Zarlasht Halaimzai

Zarlasht Halaimzai
Born	1981 (age 43–44) Kabul, Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Citizenship	Afghanistan United Kingdom (naturalised)
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA) University of Oxford (MA)
Occupation(s)	Human rights activist Psychologist
Years active	2015–present
Employer	Amna
Known for	Providing therapeutic support to refugees
Honours	BBC 100 Women (2021)

Zarlasht Halaimzai (born 1981) is an Afghan-British human rights activist. She became a refugee as a child when her family fled Afghanistan following the outbreak of the Afghan Civil War in 1992, eventually settling in the United Kingdom. In 2016, Halaimzai co-founded Amna, a non-governmental organisation providing emotional and psychological support to refugees. For her activism, she was named as one of the BBC 100 Women in 2021.

Biography

Halaimzai was born and raised in Kabul; her father was a civil servant and her mother was a teacher. ^[1]

In 1992, following the withdrawal of American soldiers from Afghanistan and the explosion of a bomb close to their home, Halaimzai and her family became among 500, 000 people who fled Kabul in the first four months of the civil war. ^{[2] [3]} The family walked to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif before crossing the border into Uzbekistan, where they lived for four years. In 1996 Halaimzai, her mother and two of her brothers travelled to the United Kingdom to seek asylum, where they were initially placed in a shelter for vulnerable families in London. ^{[4] [5] [6]} The family eventually became naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom and settled in West Ham. Halaimzai reported experiencing racism from some of her neighbours and experiencing depression for around five years after moving to the country. ^{[4] [5]}

Halaimzai studied child and adolescent psychotherapeutic counselling at the University of Cambridge before going on to obtain a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy from the University of Oxford. ^[7]

Activism

Halaimzai completed teacher training at a refugee camp on the Syria–Turkey border, providing education and welfare services to families living there. In 2015, following a significant increase in refugees arriving in Greece, Halaimzai travelled there in order to provide therapeutic support; she went on to co-found the Refugee Trauma Initiative, later renamed Amna. ^{[1] [8]} For a time, it was the only organisation providing emotional and psychological support to Syrian refugees in northern Greece. It has since expanded its reach, providing support to refugees in Albania, Kosovo and Italy, in addition to working with Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Moldova. ^[5]

Halaimzai has written about the experiences of refugees and refugee rights for media outlets including The Guardian , The Washington Post , El Diario , Vogue and The Independent . ^{[4] [3] [6] [9]}

In 2018, Halaimzai was named as one of the first Obama Foundation Fellows. ^[10] In 2021, the BBC named Halaimzai as of the 100 most inspiring women of the year. ^[11]

In 2021, Halaimzai featured in a video made by Led by Donkeys and screened outside the Home Office in which she appealed to Priti Patel to help the people of Aghanistan following the Taliban takeover. ^[12]

References

1. Iaccino, Ludovica (19 July 2017). "Meet the Afghan refugee raising money for Syria's war victims to get psychological support". International Business Times. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
2. Samarasekera, Udani (11 December 2021). "Zarlasht Halaimzai: striving to provide a better future for refugees". The Lancet. 398 (10317). Retrieved 2 November 2025.
3. Halaimzai, Zarlasht (11 December 2019). "The United States' fatal flaw in Afghanistan? Excluding Afghans". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
4. Halaimzai, Zarlasht (20 July 2021). "'We tried to be joyful enough to deserve our new lives': What it's really like to be a refugee in Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
5. Thompson, Sylvia (28 March 2022). "Physical and psychological toll on refugees is huge". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
6. Halaimzai, Zarlasht (22 August 2021). "Ser refugiada afgana en Europa: la promesa imposible de una nueva vida". El Diario AR (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 November 2025.
7. "Zarlasht Halaimzai". The Wellbeing Project. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
8. "Zarlasht Halaimzai: Portrait of a GroundBreaker". Medium. 26 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
9. Halaimzai, Zarlasht (27 August 2021). ""It's A Devastation I Cannot Describe": An Afghan Activist On Seeing Crisis Engulf Her Country". Vogue. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
10. "Zarlasht Halaimzai". Refugee Trauma Initiative. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
11. "BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
12. Nicholson, Kate (20 August 2021). "Led By Donkeys Takes On Priti Patel Over Her Afghan Refugees Cap". Huff Post. Retrieved 2 November 2025.