Hasina Jalal

Hasina Jalal
حسینه جلال
Born	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Nationality	Afghan
Occupation	Activist

Hasina Jalal (Persian: حسینه جلال) is an advocate for women's rights and democracy in Afghanistan. In 2014, Jalal was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace.^[1][2][3]

Biography[]

Hasina Jalal has obtained her undergraduate degree in economics with a minor in political science from Jamia Millia Islamia University in India.^[4] She has a Master of Business Administration from the American University of Afghanistan and has furthered her studies in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Northern Iowa as a Fulbright scholar.^[5] Jalal has been involved in the founding and managing of several civil society organizations in Afghanistan and at the South Asian regional level. She is the Founding Director of the National Association of Afghanistan Civil Society. She has represented Afghanistan in various regional and international platforms and has co-founded the first alliance of South Asian women on women's economic, social, and culture rights in Sri Lanka.^[6] Hasina Jalal has strived to promote peace-making, equality, and democracy, and to address and challenge the institutionalized and normalized inequities and injustices including gender based inequity, particularly violence against women.^[7] She is the co-founder of the Afghanistan Women Empowerment and Capacity Building Center and the South Asian Women's Coalition for Cooperation.^[8]

Jalal has served in the government of Afghanistan as a Research Team Lead at the Presidential Palace where she led a team of researchers, conducted policy-oriented research, and presented findings and recommendations to the President of Afghanistan. She also worked as a Policy Advisor and Director of Program Management and Donor Coordination at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan. In this role, among other things, she oversaw the management and implementation of all projects, programs, and initiatives funded by foreign aid in the Ministry and provided policy advise to the Minister.^[9] She has also taught economics to the bachelor of business administration students in several Kabul based universities.^[10]

Hasina efforts and activism for gender equality, human rights, women empowerment, and democracy in Afghanistan has been recognized by several regional and international awards and honors:^[11] In 2012, Asian Rural Women’s Coalitions (ARWC) recognized her efforts with the "Honoring 100 Asian Women Award".^[12] In 2014, she was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace.^[1][2][3] The "Global Women Leadership Award" by the CSR.^[13][14] In 2017, she received the "World Super Achiever Award" by World Human Rights Congress.^[10]In 2020, she received the "Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All Award" by the Women's Economic Forum^[15] and the Afghan public voted for her to receive the "45 Most Influential Afghan Women's Award".^[16][5][17]

Hasina Jalal is fluent in Persian, Pashto, English, Turkish, Hindi and Urdu, and somewhat fluent in Punjabi, Arabic, and Uzbek languages.^[9]

References[]