Mariam Safi is the founding director of the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), a Kabul-based research institute, and a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan. In 2018–19, she participated in many peace-building efforts, including briefing the United Nations Security Council on the situation, role, and challenges faced by women in the Afghan peace process. In January 2016, she was a part of the Afghan delegation invited to hold a two-day discussion with the Taliban political office in Qatar. Safi writes regularly for regional and international journals, and started the first peer-reviewed journal titled Women and Public Policy in Afghanistan. Among the many positions she holds, she is a member of the Afghanistan Policy Group, is a senior fellow at the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka, is a local peace-building expert for Peace Direct, and is on the editorial board of Peace Prints, a South Asian journal for peace-building. On Twitter: @drops_afg.

Writing in the Cairo Review