Mahbouba Seraj

Ms. Mahbouba Seraj is the Executive Director of Afghan Women Skills Development Center presently. After 26 years in exile, she returned to her beloved Afghanistan at the end of 2003, and has been working with Afghan women and children ever since. She has been a tireless advocate for women’s rights, pushing for women’s participation in the Peace Jirga, as well as in the High Peace Council. Ms. Seraj and other women advocates were responsible for raising women’s participation at the 2011 BONN conference and 2012 Tokyo Conference on “Afghanistan after 2014,” as well as for their participation in the current Afghan Peace talks with Taliban and the US. She is the creator and announcer of a radio program for women by the name of “Our Beloved Afghanistan by Mahbouba Seraj,” which has been broadcasted all over Afghanistan. She also established Women’s Listening Circles, where women gather to discuss different topics of previously recorded radio programs.

Mahbouba Seraj/Thomson Reuters Foundation

At the Security Council

Mahbouba Seraj, Executive Director of Afghan Women Skills Development Center, was invited to provide a civil society perspective and recommendations when the Security Council met to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security facilitated her statement but she did not speak on behalf of the NGOWG.