Orzala Ashraf Nemat

• Executive Director
  Youth and Women Leadership Centre

Orzala Ashraf Nemat is a women's rights and civil society activist. She is the Founder of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) and worked as Executive Director from 1999 to 2007. She has devoted 10 years leading, establishing and delivering training programmes to Afghan women and children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Putting herself directly at risk under the Taliban regime, she launched underground literacy and health education programmes for women. Her organization initiated a safe house for women and girls victims of violence. Ashraf Nemat is a leading activist in the legal reform and advocacy for human rights and gender. She received a Yale World Fellowship 2008, Chevening Fellowship 2005 and several other awards and scholarships. She holds a Master's in Development Planning from the University of London. She has worked with international organizations as a consultant and officer, including Human Rights Watch, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNDP and UNIFEM. She represented Afghan Women in the recent International Conference for Afghanistan in The Hague, Netherlands, in March 2009.