Meet the Team

Soraya Bata (she/her) is a junior in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, and she is from St. Augustine, Florida. She is studying Culture and Politics with a concentration in gender, human rights, and religion, with a Spanish minor. Soraya is passionate about the rights and empowerment of women and girls both domestically and abroad, and through her studies and work, she hopes to learn how religion interacts with gender and social justice movements, especially in the political sphere. In her free time, Soraya finds joy in hiking and running, and loves to read.

Alison Karki (she/they) is a student at Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences with a passion in feminist theory and women’s rights–particularly in South Asia. As a Nepali-American from New Jersey and New Mexico, she is looking to major in English Literature and minor in Women & Gender Studies and Anthropology. Alison has had experience in conducting independent qualitative research in Nepal last summer, where they analyzed the change in discourse and cultural norms around trafficking survivors in the sex sector throughout the last 15 years. In the future, Alison hopes to have a government and/or academic career focusing on uplifting women’s voices in the Global South. In her free time, she likes to draw, hike, perform slam poetry, and hip-hop dance.

Zahra Wakilzada (she/her) is a poet, activist, and public speaker. She was born and raised in Afghanistan and took refuge in the United States at 15. She is currently in her fourth year at Georgetown University, studying International Politics and Women’s and Gender Studies. As an Afghan, Zahra is passionate about women’s rights. Her experiences of living in different countries around the world has led her to advocate for women’s rights. She has written and published dozens of poetry pieces and has spoken in universities, schools, protests, and conferences on gender justice and immigration issues. Her poetry has been performed at the United Nations. Her life experience, love of writing, and passion for shaping a better world for women have inspired her to study politics and use her writing as a tool of activism. She hopes to change the world for the better through activism, writing, and policymaking.