Jamila Afghani is an advocate for women’s rights and education in Afghanistan. She is the founder and chairperson of the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organization, which provides literacy training, income generation projects and advocacy on behalf of women.
In the face of cultural opposition, Afghani has created a network of 6,000 imams who support women’s rights to education. “Education is very important in Islamic religion and today, we are in a condition that we are not allowed to go to school. But the Holy Prophet orders us, even go to China to seek knowledge,” she says. Her programs have empowered and educated 50,000 women.
Afghani will be profiled in full as part of CRCC’s Spiritual Exemplars Project. The above video was produced by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which is providing nominations to the Spiritual Exemplars Project through its database of prize finalists. Afgani was a 2017 Aurora Prize finalist.
