Randolph alumna featured in George W. Bush Institute's new book

Wazhma Furmuli ’11 (photo credit: Chandler West, Refinery29)

Randolph College alumna Wazhma Furmuli ’11 is one of 29 voices featured in We Are Afghan Women: Voices of Hope, a new anthology of personal stories released by the George W. Bush Institute.

In the book, Furmuli tells the story of how she refused to let anything stand in the way of her achievements. She recently discussed her passion for education and her work to provide learning opportunities for other Afghan women in an interview with the women’s fashion and style website, Refinery29.

Furmuli was born in Afghanistan and spent most of her childhood and teenage years in Pakistan as a refugee. She returned to Afghanistan at the age of 16 and lived there for three years in post-Taliban Kabul. Wazhma attended Randolph from 2007-2011, where she double-majored in economics and business. In 2011, she received the College’s Stan Marshall Award for Excellence in Business and Circle K’s Initiative Award for leadership.

After graduation, she accepted a position as a public accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. Wazhma is a women’s rights activist and works closely with The Initiative to Educate Afghan Women, an organization dedicated to securing scholarships for Afghan women in colleges and universities across the United States. In January, she and Samim Yaquby ’13 led the presentation, “Understanding Afghanistan: Personal perspectives from two alumni,” at a meeting of the New York Chapter of the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Alumnae and Randolph College Alumni Association.