Sahraa Karimi
Sahraa Karimi (; born 20 May 1985) is an Afghan film director and the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film Organisation (Afghan Film). She has directed 30 short films, 3 documentary films and one fiction film " Hava, Maryam, Ayesha " which has the world premier at 76th Venice Film Festival. Prior to the fall of Kabul to the hands of the Taliban, she was the first and the only woman to be directing Afghanistan's film entity. Background. Karimi was raised in Tehran, educated in Slovakia, and went back to Afghanistan in 2012 where she lived and worked until  her escape from the country in 2021 during the fall of Kabul. She received her PhD degree in the field of Cinema (Fiction Film Directing & Screenwriting) from the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava. "Light Breeze", a documentary she made during her time in the academy, went on to win as the Best Short Fiction Film at the Sun in a Net Awards (the highest film awards in Slovakia). On returning to Afghanistan, she helped open Kapila Multimedia House to promote independent Afghan filmmakers. In 2019, she became the first female chairperson  of the government-owned Afghan Film since it began in 1968. She was the only woman to apply for the job, and was competing against four others, all of whom were men. Her first professional work was a documentary, "Searching for Dream," which was exhibited at the Dhaka International Film Festival in 2006. Her other notable works include "Afghan Women behind the Wheel", which won around 20 awards at major film festivals, including Academy awards in Slovakia and the best documentary film award at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival. In 2019 she directed the film "Hava, Maryam, Ayesha," which  premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Orizzonti/ Horizon Prize (award for Best Film). Karimi was the leading organizer of protests against Kabul Municipality's plans to demolish the once famous Cinema Park in the city. She and cultural activists and filmmakers were against the destruction of the 1950s cinema that fell into disarray, calling it "catastrophic" to the city's culture and history. The demolition went ahead in November 2020 and Karimi had to be forcibly moved by police from the cinema to allow it to take place. A photo of her weeping as the  demolishers came went viral on social media. In August 2021, following the fall of Kabul to Taliban, she mentioned: "I went to the bank to get some money; they closed and evacuated. I still cannot believe this happened", adding, "They are coming to kill us". Later, she was evacuated from Kabul to Kyiv, Ukraine along with 11 individuals, thereafter writing: "My dear friends do not worry, I am fine and safe".