Biography: Dr Sima Samar

Afghan physician Sima Samar (born 1957) was internationally recognized for her human rights activism, especially on behalf of Afghan women, when she was appointed one of five deputy prime ministers in Afghanistan's new government in December of 2001. The appointment as women's affairs minister was the most senior position ever held by a woman in her country, and Samar's outspoken advocacy of women's rights incurred the wrath of many of her conservative male counterparts and countrymen, cutting her political career short. Undaunted, Samarcontinued her lifelong crusade by chairing the Independent Afghanistan Human Rights Commission.

Samar was born in February of 1957, in Ghazani,Province Jaghori District of Afghanistan. Her father, Qadam Ali, was a civil servant and her mother, Khurshid, was the first of his two wives. One of eleven children and a member of Afghanistan's Hazara ethnic minority, Samar learned early on the meaning of sexual and racial inequality.