Maheen Iqbal

Maheen is a sophomore from Ontario, Canada in Grace Hopper College majoring in Political Science, and pursuing a certificate in French Language Study. Maheen is interested in studying post-conflict migration patterns, as well as the asylum and migration policy in the European Union. She’s currently serving as Executive Director of the Yale International Relations Leadership Institute, an annual international relations symposium for high school students globally interested in international development and human rights policy. She also serves as Director of Advocacy at the Yale Migration Alliance and Human Security Division Chief of the Yale Sycamore Institute, through which she focuses on mass atrocity and migration. 

This past summer, Maheen served as a President’s Public Service Fellow, placed at the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services of Connecticut and supporting the resettlement of Afghan refugees across the state. Her focus included adequately equipping post-conflict witnesses to recount their experiences in conflict, and designing gender-specific post-conflict education reintegration programming for Afghan girls beginning public school education. Completing mentorship under BBC News Journalist and former United Nations Chief of Communications George Sommerwill, Maheen also spent the summer exploring the relationship between media coverage of foreign conflicts and attitudes towards asylum in the European Union.

Department: Political Science, Certificate in French Language Studies / Grace Hopper College