Friba Rezayee

Afghanistan’s first female Olympian (judo, Athens 2004), Friba Rezayee is the founder and executive director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow (WLOT), a Canada-based nonprofit that matches high-achieving Afghan girls with fully funded high-school and university scholarships across North America while mentoring them through its GOAL—Girls of Afghanistan Lead—leadership-through-sport program. Under her stewardship WLOT has already secured life-changing placements for scores of students at institutions in the United States and Canada, putting them on academic and athletic pathways that would otherwise be closed to them. Rezayee proudly backs Friends of Sima Samar to amplify these stories and champion women’s empowerment worldwide.