Outspoken: My Fight For Freedom And Human Rights In Afghanistan with Sima Samar

Please join the Women and Public Policy Program, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and the Harvard College Women's Center for a talk featuring Dr. Sima Samar, the author of 'Outspoken: My Fight For Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan.' Dr. Samar has been fighting for equality and justice for most of her life. Born into a polygamous family, she learned early that girls had inferior status, and she had to agree to an arranged marriage if she wanted to go to university. By the time she was in medical school, she had a son, Ali, and had become a revolutionary. Dr. Samar’s wide-ranging experiences both in her home country and on the world stage have given her inside access to the dishonesty, the collusion, the corruption, the self-serving leaders, and the hijacking of religion. With stories that are at times poignant, at times terrifying, inspiring as well as disheartening, Dr. Samar provides an unparalleled view of Afghanistan’s past and its present.

Dr. Sima Samar, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and renowned human rights advocate, has dedicated her life to public service, humanitarian work, and women’s empowerment. She is a Hazara 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. Since 2002 she has been the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) which holds human rights violators accountable and sets the human rights agenda in Afghanistan. Dr. Samar is currently a Scholar at Risk fellow at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, where she brings her expertise and insights into pressing human rights issues to the Tufts community. She was formerly a Scholar-at-Risk at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Moderator Lina Tori Jan serves as the Assistant Director at the Harvard College Women’s Center (HCWC), where she supports the center’s mission of advancing gender equity through meaningful engagement with women’s and gender issues. Prior to joining the center, Lina worked at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), where she led policy initiatives and programming on Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iran. She played a key role in crisis response, policy advocacy, and coordination of stakeholder engagement across the U.S. government, the United Nations, civil society, and the private sector.