Zakia Adeli

Dr. Zakia Adeli was the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Kabul University (2018-2021) before joining East-West Center. With more than ten years of master's and bachelor's degree teaching experience at Kabul University, she has also guided, advised, and judged more than 300 master's theses.

She was a member of the Preparatory Contact Committee for Peace with the Taliban in 2019 in Doha, Qatar, and also served on many senior government commissions in the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, including the High Commission for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of Afghanistan, High Council of Women of Afghanistan, High Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women, Political Parties and Civil Society Commission of the Supreme National Reconciliation Council of Afghanistan, and The Commission on Women and Human Rights of the Supreme National Reconciliation Council of Afghanistan.

Dr. Adeli was a member of the leadership board of the Afghan Red Crescent Society from 2020 to 2021 and has played a key role in reviewing and rewriting the organization's charter. from 2017 to 2021 she was the chairman of the research committee of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Kabul University and from 2014 to 2017 she was the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science of Katib University. She was the head of the Department of Women Studies of the Andisheh Foundation (2015-2021) and carried out significant activities in promoting the capacity of women and gender equality in Afghanistan. In 2018, she designed and hosted the first National Conference on the Status of Women in Afghanistan, and was a member of the Central Committee for the 2018 National Consensus on Women for Peace.

Dr. Adeli worked as a Senior Officer at the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACCAR), a leading Danish organization in Afghanistan, from 2002 to 2003 and has also provided valuable services to Afghan immigrants in Iran, including designing and establishing the first public library for immigrants in Iran with the help of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), securing admission for 300 needy Afghan immigrant students to Birjand University, and establishing and managing a refugee cultural complex in Iran.

She also served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Negah-e Moaser, Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Thought, Katib Magazine and a member of the editorial board of Katib, Foreign Policy and Middle East Studies from 2013 to 2021.

She is the author of three books: UN Security Council and Afghanistan Developments (2007), Postcolonial Situation and the Multiplicity of Afghan Constitutions (2015), and First National Conference pamphlet on Studying the Status of Women in Afghanistan (2009). Dr. Adeli has also written more than thirty scientific articles including: Investigating the Convergence Factors of Afghanistan and South Asian Countries (Foreign Policy Quarterly, 2020), Evolution of diplomacy in Islam and international law (Scientific Journal of Kabul University, 2017), A Comparative Study of the Electoral Laws of Afghanistan in 1964 and 1985 (Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Thought, 2016), Typology of Afghan Constitutions in the Light of the Constitutions (Middle East Research Quarterly, 2016), Pathology of Democracy in Afghanistan (Katib University Quarterly, 2015), UN Security Council Perspectives on the Role of Women in Peace (Foreign Ministry Strategic Studies Quarterly, 2014), The fragility of democracy in Afghanistan (Zahir Shah period and the new period) (Journal of International Relations Research, 2013), How to hold women back from the post-colonial perspective, (World Summit on Women and the Islamic Awakening, 2012), and Good Governance in Farabi Thought (Scientific Journal of Islamic Azad University, 2005).