About Azra Jafari Azra Jafari (Dari:عذرا جعفری) was named by President Hamid Karzai as mayor of Nili, the capital of Daykundi Province in December 2008, thus becoming Afghanistan's first female city mayor. She was a refugee in Iran for several years under the Taliban. After the US coalition invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, she returned to Afghanistan and participated in the Loya Jirga (grand national council). Jafari is married and has a daughter born in 2004. Her husband, Malek Shafi'i, is a filmmaker in Kabul.