Adela Raz
Human rights and women’s education advocate, and Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United States
Adela Raz ‘08 (born 1985) is an Afghan politician who served as the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United States from 2021 to 2022. At Simmons, she studied Political Science. Raz is an outspoken advocate for gender equality, women’s education, and human rights. In 2018, Raz became the first woman to hold the office of Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations. In this role, she acted as the head of a diplomatic mission to the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.
In 2023, Raz told CNN that: “when it comes internally among themselves [i.e., Afghan women], the younger generation, the women inside the country, those who have fought not only in the last two years but of course even over the last 20 years to resist [are moving forward right now] to stand against gender apartheid. I think the hope is really within the people of Afghanistan and within the women of Afghanistan.”
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and government employee/public records. Photo credit: Jay Godwin.
Degrees
- BS, 2008