Biography of author

Jamila Omar holds a bachelor degree in journalism from Kabul University. After working as a lecturer at the Journalism Faculty of Kabul University for a while, she has worked with several international organizations based in Kabul in the last 7 years. She has experience in media management, public affairs, communications, social research, elections, and women’s affairs. Ms. Omar has attended different international conferences abroad including post – conflict reporting, media and elections, journalism and multiculturalism, business and publication, journalism and harassment, standard journalism, poverty & democracy and recently the critical media in Afghanistan.
Currently, she is the director of Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC), wherein she oversees research on the rights of education, political and economic participation in different provinces across Afghanistan and raises the average Afghan’s voice and advocates for them through different media outlets without any regard to the risk her work can cause her.

She has also written many research and analytical articles in several domestic print media papers in Dari and English. She had a lot of readers while working with Kabul Weekly paper, Rah-e-Naw Monthly publication and Roz Magazine. She is amongst the few lady journalists that launched several print media outlets focusing on women’s issues and human rights concerns after the collapse of the Taliban regime. Her reports on criminal, political and social issues, especially the ones on women’s issues, are amongst the great modern age journalistic craft.

She has been a member of the Advisory Group of Women’s Rights in Islam and is an expert on women’s rights in Islam. Ms. Omar’s speeches in different seminars on women’s issues, apart from having a critical nature, have offered suggestions and solutions for the elimination of discrimination and current situation the Afghan women are in. Ms. Omar’s role in the research studies “Domestic Violence against Women” by Global Rights and “Women’s Rights in Islam” by IFES are remarkable. She has deemed it her responsibility to fully defend the rights of media outlets/journalists and women whenever she has had an opportunity.

Media and Election
Published by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Afghanistan
First edition, Kabul 2009, 62 pages, Illustrated

Please note: The printable version is available at HBS- Kabul office