Mehlaqa Samdani
Mehlaqa Samdani is the executive director of Critical Connections, which she founded in 2013. She also serves as a peacebuilding associate at the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, where she is implementing a project to address sectarian violence in Pakistan. Previously, Samdani worked as an adjunct fellow with the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a research analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York where she focused on women’s empowerment in the Muslim world. She has researched and worked in various conflict and transitional settings such as Pakistan, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Israel/Palestine. She has also been involved with civil society-based peace initiatives between India and Pakistan.