Horia Faizi Sardarzada

Horia Faizi Sardarzada is an Afghan young leader advocating for Afghan girls and women rights through academic research, media programs and community development initiatives. She is currently working as the Head of Department for gender and women’s programs with Afghanistan Economic & Legal Studies Organization (AELSO), and leading an informal network of Afghan diaspora called “Afghan Diaspora Community Initiatives ” to advocate for the serious situation of Afghans under the Taliban dictatorship. Previously, Horia worked as director general of women’s economic empowerment and child care at the ministry of labor and social affairs (MoLSA) in Afghanistan.

Prior to that, she served as deputy program director of women’s economic empowerment national priority program of World Bank and as an expert of gender with UN Women at the Office of the Afghan President on UN Affairs. She also served as a board member of women’s initiatives for sustainable energy (WISE), where she helped educate young women on energy efficiency and promoted women’s empowerment in the energy sector. Beyond this, she previously served as a WEP Asia Global Citizen Fellow for the Ban ki Moon Center for global citizenship in Vienna-Austria. Horia has done a masters of arts in linguistics and another in gender and women’s studies.