Afshan is originally from Pakistan. She came to the U.S. for her undergraduate and graduate studies (Ohio Wesleyan University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst respectively). She is now an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Connecticut College. Her research and teaching interests are globalization, transnational women’s movements, fundamentalist and nationalist movements, gender, and the body. Her first book, Women’s NGOs in Pakistan (Palgrave Macmillan, August 2011) uncovers the overwhelming challenges facing women’s NGOs and examines the strategies used by them to ensure not just their survival but an acceptance of their messages by the larger public.

She lives in Connecticut, with her husband Michael and their two daughters, Aleena and Lilah.

She can be reached at ajafar@conncoll.edu