Sakena Yacoobi

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Sakena Yacoobi, born in 1949 or 1950 in Herat, Afghanistan, is an activist who works to expand education for women and children. She founded the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) and serves as its executive director. She also co-founded Creating Hope International.

She studied in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of the Pacific in 1977 and a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Yacoobi worked as a professor and health consultant in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, before returning to Afghanistan in 1990. She later helped Afghan refugees in Pakistan and published eight Dari-language teacher training guides. She also served as an Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief delegate, working on the education part of the United Nations’ Rehabilitation Plan for Afghanistan.

In 1995, she established the Afghan Institute of Learning to train Afghan women as teachers, support children’s access to education, and provide health education to families. During the Taliban’s suppression of girls’ education in the 1990s, AIL supported 80 underground home schools, teaching about 3,000 girls. After the Taliban’s defeat in 2001, AIL opened Learning Centres for Afghan women, and in 2015 it started a free legal clinic for women. Today, AIL offers training programs, Learning Centres, schools, medical clinics, and legal clinics in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Yacoobi has received numerous international awards and honors, including the Bill Graham Award (2001), the Peacemakers in Action Award (2003), the Women’s Rights Prize (2004), the Democracy Award (2005), and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. She was the first Afghan Ashoka Fellow (2007) and has earned honorary degrees from the University of the Pacific and Loma Linda University, plus an honorary degree from Princeton University. She has spoken at events for the Clinton Foundation, the World Economic Forum, TEDWomen, and others, and was named one of BBC’s 100 Women in 2017.