Fatema Jafari is a women’s rights advocate and former councilwoman of Herat Provincial Council for more than 10 years, where she served on a number of committees related to women’s rights and human rights in Afghanistan. As a female representative in a country like Afghanistan which suffer from decades of conflict and recently climate change consequences, Fatema was involved with conflict management and peace building in different levels. As head of the family support committee for three years, she facilitated the creation of an umbrella group of roughly 80 women’s organizations to help coordinate their efforts. Previously she participated in four Loya Jirga Assemblies (national consultative councils) for peace and security issues from 2009–2019. Climate changes in Afghanistan exacerbated the conflicts in local and national levels and even increased violence against women. As a member of provincial council, Fatema monitored the process of peace building and advocate for better performance of governmental and non- governmental organization who worked in the field. As a result of years of working in the field she became well aware of different impact of climate changes on peace and conflict on vulnerable people like, women, children and minority groups.

Fatema attended prestigious fellowships that shaped her mindset such as the International Visitors Leadership Program on good governance (USA, 2012), Reagan Fascell Fellowship at National Endowment for Democracy and Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellowship at Yale University (2016) and as a result she wrote a book titled “Women political participation in Afghanistan”. Fatema is a frequent contributor to media programs and TV shows, speaking about women’s rights, Human rights and women’s political participation. In September 2019 she participated in high level peace negotiation training held by USIP for Afghan peace activists in Istanbul to support Afghan women at the negotiation table with Taliban. Fatema did a research about political corruption and its impact on women as policy leader fellow in European University Institute in 2019 and studied masters’ of peace, conflict and development in Bradford University in the UK in 2022.

Participant in: March 2023 Fellowship: Climate Change, Gender, and Conflict