Zahra Karimi is a senior IT student at American University of Afghanistan. Her interest in debating first
sparked when she attended a few sessions of debate club in her university. She started debating in 2019
and has joined several debate tournaments at the local level, and ever since has become and remained a
debating enthusiast. She has been awarded as best speaker of a show debate in US embassy in
November 2019; a prestigious title. Moreover, Zahra has participated in many programs as a volunteer;
she has been an epilepsy advocate for the Purple Life Awareness Program; which shows her devotion
towards her community. By acquiring many skills that cut across multiple disciplines, such as critical
thinking, leadership skills, research, and public speaking strategies, she hopes that she can contribute
much more to her community and give back.
Saifullah Atahi studies mass communication at Kabul University and leads the university’s debate club. He has gotten the champion awards in both Kabul Students Debating Championships in 2019. He has also debated at the Canadian Embassy and European Union. Besides, he is member of the Young Leaders Forum 2020 which is annually organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. His passion lies in research on strategic communication particularly the nation-building topic.
Hello everyone! I am Beheshta Ahmadi and I am one semester away from graduating from the American University of Afghanistan with a degree in Business Administration/Finance. I have been working with UNESCO as an Administrative Assistant for the past two years. Having to manage both work and job at the same time didn’t quite leave room for any other extracurricular activities besides the occasional sports tournaments. My debating experience started out quite differently than you would expect. The decision to participate in the National Debate Championship in 2018 was not a well-thought out one rather a sudden urge of doing something totally unexpected and spontaneous. My best friend and I entered the competition as individual debaters and somehow, we managed to be National Debate Champion runner-ups. It was an amazing experience and that is when my interest in debating grew. I attended more debating trainings and participated in more debating tournaments such as a debater and as a judge. Currently, I am working with Afghan Progressive Thinking (APT) on one of their new initiatives which I am very excited about. I believe debating helps you grow as a person. It helps you gain multi-faceted knowledge that cuts across several disciplines outside one’s normal academic subjects and learning and boosts your confidence and self-esteem which, trust me, you need to have in this ‘survival of the fittest’ world. So I wish you all the good luck you would need on your debating journeys!
Jamshid Mohammadi is APT’s National Debating Champion for 2018. He also won Intervarsity Debating Championship at Kardan University prior to his national championship. With APT, Jamshid then adjudicated APT’s Millennium National Debate Tournament. He likes to debate due to so many reason of which one is to understand issues from a multifaceted perspective. He is currently a senior student of Political Science and Public Administration at the American University of Afghanistan. As part of his extracurricular activities, he is running Peace and Transitional Justice Club as an executive member.