Sima Samar was born in 1957 in Ghazani, Afghanistan. She was the first woman from the Hazara ethnic minority to graduate with a medical degree from Kabul University. In 1987 she established a hospital for women, and in 1989 opened a hospital for women and staffed by women on the Pakistan / Afghanistan border, in Quetta, Pakistan.

Dr. Sima Samar is the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women's Affairs in the post-Taliban Afghan government, and now chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Dr. Samar also founded and directs the Shuhada Organization, which operates an extraordinary network of hospitals, clinics and schools dedicated to improving the lives of Afghan women and children. Shuhada also assists in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.

Through education projects, medical training, work programs, schools, relief organizations, public service, and human rights investigations, her efforts have made a positive impact on the lives of thousands of people. She has received worldwide recognition for her relentless work, including the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership for acting courageoustly to heal the sick and instruct the young among the Afghan refugee community in Pakistan and in her war-torn homeland.

In 2003, Dr. Samar received the inaugural Perdita Huston Human Rights Award sponsored by the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area in Washington, D.C. She is also the recipient of the 2002 John Humphrey Freedom Award and the 2004 John Mann Award for Health and Human Rights.

In addition to saving lives, Dr. Samar is laying a new foundation for the future by training a generation of female doctors and medical workers. Her record of accomplishment and dedication to justice confirm her status as one of the leading agents of change in the world.



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The End. August 01 2005