Nargis Nehan

Nargis Nehan (@NehanNargis) was Afghanistan’s Acting Minister for Mines and Petroleum 2017-2019 as well as Head of the Policy Unit, Office of the President 2015 to 2017. She is a women’s rights activist promoting equality, justice and freedom.

Now based in Toronto, Ms. Nehan advocates for a coordinated global response to the Taliban’s regime in Afghanistan which is imposing gender apartheid on women and girls by denying their basic human rights to education, work and movement. She founded Canada’s Feminist Forum for Afghanistan (@CFFA_Afg_CA) and is a founding member of the Afghan Women Coalition for Change (@AWC4C).

She is the author of the 2022 paper The Rise and Fall of Women Rights in Afghanistan in the London School of Economics Public Policy Review.

In the last two decades Ms. Nehan also served as Afghanistan’s national treasurer in the finance ministry and as a senior advisor to ministers of education and higher education. She left government in 2010 for a few years and founded EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy. While serving in civil society, Ms. Nehan represented Afghanistan and Afghan women in various national and international platforms. She was the first female member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank, representing civil society.

Ms. Nehan holds a business degree in Business Management and has received international training in peace building, conflict resolution, budgeting, gender budgeting, strategic planning and good governance.