Hannah Arendt Center presents:
Courage To Be Action in Crisis: Afghanistan 2021 with Safiullah Rauf
Organized by HAC Courage to Be Student Fellow Tamana Sultani
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
This event occurs on:
Wed. April 23
Safi Rauf is a humanitarian, writer, and cinematographer, who is one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Social Impact, a 2021 Washingtonian of the Year, a TED fellow, and the founder of Human First Coalition, an organization dedicated to providing aid to Afghanistan. As a cinematographer, Safi has worked on three documentary feature films and on Broadway for Marathon Digital. An Afghan refugee fluent in 6 languages, Safi immigrated to the US as a teenager. Thereafter, he deployed to Afghanistan as a linguist and cultural advisor embedded with Special Operations and later graduated as a Tillman Scholar from Georgetown University. He is a US Navy Reserves corpsman and was activated in 2020 to serve as a frontline worker during the pandemic. As a humanitarian, Safi led a team of hundreds to provide food, medical care, and resettlement services to over 15,000 Afghans in need and evacuated over 7,000, including 1,400 US nationals. In December 2021, Safi was unlawfully detained and held by the Taliban for 105 days and was subsequently released in early April 2022.
Learn more about the Courage to Be Courses and lecture series here. Find recordings of the Courage Dinner Lectures on our YouTube channel.
The Courage to Be Dinner Lectures are for students enrolled in the Courage to Be Courses. R.S.V.P. required for those not enrolled. Please email [email protected]
Safi Rauf is a humanitarian, writer, and cinematographer, who is one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Social Impact, a 2021 Washingtonian of the Year, a TED fellow, and the founder of Human First Coalition, an organization dedicated to providing aid to Afghanistan. As a cinematographer, Safi has worked on three documentary feature films and on Broadway for Marathon Digital. An Afghan refugee fluent in 6 languages, Safi immigrated to the US as a teenager. Thereafter, he deployed to Afghanistan as a linguist and cultural advisor embedded with Special Operations and later graduated as a Tillman Scholar from Georgetown University. He is a US Navy Reserves corpsman and was activated in 2020 to serve as a frontline worker during the pandemic. As a humanitarian, Safi led a team of hundreds to provide food, medical care, and resettlement services to over 15,000 Afghans in need and evacuated over 7,000, including 1,400 US nationals. In December 2021, Safi was unlawfully detained and held by the Taliban for 105 days and was subsequently released in early April 2022.
Learn more about the Courage to Be Courses and lecture series here. Find recordings of the Courage Dinner Lectures on our YouTube channel.
The Courage to Be Dinner Lectures are for students enrolled in the Courage to Be Courses. R.S.V.P. required for those not enrolled. Please email [email protected]