An open platform for the Afghan diaspora

Mariam Meetra is a researcher, journalist, and poet whose work explores gender, communication, feminist resistance, and the experiences of women in Afghanistan. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in sociology from Humboldt University of Berlin. She is a PhD candidate at Leipzig University’s Institute for Communication and Media Studies.

Her literary work explores memory, exile, and the experience of displacement. Her debut poetry collection, Life on the Margin, was published in Persian in Kabul in 2013. Her second collection, Ich habe den Zorn des Windes gesehen, a bilingual Persian–German volume, was published by Wallstein Verlag in Germany in 2023. Her poems have been translated into several languages.

Omid Eztarabi is a human rights advocate and civil society professional with experience since 2016. He is Co-Founder of EU-HOPE, a Berlin-based humanitarian organization, and works with the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and as Social Media collaborator with Hawar help to advance human rights and civil society development.

He has served as Program Manager at the Afghan Women’s Organization for Equality (AWOE), Field Office Manager at the Afghanistan Center for Entrepreneurship and Development (ACED), and held various roles with several other national and international organizations, contributing to women’s empowerment, education, human rights, and community development. He brings expertise in advocacy, negotiation, program management, and intercultural engagement, and is fluent in English, German, Persian, and Pashto.

Ali Reza Hussaini is a researcher-practitioner who works at the intersection of policy, evidence, and social impact. He holds an MA in Intercultural Conflict Management from the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin, alongside bachelor’s degrees in Law and Political Science from Kabul University and in Political Science and Public Administration from the American University of Afghanistan.

He brings experience from the Asia Foundation’s policy and research team; the Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan, where he supported UN experts; and the Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (AGFAF), where he served as deputy country director. He has also held a fellowship with the Center for Information Resilience (CIR). Throughout these roles, he has remained deeply engaged in research and collaborative initiatives. He is currently a PhD candidate at Leipzig University.

Dr. Soraya Rahim Sobhrang, born in Herat, Afghanistan, is a human rights advocate and activist. As a Commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), she was responsible for women’s rights protection and development, with a particular focus on eliminating all forms of violence against women, improving women’s access to justice and the judiciary, and building institutions and networks that advocate for women’s rights.

After completing her secondary education, she studied medicine at Kabul University and worked at Aliabad Hospital and Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul. She completed training courses in Germany in management, women’s rights development, gender and psychology, and later earned a second degree from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations in Kabul.

After the Bonn Conference, she became Technical and Political Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. In 2005 she joined the AIHRC as an advisor to its Women’s Rights Protection and Development Unit, and in January 2006 she was appointed a Commissioner. She is a member of several national and international associations and has taken part in numerous regional and international conferences.

In 2010 she received the 6th Annual Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, which honours outstanding individuals who put their safety and lives at risk every day to defend the human rights of others.