Nafisa Shah is an academic, writer, artist, and accidental politician. Shah has a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She is presently serving her second term as Member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian platform. As an MNA, she is a strong voice on rights based policy and has led cross-party caucusing on gender. She was elected Nazim (mayor) of Khairpur district in 2001, being one of the only two women District Nazims in Pakistan. Shah also worked previously as a journalist in the English language magazine Newsline.