PALWASHA HASSAN is a senior fellow at the Georgetown University, Institute for Women Peace and Security (GIWPS). She holds a master’s degree in Post-war Recovery Studies from York University, UK, and remained a former fellow in the United States Institute of Peace. Palwasha Hassan is a dedicated Women’s Rights activist pioneering many critical works to promote Women’s rights and civil society in Afghanistan. Her achievements, among others, include the first women’s legal support organization Roazana (1997), Women and Street Children Center (1998), Women, Children Safe Home Network Manager (1999), Irfan Cultural Center. She co-founded a visionary women’s rights movement in Afghanistan by setting up the Afghan Women Network that has played a pivotal role in Women’s rights advocacy for the last 26 years. She led several initiatives and project teams that supported pro- women’s rights law in Afghanistan. She contributed to equal law in Afghanistan, including the Afghan Constitution (2003-2004), Eradicating VAW law (2009), family law, and Shiite personal laws draft proposals based on progressive Islamic models.
She has been one of the 1000 women nominees for Nobel Peace Prize (2005), as one of the finalists of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought by the European Parliament for her outstanding contribution in support of human rights and freedom of expression, and recently received Hilary Rodham Clinton Award for exceptional leadership and dedication to human rights and women’s rights.