Name: Belquis Ahmadi
Location: Washington, D.C.
Fellowship: International Human Rights Law Group
Role: Afghanistan Program Coordinator

Educated, accomplished and world-traveled, Belquis Ahmadi has enjoyed a degree of freedom rare for an Afghan woman. Ahmadi, who immigrated to the United States in 1999, has devoted her career to improving the oppressive conditions faced by women in her homeland.

Today, she works as the Afghanistan Program Coordinator for the International Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG) in Washington, D.C., a non-profit organization of advocates and legal professionals who fight human right abuses around the world. Ahmadi joined IHRLG in 2000 through a two-year New Voices Fellowship, during which she developed a project addressing the plight of Afghan women.

“We have women lawyers, judges, scientists, politicians and now it is time for them to take part in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan,” said Ahmadi, who credits her fellowship with allowing her to assist women like herself. “Through the fellowship, I became an international activist. If it wasn’t for human rights work, I don’t know what else I would do.”

To Ahmadi’s credit, she is doing as much as she can. An internationally respected advocate for Afghan women’s rights, she has spoken out at numerous public forums, written impassioned op-ed articles for publications like Time and The Washington Post and fought tirelessly to keep Afghan women’s rights on the agendas of American lawmakers.

In November 2001, two months after September 11, she and several other Afghan women met at the White House with First Lady Laura Bush. The meeting was organized by Vital Voices, an American organization devoted to expanding the role of women in global politics.

“We discussed the situation for women in Afghanistan and the importance of their inclusion in the decision-making process,” recalled Ahmadi, who had met previously with former president Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

In April 2002, the IHRLG honored Ahmadi at its annual Human Rights celebration, where she was one of eight prominent Afghan women honored for their outstanding contributions. “[They] recognized that I have done something worthy to bring about change,” she said.

More than two decades of sustained violence have resulted in more than 1.5 million deaths in Afghanistan, most of whose 26 million citizens live in extreme poverty. Conditions grew increasingly oppressive under the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic militia that takes a radical approach to interpreting Islam. The resulting climate of religious extremism had disastrous human rights consequences – particularly for Afghan females.

The eldest of six children born and raised in Kabul, Ahmadi remembers when the Taliban captured the city from the brutal Mujahedeen regime in 1996. Like many of her people, she believed the Taliban offered a new and favorable vision for Afghanistan.

“When we first heard of the Taliban, people were fed up with the Mujahedeen,” Ahmadi said. “Women were raped and kidnapped; houses were looted. Afghan people were desperate for some group to come in and rescue them. The Taliban claimed they would bring peace and security and disarm the soldiers. I felt I could support them,” Ahmadi said, shaking her head at the memory.

Immediately after taking control of Kabul, the Taliban issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school or leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. The Taliban also decreed that all Afghan women must wear a burqa in public, a tent-like garment that covers the entire body except the eyes. A defiant Ahmadi refused.

“My mother begged me, my father begged me, but I said no. Wearing the burqa, to me, meant obeying the Taliban’s rules,” she said, adding that 75 percent of Afghan women – fearing reprisals – still wear it outside the home. She left Afghanistan two weeks after the Taliban took power.

In a country where because of war casualties adult women outnumber men 65 to 35 percent, it is dangerous to ignore the leadership potential of Afghan women. Ahmadi is an excellent example of it fulfilled.

Before she left Afghanistan, Ahmadi attended law school in Kabul. She resumed her studies in the U.S., waking up at 4 a.m. every day to study for evening classes at Georgetown University Law School. She graduated in May 2003 with her Master’s degree in Law.

“People see Afghan women as poor, destitute – wearing burqas and begging on the streets,” Ahmadi said. “But underneath the burqas are lawyers, judges, teachers, doctors, engineers. They beg because they have no other sources of income and want to take care of their families.”