Ambassador Roya Rahmani currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), as well as a Senior Fellow for the Future Security program at New America.
She is a former Afghan diplomat with nearly two decades of experience working with governments, NGOs, and multilateral institutions. Rahmani was the first woman to serve as Afghan ambassador to the United States of America, first Afghan woman ambassador to Indonesia, and founder of the Director General for Regional Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan.
In 2007, she received the Best Human Rights Activist Award by Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. In 2017, Indonesia Tatler named her the People’s Ambassador, and in 2019 she was featured on TIME Magazine’s “100 Next List” as a “fierce advocate of peace on Afghan terms.”
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration and International Law from Columbia University. She is the mother of a young daughter and a passionate believer in the importance of fostering innovation for progress and promoting equality and inclusivity for sustainable peace.