Joana Rafael Pereira is a PhD candidate in International Studies at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, where she is a recipient of a doctoral research grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). She holds an M.A. in International Studies from Iscte, where she completed the dissertation “Afghan Women and Structural Violence: The Implication of Discourse in the War on Terror”, and a B.A. in Languages, Literatures and Cultures from the University of Lisbon, with a major in North American Studies and a minor in Asian Studies. Currently, her PhD project, “Afghan Women in the Diaspora: Resistance Against the Taliban’s Gendered Oppression Post-2021”, examines women’s political and social mobilization in diaspora contexts, with a particular focus on transnational resistance, identity negotiation, and digital activism.