Farida Ahmadi

Ahmadi was born 26 March 1957 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her medical education at Kabul University was interrupted by the Soviet invasion of Kabul during the Soviet–Afghan War.^[1][2]

Ahmadi a leading member of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).^[3] She was accused of distributing "anti-Soviet" resistance literature^[4] and was arrested in 1981.^[5] At the time of her arrest she was a fourth year medical student.^[4] She was detained for six months and was tortured by electrocution, denial of sleep and continual interrogation in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Afghanistan.^[2][6] She witnessed the torture of other political prisoners.^[7]

After her release, Ahmadi participated in the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal session "Afghanistan Il" on 16 December 1982 in Paris, France.^[8] She also spoke about her treatment at a conference in New York, USA.^[9] She provided the names of the individuals responsible for her torture.^[4] Her case was cited in the entry on Afghanistan of Amnesty International's Annual Report 1982.^[10][11]

For her women's rights and pro-democracy campaigning, Ahmadi was also arrested in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan,^[12] and was imprisoned in Pakistan in 1989.^[1][13][14] Amnesty International worked for her release from prison.^[13][10]

Ahmadi fled to Norway as a refugee in 1991, firstly to a refugee reception centre in Haugesund, then later to Oslo where she permanently settled. She studied a masters degree in social anthropology at the University of Oslo.^[1] She then completed a PhD thesis on Immigrant women's reality in Norwegian society at the Nordic Women's University.^[8]

In 1994, Ahmadi founded the organisation "Women against Fundamentalism" in Norway.^[1] She co-authored the conference paper "Corruption and economic development: A critical review of literature" with Fredoun Z. Ahmadi-Esfahani.^[15]

In 2008, Ahmadi published the book Silent Screams, which describes the experiences of immigrant women.^[13] She translated her book into Persian^[16] and it has been turned into a physical theatre production by Norwegian and Japanese artists.^[8][17]

Ahmadi published From War to Peace: Our Global Responsibility! in 2024 and gave a talk about her writing at the London Book Fair in 2025.^[18]

• Farida Ahmadi on Twitter
• Farida Ahmadi's channel on YouTube