Shabnam Nasimi

Shabnam Nasimi have served as a Policy Special Advisor to the UK Minister for Afghan Resettlement (Victoria Atkins MP) and the Minister for Refugees (Lord Harrington), providing assistance to the British government in the successful evacuation and reception of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. Between 2007 to 2019, she was involved in humanitarian aid and development projects funded by UKAid, in Kabul, Balkh and Parwan provinces of Afghanistan. Since then she has led the Afghan Witness programme, through the Centre for Information Resilience, which works to independently collect, preserve and verify information on human rights and current events in Afghanistan.

As someone with Afghan roots, she has dedicated a significant portion of her life to supporting the UK in its foreign policy approach towards Afghanistan, and other developing countries in South Asia and Central Asia. And in 2017, she established the Conservative Friends of Afghanistan to facilitate Afghan dialogue towards peace-building and human rights. In light of the Taliban's oppressive gender apartheid regime, she has spearheaded operations to evacuate Afghan female Chevening alumni, journalists, civil society members, activists, and students from the American University of Afghanistan.

As a British political and social activist, she is a regular face in British media as a political commentator. She has also written extensively for The Times, Telegraph, Prospect Magazine and others on immigration, foreign policy, integration and race/identity and provide a live-experience perspective of a former refugee living in the UK. She is an an active and passionate advocate for BAME representation and inclusion in British politics -- championing the cause for diversity in the UK and the Conservative party.

She has also co-authored a published book on Afghanistan-Pakistan relations. And is currently writing a book on Afghan women, to be published in 2024.

She was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, raised in the former Soviet Union (modern day Ukraine), lived in Afghanistan and fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 1999 to settle in the UK.