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Approximate age

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{{Short description|Afghan politician and women rights advocate}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| native_name = عذرا جعفری
| native_name_lang = fa
| honorific-suffix =
| image = Azra Jafari in 2012-cropped.jpg
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| caption = Azra Jafari, Nili mayor, addressing the audience in 2012
| order =
| office = Mayor of [[Nili, Daikundi]]
| term_start = December 2008
| term_end = January 2014
| alongside = 
| vicepresident =
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| deputy =
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| monarch =
| president = [[Hamid Karzai]]
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| governor = [[Qurban Ali Oruzgani]]
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1978}}<ref name="DipCo"/>
| birth_place = [[Afghanistan]]
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| birthname = Azra Jafari
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| residence = [[Nili, Daikund|Nili]], [[Daykundi]]
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| occupation = Mayor, writer
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| blank2 = Award(s)
| data2 = Meeto Memorial Award for Young South Asians 2011<ref name="INFN">{{cite web | url=http://www.infochangepakistan.net/Blog/ViewPost.aspx?pageid=2&ItemID=989&mid=2 | title=Azra Jafari wins Meeto Memorial Award for Young South Asians 2011 | publisher=Infochange News and Features Network | access-date=1 May 2012 }}</ref>
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{{Hazara people}}
'''Azra Jafari''' ({{langx|Prs|عذرا جعفری}}; born 1978 or 1979) is an Afghan politician and women rights advocate who became the first female mayor in [[Afghanistan]] appointed by [[President of Afghanistan|President]] [[Hamid Karzai]] in December 2008. She became the mayor of [[Nili, Afghanistan|Nili]], a town in [[Daykundi Province]] of Afghanistan. She belongs to the [[Hazara people|Hazara]] ethnic group.

Jafari has lived in the United States since 2014.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Foley |first=Ryan |date=2022-07-21 |title=Afghanistan's first female mayor says Taliban is waging 'genocide' against minority group |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/afghanistans-first-female-mayor-says-taliban-is-waging-genocide.html |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=[[Christian Post]] |language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Jafari was born into a Hazara family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jafari |first=Azra |date=2024-10-09 |title=Afghanistan's First Female Mayor Speaks Out as Others Can't {{!}} Opinion |url=https://www.newsweek.com/afghanistans-first-female-mayor-speaks-out-others-cant-opinion-1966453 |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref> She grew up in [[Ghor Province|Ghor Province.]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Motevalli |first=Golnar |date=2013-02-24 |title=Afghanistan's first female mayor proves critics wrong |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/24/afghanistan-first-female-mayor |access-date=2025-03-12 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> During the Afghan civil war of the 1990s, Jafari fled to Iran as a refugee,<ref name=":1" /> where she completed high school{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} and subsequently ran a school for refugee children.<ref name=":1" />

She has a daughter, born in the early 2000s.<ref name=":1" /> She is a Shia Muslim.<ref name=":0" />

==Career==
Azra 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<ref name=":1" /> while she was working as Officer in Charge in Refugees' Cultural Center.<ref name="DipCo">{{cite web |author=Hanna Trudo |title=Profiles in Politics: Azra Jafari of Afghanistan |url=http://www.diplomaticourier.com/?p=3768&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=45 |access-date=1 May 2012 |publisher=Diplomatic Courier}}</ref>

After the removal of the [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)|Taliban]] in late 2001 and the establishment of the new western-backed [[Presidency of Hamid Karzai|Karzai administration]], she returned and participated in the ''[[2002 loya jirga]]'' in [[Kabul]].<ref name="DipCo" /><ref name="8women">{{cite web |title=Azra Jafari Biography |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~carve22r/classweb/eightwomen/azbiography.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122015405/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~carve22r/classweb/eightwomen/azbiography.html |archive-date=22 January 2014 |access-date=1 May 2012 |publisher=Eight Women Around the World}}</ref>

She continued her education at Midwifery school in [[Kabul]] 2005.

In December 2008, she was appointed as the first and till then the only female mayor in Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Verveer |first1=Melanne |title=Afghan women on the front line |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/afghan-women-on-the-front-line-women-rule-098363 |access-date=August 16, 2021 |work=Politico |date=October 16, 2013}}</ref> She was appointed as the mayor of the town of Nili.<ref name="DipCo" /><ref name="INFN" /><ref name="8women" /> As mayor, Jafari faced a lack of infrastructure. She regularly traveled to Kabul to request government funds.<ref name=":1" />

Since 2014, Jafari has lived in [[Maryland]], United States, having fled Afghanistan following threats from the [[Taliban]].<ref name=":0" />

==Publications==
Jafari has been involved in the writing of two books. She contributed to ''The Making of the New Constitution of Afghanistan'', which is about the political system and processes in Afghanistan and was published in 2003. Her other book, ''I am a Working Woman'', talks about employment law and the rights of Afghan women in the labour market, and was published in 2008.<ref name="8women"/> ''I am a Working Woman'' is specfiically aimed at readers with low literacy.<ref name=":1" />

==Awards==
Azra Jafari has been awarded the Meeto Memorial Award at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts for her work and commitment to social development.<ref name="DipCo"/><ref name="INFN"/>

==See also==
* [[List of Hazara people]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*Women's rights worsened [https://web.archive.org/web/20090119031353/http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-37445920090114 Reuters]
*A Talk with the first female mayor [http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,3955712,00.html DW-World]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*First female mayor in Afghanistan [http://zamaaneh.com/special/2009/01/post_711.html Zamaaneh]
*First female mayor has been appointed [http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/2009/01/090116_a-afghan-nili-mayoress.shtml BBC Persian]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/24/afghanistan-first-female-mayor Interview with the first female mayor]
*Azra Jafari among [https://web.archive.org/web/20140122015405/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~carve22r/classweb/eightwomen/azbiography.html eight women around the world]
*A letter to Donald Trump "[https://web.archive.org/web/20170122125618/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/01/dear-donald-trump-letters-afghanistan-170120114322347.html Dear Donald Trump: Letters from Afghanistan]"

{{Hazara_nationalism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jafari, Uzra}}
[[Category:1978 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century Afghan politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Afghan women politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Afghan women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Afghan writers]]
[[Category:21st-century mayors]]
[[Category:21st-century Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Afghan expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Afghan Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Hazara politicians]]
[[Category:Hazara women politicians]]
[[Category:Women mayors of places in Afghanistan]]

Azra Jafari - Revision history

imported>HarukaAmaranth: Approximate age