2012 21st Century Leader Award Recipient
Ms. Qazi's newest venture is Women With a Voice, a blog about women in the AFPAK region.
Farhana Qazi is an American who has traveled extensively examining conflicts in the Muslim world. She is the first American Muslim woman to serve in the Counter-Terrorism Center in the U.S. Government. She has received several meritorious awards for her service to U.S. national security. Currently, she is a senior instructor on the AFPAK training team. She designs courses on Islamic civilization and Pakistan for U.S. analysts and officers. She has taught both fundamental and high level courses in her field and teaches at the National Defense University.
Ms. Qazi is a recognized terrorism expert. She appears in mainstream and international media and publishes widely. She is also a recognized expert on Muslim women. She wrote a chapter called “The Mujahidaat: Tracing the Early Female Warriors of Islam” which appeared in Women, Gender and Terrorism and has a forthcoming book Mothers to Martyrs: Why Women Protest in Kashmir.
After government service, Ms. Qazi joined the RAND Corporation in August 2005 as an International Policy Analyst. Her research highlighted the impact of Islamist movements in the Arab Middle East as well as security challenges to South Asia. She directed a project on social services organizations in the Middle East, including Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. She also managed several research projects inside Pakistan, which included an examination of the madrasa or religious educational system, the security and human dynamics in Kashmir, and the role of women in leading Islamist political and apolitical groups.
Born in Pakistan, Ms. Qazi grew up in the southern state of Texas. She is a graduate of The Security Policy Studies Program at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and holds a Bachelor of Art from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. She is proficient in Urdu, Punjabi, French and Arabic.
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