Hello! I am a PhD candidate in Public and International Affairs, specializing in comparative politics and security studies. My research focuses on women’s political agency under authoritarian regimes, non-democratic institutions, and security governance, with a regional focus on Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria.

I use qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, including semi-structured elite and grassroots interviews, archival and policy analysis, survey research, and experimental methods, with a comparative politics lens. My work has been presented at leading political science conferences.

Before joining the University of Pittsburgh, I was a fellow and a graduate student in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I hold an MBA, an MA in Women's Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Economics from JMI University, India. I am originally from Badakhshan, Afghanistan.

I have conducted policy-oriented research and fieldwork in Afghanistan, Australia, India, and Uzbekistan, in Persian, English, Turkish, and Hindi/Urdu, and I have taught economics, political science, and human rights courses in the U.S. and Afghanistan.