To ensure that the ACF’s work reflects a wide range of voices and experiences directly from the Afghan community and their stakeholders, the project team is supported by an advisory board. This board, primarily composed of Afghan experts in art, culture, media, and business, will collaborate with the project team to develop strategic and operational guidelines for the initial phase of the ACF.

Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi is a journalist and head of the Afghan service at Deutsche Welle (DW). With 15 years of experience reporting from and about Afghanistan, she covers issues of migration, racism, and human rights. As an author, she adopts a decolonial perspective to critically examine power structures and ensure marginalized voices are heard through her work.

Shahrbanoo Sadat, an Afghan filmmaker based in Hamburg, Germany since the fall of Kabul in 2021, is the first female Afghan director to be selected for Cannes, an honor she has achieved three times with her works VICE VERSA ONE (2011), WOLF AND SHEEP (2016, Caméra d'Or nominee & CECAE winner) and THE ORPHANAGE (2019). She's currently working on a romantic comedy called NO GOOD MEN. Shahrbanoo has also served as a jury member at major film festivals around the world, including Berlin and Locarno

Dr. Ahmad Sarmast founded and directs Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music (ANIM). Fleeing in the 1990s during the Taliban’s music ban, he returned in 2001 to establish ANIM in Kabul, offering Afghan and Western classical music education to all. ANIM became a global symbol, with groups like the Afghan Youth Orchestra and all-girls' Orchestra Zohra touring internationally. After the Taliban’s 2021 return, Sarmast rescued 273 members and relocated ANIM to Lisbon. A Polar Prize winner with an honorary Juilliard doctorate, he survived a 2014 suicide bombing and continues to preserve Afghan music. He holds a PhD from Monash University and authored A Survey of the History of Music in Afghanistan.

Farhad Darya
Anthony Richter