Azra Jafari

Azra Jafari (Persian: عذرا جعفری‎‎) was appointed as the first female mayor in Afghanistan by President Hamid Karzai in December 2008. She became the mayor of Nili, a town in Daykundi Province of Afghanistan. Jafari is also a writer, and has published two books so far. She belongs to the minority Hazara ethnic group.

Personal life

Jafari completed her high school in Iran while living there as a refugee and continued her education at Midwifery school in Kabul 2005. After the removal of the Taliban in late 2001 and the establishment of the new western-backed Karzai administration, she returned and participated in the Emergency Loya Jirga in Kabul. She has one daughter who was born in 2005.

Career

Jafari was editor-in-chief of Afghan social and cultural magazine Farhang in 1998. Later, she established an elementary school for Afghan refugees in Iran while she was working as Officer in Charge in Refugees' Cultural Center. In 2001, Jafari joined Emergency Loya Jirga in Kabul. In December 2008, she was appointed as the first and only female mayor in Afghanistan. She was appointed as the mayor of Nili town