By Junaid Qaiser
Afghanistan has produced many remarkable women whose courage, determination and achievements deserve international recognition. Despite decades of conflict, political instability and deeply rooted social restrictions, Afghan women have continued to demonstrate extraordinary resilience. They have challenged discrimination, broken professional barriers and defended the rights of others, often at considerable personal risk.
Among them are three exceptional women: Judge Fawzia Amini, technology entrepreneur Roya Mahboob and former national football captain Khalida Popal. Their contributions to justice, education, technology and sport earned them the prestigious 2021 Lantos Human Rights Prize, awarded jointly by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
Their recognition was particularly meaningful. The Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 had dramatically changed the lives of Afghan women, threatening many of the achievements made over the previous two decades. At a time when women were losing their places in classrooms, workplaces and public institutions, the Lantos Foundation chose to honour three individuals who had devoted their lives to expanding those very opportunities.
The three recipients came from entirely different professional backgrounds, yet their experiences shared a common purpose: ensuring that Afghan women could live with dignity, exercise their rights and participate meaningfully in their country’s future.
Judge Fawzia Amini spent more than two decades working to strengthen Afghanistan’s legal institutions and improve protections for women. She served in several important government positions, including as head of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, before becoming a senior judge in Afghanistan’s Supreme Court and head of the Violence against Women Court.
Her professional career was devoted to making the justice system more accessible to women who had historically struggled to obtain legal protection. She handled hundreds of cases involving violence against women and contributed to the development of legislation addressing domestic violence, family rights and the protection of vulnerable women.
She also participated in drafting important legal frameworks, including the Elimination of Violence against Women Law, and worked with government institutions to ensure that women’s rights received greater consideration in legal reforms.
These were not insignificant achievements in a country where women had long faced enormous obstacles in seeking justice. Through her work, Judge Amini helped establish the principle that violence and discrimination against women were matters requiring legal accountability rather than issues to be ignored or settled privately.
However, the Taliban’s takeover turned her professional achievements into a source of personal danger. Female judges who had prosecuted or sentenced individuals for violence against women suddenly found themselves vulnerable to retaliation.
Judge Amini received serious threats and was forced into hiding. With assistance from international legal organisations, including the International Bar Association, she eventually escaped Afghanistan and found refuge in the United Kingdom.
Roya Mahboob represents another dimension of Afghanistan’s struggle for women’s empowerment. As the country’s first female technology CEO, she challenged the perception that Afghan women could not succeed in fields traditionally dominated by men.
Mahboob recognised early that education and access to technology could transform women’s lives. Through her work, she sought to provide Afghan girls with opportunities to develop digital skills, pursue professional careers and achieve greater economic independence.
She founded the Digital Citizen Fund, an organisation dedicated to improving technological and financial literacy among women and girls. Her initiatives helped establish internet-enabled classrooms and encouraged young Afghan women to explore technology, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Perhaps one of her most widely recognised contributions was her support for the Afghan Girls Robotics Team. The team’s achievements attracted international attention and presented a very different image of Afghanistan from the one usually associated with war and instability.
These young girls demonstrated that Afghanistan possessed enormous intellectual potential. Given access to education and resources, they could compete internationally and contribute to technological progress.
Mahboob’s work earned her a place on TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2013, bringing international attention to her efforts to empower Afghan women through technology.
Following the Taliban’s return, she helped members of the robotics team leave Afghanistan as concerns grew about their safety and future opportunities.
Khalida Popal’s journey is equally remarkable, although her struggle began in a very different environment. In 2007, she helped establish Afghanistan’s national women’s football team, challenging social attitudes that discouraged women from participating in sport. She became the team’s captain and later the first woman employed by the Afghanistan Football Federation.
For many Afghan girls, the existence of a national women’s football team represented something far greater than sporting competition. It demonstrated that women could represent their country, pursue their ambitions and claim a place in public life.
Popal faced hostility and threats because of her activism and eventually went into exile. Yet leaving Afghanistan did not diminish her commitment to women’s empowerment.
From Denmark, she established the Girl Power Organisation, which uses sport to promote confidence, inclusion and opportunities for women and girls, particularly refugees and migrants.
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, Popal became deeply involved in efforts to evacuate female footballers who feared persecution. She helped dozens of players from Afghanistan’s senior and junior national teams escape and relocate, while continuing to support them and their families as they adjusted to life in unfamiliar countries.
Her journey from football captain to international human rights advocate demonstrates how sport can become a powerful instrument for social change.
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation, acknowledged that selecting only three recipients had been difficult because Afghanistan had produced so many courageous women working to advance human rights.
She emphasised that the three women represented the diversity of ways Afghan women had contributed to human rights and expressed the hope that they would accept the recognition on behalf of countless others facing an uncertain future under Taliban rule.
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghan women continue to face severe restrictions on education, employment and participation in public life. Girls have been denied access to secondary schools, women have been excluded from universities, and opportunities for professional advancement have been drastically reduced.
The Lantos Prize celebrated their courage. The greater challenge now is ensuring that the values for which they struggled are not forgotten.
These three courageous Afghan women have already shown what determination, education and leadership can achieve. Their stories deserve to be remembered not merely as examples of resistance to oppression, but as evidence of the extraordinary future Afghanistan could build if its women were once again free to fulfil their potential.
