Biography
Under the Taliban regime, Orzala Ashraf launched underground literacy and health education programs for women and girls, often putting herself directly at risk. During the mid 1990s, she served as a guide and translator to journalists and foreign aid visitors to the refugee camps in which she lived, having fled Kabul with her family when she was 12. As a refugee in Pakistan for 14 years, she says her greatest fear was that she would remain illiterate. “With no books,” she says, “I read even the wrappers of newspapers. I read everything.” In 1999, she founded Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, which provides free services in education, protection, counseling, health, and child care and promotes income-generating activities for women. Ms. Ashraf has also set up safe houses to help transform “victims” of domestic violence into agents of change.
Ms. Ashraf has long been a strong advocate for human rights and the active participation of women in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, consulting with international organizations including Human Rights Watch, Swiss Development Corporation, UNDP, and UNIFEM. She is a member of the Afghan Women’s Network and Civil Society and Human Rights Network, Persian Gender Network, Gender and Law working group (professionals and scholars involved in crafting the constitution), and is one of the founding members of the Women’s Political Participation Committee. Ms. Ashraf and her organization were given the Isabel Ferror Award for women’s education and the Amnesty International award for humanitarian aid to children and women; she was a World Fellow at Yale University in 2008. She has a master’s degree from the University of London in development planning, with a special focus on social development practice. Ms. Ashraf will spend the next several years focusing on research and advocacy on governance in conflict zones and how they affect women’s lives. (01.2009)
Read more about Orzala Ashraf:
London Afghanistan Summit Glosses Over the Cracks
By Catherine Mayer, Time
January 29, 2010
Afghan Candidates Face More Vocal Constituency: Women.
By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Christian Science Monitor
August 12, 2009
War Complicates U.S. Aid Efforts for Afghan Women
By Rich Daly, Women's eNews
July 26, 2009