Shukria Barakzai named among ‘100 Leading Global Thinkers’ of 2015

Shukria Barakzai

Khaama Press
December 3, 2015

Afghan women rights activist Shukria Barakzai has been emerged among global affairs magazine Foreign Policy’s ‘100 Leading Global Thinkers’ for 2015.

Barakzai, who is referred as a parliamentarian by Foreign Policy but now appointed as Afghan ambassador to Norway, has been listed under the column of challengers on the magazine’s website “For telling the Taliban what’s what.”

“Campaigning for women’s rights in Afghanistan can be thankless and dangerous. Legislator Shukria Barazkai knows this all too well,” writes the Foreign Policy on its website. “She survived a suicide bomb attack in November 2014, just the latest of several attempts on her life, one of which led to a miscarriage. Yet she remains resolute.”

Foreign Policy cites Barakzai’s meeting with Taliban leaders in Norway saying she fearlessly revealed her identity.

“This June, Barakzai flew to Oslo, Norway, to participate in unprecedented talks between Taliban leaders and an all-female group of Afghan politicians and activists, about building peace between the government and extremists. Some of the women didn’t want their identities revealed publicly for fear of retribution—but not Barakzai, who told the BBC that the women pushed for safeguarding the democratic values achieved in the last decade,” writes the Foreign Policy. “Further details of the meeting remain confidential, but Barakzai has said that both sides agreed to keep talking and that she will continue to insist that equal rights are a nonnegotiable part of her country’s future.”