Ryan ChartrandAfter minor complications, Cal Poly social sciences professor Maliha Zulfacar, a native of Afghanistan who has actively spent her summers aiding the rebuilding of the country, has finally assumed her role as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Germany.
Zulfacar, who taught classes about global ethnic conflict and geopolitics during the academic year, had left Cal Poly bound for Afghanistan and then Germany on Sept. 1 to become Afghanistan’s first female ambassador.
Yet, due to a dispute with the former Afghan ambassador to Germany who refused to relinquish his position, Zulfacar was not able to assume the role immediately after her appointment.
However, the former Afghan ambassador has since relieved his post and on Oct. 26, Zulfacar was able to commence her tenure as the new Afghan ambassador, social sciences department chair Barbara Mori said.
“It is a great honor for me,” Zulfacar said in a press release. “Having been the first woman appointed as an ambassador from Afghanistan gives me the opportunity to serve my country of birth and also to demonstrate that when Afghan women are given the chance for education, they too will be able to participate effectively in the reconstruction of the country.”
Zulfacar, who emigrated from Afghanistan in the wake of the Russian occupation in 1979, lived in Germany for several years before moving to California to raise her two children in 1985. Zulfacar joined the Cal Poly Social Sciences Department in 1988.
After the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, Zulfacar returned to her native country for the first time in 23 years and has been spending the summers teaching social sciences at Kabul University.
Upon her return, Zulfacar has been working to rebuild the nation’s higher education system while actively encouraging Afghan women to pursue higher education at Kabul University and abroad.
Zulfacar’s appointment comes during the heat of trying times for Afghanistan which is seeing a resurgence of the Taliban and attacks on the current democratic government, Mori said.
Though Zulfacar was not available for comment, her peers within the social sciences department say that she is working hard to settle in and figure out the best means in which to accomplish her new and challenging role.
“Though it has not been an easy time for her, Zulfacar knows her community and reflects their concerns, and she is also quite fluent in German. She’s a great selection for the position,” Mori said.