lineage from tribal chieftains with strong Pashtun relationships with all ethnic groups of the country. He is fluent in Pashto,Dari (Persian),and English.
Maidan Shar,also Maidan Shahr or simply Maidan,is the capital of Maidan Wardak province in central Afghanistan. Its population was estimated to be 35,008 in 2003,of which is mostly Hazaras.
Sima Samar is a Hazara woman and human rights advocate,activist and medical doctor within national and international forums,who served as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2003. She is the former Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and,from 2005 to 2009,United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. In 2012,she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her longstanding and courageous dedication to human rights,especially the rights of women,in one of the most complex and dangerous regions in the world."
Chak is a district in the southern part of Maidan Wardak Province of Afghanistan. Its population was estimated at 83,376 in 2005,the last year for which figures are available. The administrative center of Chak district is the town of Chak.
Ross L. Wilson is an American diplomat who was the chargéd'affaires of the United States to Afghanistan from 2020 to 2021. He was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2005 to 2008 and the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2000 to 2003,with the personal rank of minister-counselor. He also teaches part-time at Carleton College. Wilson also previously served as director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council.
Zakia Zaki was an Afghan journalist for the Afghan Radio Peace (Sada-i-Sulh) station north of Kabul,Afghanistan. She had been given threats on account of her work and was killed at her home outside of Kabul in April 2007. Zaki was the first Afghani journalist to speak out against the Taliban after the US forces initiated the War in Afghanistan (2001–present),while she also championed other causes like gender equality and women's rights in Afghanistan. Her murder was seen as part of a series of recent attacks against high-profile Afghan women.
Afghanistan first competed at the Paralympic Games during the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta,where it was represented by cyclists Gul Afzal and Zabet Khan.
Mellissa Veronica Fung is a Canadian journalist with CBC News,appearing regularly as a field correspondent on The National.
Anahita Ratebzad was an Afghan socialist and Marxist-Leninist politician and a member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and vice-president of the Revolutionary Council under the leadership of Babrak Karmal. One of the first women elected to the Afghan parliament,Ratebzad was deputy head of state from 1980 to 1986.
Zakia Hussein,also known as Zakia Hussein Ahmed,is a Somali politician who has made significant strides in the country's security forces,becoming a role model for women across Somalia. Zakia Hussein hails from the Surre sub-division of the wider Dir clan.
Zakia Soman is an Indian women's rights activist and the founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan,a non-governmental women's rights organization.
Zakia Ismael Hakki was an Iraqi Feyli Kurdish lawyer. She and Sabiha al-Shaykh Da'ud became the first female judges in Iraq respectively in 1956–1959. Hakki fled Iraq in 1996 after her husband was killed and was granted asylum in the United States. She returned to Iraq in 2003 and was elected to the National Assembly of Iraq and was an advisor in the drafting of the constitution.
Roya Rahmani is an Afghan diplomat who served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico,Argentina,Colombia,and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. She is currently the Chair of the international advisory company in development finance —Delphos International LTD. She is also a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women,Peace,and Security,a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center,and a senior fellow for international security at the New America Foundation. From 2016 to 2018,she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia,first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,and non-resident ambassador to Singapore.
Zarifa Ghafari is a former female mayor of Maidan Shahr,capital city of the Wardak Province,Afghanistan. Ghafari was one of the few Afghan female mayors,next to the first Afghanistan's mayor,Azra Jafari and Khadija Zahra Ahmadi,and was also the youngest to be appointed,at the age of 24. She is known for her efforts to advance women's rights in Afghanistan. Ghafari was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in 2020 by the US Secretary of State. She has survived three assassination attempts.
Zakia Khudadadi also spelt as Zakia Khodadadi;is an Afghan parataekwondo practitioner. She is the first Afghan female taekwondo practitioner. She rose to prominence after winning the African International Parataekwondo Championship in 2016 at the age of 18. She represented Afghanistan at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. She was initially denied the opportunity to compete at her first Paralympics due to the Taliban takeover but was later allowed by the International Paralympic Committee to compete in the event after being safely evacuated from Afghanistan. She was able to compete and became the first Afghan female Paralympic competitor to compete at the Paralympics in 17 years since Mareena Karim's participation at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. She also officially became the first Afghan female sportsperson to participate in an international sporting event after the Taliban takeover and the first-ever member of the Refugee Paralympic Team to win a medal.
Asila Wardak is an Afghan human rights activist,women's activist,former diplomat,and the first Afghan woman elected as a member of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Independent Human Rights Commission. Wardak is one of the co-founders of the Afghan Women's Network. She served as Minister Counselor at the Afghanistan Mission to the United Nations. She also worked as the head of the human rights issue for Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Roshanak Wardak is an Afghan gynaecologist and former politician from Maidan Wardak Province. In 2021,she was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women,alongside fifty other Afghan women.
Wahida Amiri is an Afghan librarian and women's rights activist. She was featured in the BBC 100 Women 2021 for her continued efforts protesting against the Taliban and their ban on women's education and right to work.
