Ambassador Insider Series — Amb. of Afghanistan

Now in its 18th year, Afghanistan’s civil war shows no end in sight. The conflict — which already ranks among the deadliest on Earth — has seen an average of 75 people killed every day, not only at the hands of Taliban insurgents but also by the U.S. and Afghan forces trying to defeat them.

A peace deal, which seemed likely as late as August, now appears more elusive than ever, following President Trump’s decision to suspend negotiations after a Taliban attack that killed a U.S. soldier and 11 others in early September.

Perhaps nobody is better suited to discuss the latest events in Afghanistan than the country’s ambassador to the United States, Roya Rahmani. Join us as Rahmani discusses her nation’s plight at our next Ambassador Insider Series (AIS). The event is scheduled for Oct. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan International Building and Trade Center.

Rahmani, the first woman ever to represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Washington, took up her current post in December 2018. Before coming here, she was Afghanistan’s top envoy to both Indonesia and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

A native of Kabul, the 41-year-old Rahmani holds a master’s degree in public administration from New York’s Columbia University. She also has a bachelor’s in software engineering from McGill University in Toronto. She joined the Afghan Foreign Ministry in 2011 as a senior advisor to the country’s deputy foreign minister. From 2012 to 2016, Rahmani was the ministry’s director-general for regional cooperation. A Fulbright Scholar, she is married and has a daughter.

As always, this AIS event will include an extensive networking session before and after the discussion, an in-depth interview along with a Q&A session, and cocktails and dinner.

The interview will be conducted by our news editor, Larry Luxner, who has interviewed hundreds of ambassadors since joining the Washington Diplomat staff in 1997. This will be the 10th such event for Luxner, who has moderated past AIS panels with the envoys of Azerbaijan, the European Union, Iraq, Haiti, Barbados, Ethiopia, Latvia, Peru and Georgia.