Wazhma Frogh

Wazhma Frogh with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (left) and First Lady Michelle Obama (right) in 2009

Wazhma Frogh is an Afghan women's rights activist. [1] [2] In the eighth grade, she tutored her landlord's children, so that the landlord would reduce her rent and she and her sisters could thus afford school. [3] At age 17, she exposed poor living conditions and abuses of women in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan while interning at a Pakistani newspaper. [3] From 1992 to 2001, she organized community-based empowerment programs for women in Aghanistian while she herself lived in Peshawar, returning to Afghanistan in 2001. [4] In 2002 she finished the first gender assessment of women’s conditions in Nuristan, Afghanistan. [4] Frogh also supported the creation of Women Development Centers in the Kandahar, Ghazni, Herat, and Parwan provinces of Afghanistan. [4]

Frogh was the co-founder and as of 2013 is the director of the Afghan organization Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security. [2] In 2013, she tried to visit the United States to avoid a militia commander who she identified in a report to NATO as a repeat rights violator. [5] However, he continued to threaten her and her sisters and, although the U.S- based Institute of Inclusive Security invited Frogh to spend six to 12 months as a visiting fellow, her visa was denied. [5]

She has also written for The Guardian on the subject of Afghanistan. [6]

She supports the U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which Afghanistan ratified in 2003. [7] [8]

Frogh received a 2009 International Women of Courage Award. [1]

External Links

References

  1. 1 2 The Secretary of State's 2009 International Women of Courage Awards
  2. 1 2 Wazhma Frogh - The Independent
  3. 1 2 Wazhma Frogh: Opening the Doors for Women in Afghanistan | DipNote
  4. 1 2 3 Institute for Inclusive Security Wazhma Frogh » Institute for Inclusive Security
  5. 1 2 Frustration in Afghan women's rights struggle
  6. ↑ Wazhma Frogh | The Guardian
  7. ↑ Afghanistan: Failing Commitments to Protect Women's Rights | Human Rights Watch
  8. ↑ CEDAW ratification would be a triumph for Afghan women | TheHill
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