Roya Rahmani

Roya Rahmani (; born May 1978) is a former Afghan diplomat who served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. She is currently the Director of Global Engagement at the World Bank Group. She serves as the Chair of the international advisory company in development finance — Delphos International LTD. She is also a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, and a senior fellow for international security at the New America Foundation. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-resident ambassador to Singapore. She was a Fulbright scholar.

Career

Nonprofit Work After graduating with her bachelor's degree in 2004, Rahmani returned to Afghanistan and worked for several Canadian nonprofits focusing on human rights, women's empowerment, and education. She was the second woman appointed as an ambassador by President Ashraf Ghani, after he vowed to give women more leadership positions.

Ambassador to the United States On 14 December 2018, Rahmani was appointed Ambassador to the United States by President Ghani, the first woman to hold the position. She took up the post just as President Trump announced his intention to withdraw troops from her country. She said, "women have been treated like a minority, but they are not a minority. Together, the women and the youth are actually a majority, and they are not willing to give up their rights. They are not willing to compromise their human rights and go back to the old days."

Ambassador Rahmani also served as Afghanistan's non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. At this time, her work focused particularly on family law reform in the Muslim context. Rahmani and Musawah "decided to prioritise the marriage contract because it seemed to be a feasible and practical remedy to secure the rights of women within families. Amending the family law required complex procedures, whereas the marriage contract only needed the Supreme Court’s approval”.

Rahmani also took part in the inaugural Indonesian Congress of Women Ulama while serving as ambassador to Indonesia. She encouraged the formation of more women's ulamas, saying "It's time to get angry about violence committed in the name of our religion that we practice every day to seek refuge and peace."

After becoming ambassador to the United States, she continued to advocate for women's rights, especially women's role in the peace process. She has consistently said that a peace deal that ignores half of the population will not work. Roya Rahmani has been especially vocal about this situation.

Peace process In May 2019, Rahmani criticized the Trump government after Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad engaged in direct talks with the Taliban, who have rejected engaging in talks with the Afghan government, saying "They are not our government, they are not our representatives" and that ending the war "should be decided by the people who are most affected by the process."

TIME Magazine referred to Rahmani as "a fierce advocate for peace on Afghan terms".

Awards and Recognitions

In 2007, Rahmani was awarded the Best Human Rights Activist Award by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for her work on a marriage document that secured equitable rights for the family and contributed to data collection at a national level. In 2017, her work in Indonesia led her to be named “The People’s Ambassador” by Tatler Indonesia. In 2019, she was included on TIME Magazine's "100 Next List" because she was a “fierce advocate of peace on Afghan terms.” In 2019, she was recognized by the Alliance for Peacebuilding for her efforts to create an inclusive peace process.

Controversies

Pajhwok Afghan News has released a series of media reports making accusations against Rahmani, including regarding a construction project at the DC embassy. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a full rejection of their claims, addressing specific accusations made by Pajhwok.

Rahmani released an article via Afghan media platform 8AM denying the accusations and calling for a full investigation. In the article, she said the Pajhwok report was biased, their conclusions contradicted the documents they had published, and that it had been published in order to destroy her personally because she was a woman. However, TOLOnews reported that there were "a number of contradictions in the text of the indictment paper" and that the Attorney General's Office and case prosecutors were not willing to respond to questions about the contradictions.

The documents also show that the appellate court of the Anti-Corruption Justice Center (ACJC), Afghanistan's primary anti-corruption court, has been asked to try the accused officials on charges of embezzlement of $790,000 from the project. However, the ACJC has said it rejects the allegations and returned the indictment papers to the Attorney General's Office, citing technical and investigative shortcomings.

After the taliban's comeback to power in August 2021, situation regarding women's rights has even worsened. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, appointed in April 2022, undertook his first visit to the country from 15 to 26 May 2022. Bennet also said the erasure of women from public life was especially concerning, citing measures such as the suspension of girls’ secondary education, severe barriers to employment and limits on freedom of movement, association and expression.

Publications +Articles DateTitleSourceJune 5, 2010"Condemning Weapon Shows won't stop wars"Ottawa Citizen May 1, 2012"Donors, beneficiaries, or NGOs: whose needs come first? A dilemma in Afghanistan"Development in Practice Journal July 21, 2019"Pakistan can benefit from a stable and thriving Afghanistan"CNN September 27, 2019"Amb. Roya Rahmani: Elections in Afghanistan are critical -- They need US support on the path toward peace" Fox News May 16, 2020“Afghanistan’s two wars: terrorism and the coronavirus”The Hill July 2020"هتک‌ حرمت زیر نام آزادی بیان" Translation: "Freedom of Expression or Attack on Dignity"8AM August 10, 2020“Afghan Women Should Be the Centerpiece of the Peace Process”Foreign Policy September 11, 2020“After the terror of Sept. 11, Sept. 12 is about progress and hope for Afghanistan”Washington Examiner January 26, 2021"Afghanistan’s ambassador: The U.S. must help us build peace for generations to come"Washington Post February 2021"A new lens: Economic diplomacy in Afghanistan"Global Ambassador's Journal November 10, 2021"Afghanistan veterans’ sacrifices were not made in vain"Atlantic Council March 8, 2022"The best path to gender equality is through family law reform"Al Jazeera April 3, 2022"The world must demand the Taliban stop restricting girls' education"The Washington Post June 27, 2022"Women's rights can mitigate climate impacts"The Ecologist August 3, 2022"Experts react: Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda, killed by US drone strike in Afghanistan"Atlantic Council February 7, 2023"The women of Afghanistan are suffering – but not forgotten"The Hill June 29, 2023“Women as the Way Forward: Lessons from Afghan Women's Empowerment Journey-And What Can Be Done Now”Atlantic Council

Personal life Rahmani is married and has one daughter, born in 2014. She is a fluent speaker of Dari, Pashto, and English, and has a basic understanding of Urdu and French.