Former First Lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani earned a “Diplôme de l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris” (Science-Po) in 1969, then an M.A. in Political Studies from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1974, while working at the Beirut office of the Agence France Presse (AFP). It is at AUB that she met her husband, Ashraf Ghani, a student from Afghanistan. They were married in 1975, just as the first shots of the Lebanese Civil War were fired and three years before Afghanistan started its own Civil Strife in 1978. By that year, the couple was in New York City, enrolled at Columbia University where Ashraf completed a PhD in Anthropology in 1982 and Rula an M.S. in Journalism in 1983. Two main convictions inspired her work throughout her seven years as First Lady as they still do today: She is a firm believer that women play an important role in society no matter how progressive or how traditional that society is. She is also convinced that all people of this world have an undeniable right to live in Peace. Rula Ghani was selected as one of TIME magazine’s most influential people of 2015. She received the “Prix de la Fondation” from the Crans Montana Forum in March 2016, and the “Lotus Award” from the Asia Foundation in May 2016. Then in November 2016, she was honored by the Afghan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry AWCCI, with the Bibi Khadija Award.