2. Previous Functions:
Senior Consultant, UNESCO, Paris (2011-2012)
Media and Public Affairs Consultant, Afghan Embassy, Ottawa (2004-2009)
Free Lance Reporter and Field Producer in Afghanistan and U.S. (2001-2009)

3. Biodata:
Mrs. Khorshid Samad was born and raised in Berkeley, Calif. She had grown up with two brothers in a household infused with cultural and religious diversity. She is a Muslim  though her mother, an American, is Iowa-raised Dutch Catholic. Her father, a Muslim from an elite Afghan family originally from Iran, had immigrated to California from Afghanistan as a young man in the late 1950s. Her parents opened the very first Afghan restaurant in all of North America in 1968, the Khyber Pass, in Oakland, California. Her mother learned to be an amazing Afghan cook.

Khorshied Samad only visited Afghanistan for the first time in 2002. It is where she met her husband, a third-generation diplomat, who at the time was a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. Mrs. Samad came to Kabul as a freelance producer for ABC news, having abandoned a well-paying job in New York in the marketing department of ABC.

Her professional experience has ranged from program development, media relations and public affairs, journalism, marketing and project management to working with ICTs, with a focus on gender and youth issues, post-conflict situations, peace-building, democracy, sustainable development and human rights in Afghanistan and various regions of the world. In her role as the spouse of the bilateral Afghanistan Ambassador formerly posted to France (2009 – 2011) and Canada (2004 – 2009), she has been called upon to represent the country in her capacities as a spokesperson for Afghan women and children, promoting women’s rights and freedom of expression, stressing the importance of education, equity and access for all, and bridging gaps of understanding about Afghan culture, history and the Muslim world through participation in the media, conferences, lectures and roundtable discusssions.

Her husband is Omar Samad, the former Afghanistan ambassador to Canada and France.

The couple has two children.