Congratulations to Selay Ghaffar, who was recently announced as a 2025 Vanier Scholar. Vanier Canada Scholarships are among the most prestigious available to graduate students studying in Canadian institutions. Vanier scholars are chosen based on their academic excellence, research and leadership potential, and demonstrated ability. The program seeks and recognizes students who “demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health".
Selay Ghaffar is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation examines the resistance experiences of Afghan women protestors involved in “Work, Bread, Freedom”— a grassroots women-led social movement that emerged in response to the Taliban's return to power in 2021 and their imposition of gender apartheid. Selay aims to document how women mobilize under conditions of extreme repression, the strategies they use to sustain their struggle for social and political changes, and how their struggle influences international conversations on women’s rights in Afghanistan. Her dissertation aims to contribute to a broader understanding of gender, power, and resistance in authoritarian contexts from a Global South perspective.
Meanwhile, Selay, as a scholar-activist, works to bridge academic scholarship and grassroots activism. She continues to collaborate with grassroots women's organizations in Afghanistan. Selay also actively engages in international feminist platforms through her membership in Progressive International and the Women’s Transnational Democratic Platform, advancing the cause of gender justice globally.