Diversity and inclusion policies change lives — including mine

Mahbooba Faiz fled Afghanistan at the return of the Taliban. She recently graduated with a Masters from UCC and describes here how DEI policies have made a real difference to her life

Mahbooba Faiz: 'This March, I stood in a graduation hall at University College Cork as the first Afghan female student and received my second master’s degree in law.' Picture: Chani Anderson

Across the world, diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) policies are facing an increasing backlash. In the United States, there are efforts to dismantle DEI programmes across government and influence the private sectors to follow suit. 

Major corporations have already begun scaling back these initiatives. While Ireland has made meaningful progress in embedding equality and inclusion into law and workplace practice, these developments raise an important question: could these protections also come under pressure?