Salima Mazari ( fa, سلیمه مزاری; born 1980) is an Afghan politician, who served as the District Governor of

Charkint District Charkint, or Chahar Kint, ( prs, چارکنت) is a district in Balkh province, Afghanistan. It has a population of 32,306. The district administration is located in Shar Shar area of Charkint district, which means "four clusters/towns" - from Pe ...

Balkh province Balkh (Dari: , ''Balx'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The c ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and one of the three women district governors in Afghanistan.

Biography

Mazari was born in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 1980, a refugee as her family had escaped the

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. She grew up in Iran, earning a degree from the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

and working for the

International Organization for Migration The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers. The IOM was ...

, before returning to Afghanistan. In 2018, she was named District Governor of

. As governor, she formed a security commission to recruit local militias into the fight against the Taliban. In 2020, she negotiated the surrender of over 100 Taliban soldiers in her province. Amid the

2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...

, she refused to flee as several other governors in the country did, with her district putting up significant resistance to the Taliban. Until the complete collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan following the Fall of Kabul, hers was one of the few districts in the country to remain unoccupied by the Taliban. Since August 18, the news reports were concerned that whether she had been captured by the Taliban. As per subsequent Time.com news report, Mazari was at provincial Governor's office when news of the surrender of Balkh and fall of Mazar-i-Sharif reached her, after realizing her district Charkint, too is blocked she decided to close fight to avoid blood bath and escaped to undisclosed U.S. location with the help of 2021 U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 Women of 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazari, Salima 1980 births Living people 21st-century Afghan politicians 21st-century Afghan women politicians Hazara politicians University of Tehran alumni

Biography

See also

References