Born in 1968 in Herat, Afghanistan, she grew up during the years of armed resistance against the Soviet-backed government in Kabul.  Mujahedin were in control of many areas and threatened the education of girls. At the age of 10, going to school was dangerous and Suraya would hide her books in a plastic bag, pretending she was going to the market instead of class. When she was only 12, she saw her headmistress assassinated in the schoolyard simply because she had refused to wear a headscarf. Another of her teachers was shot on the street in Herat for teaching young girls.

Suraya began to help Afghan women in Kabul by setting up covert schools for girls under the oppressive rule of Taliban in 1998. She started in her home in defiance of the Taliban, which banned females going to school or being educated.  She was aware if they found her school they would put her in jail so she kept a gallon of kerosene in the classroom to burn the books if raided by Taliban.  She went against all odds and continued to spread the light of knowledge and enlighten the future mothers of Afghanistan.

Suraya, who learned to speak English by watching CNN, has established the Voice of Women Organization, which promotes education, job training and legal and social aid for women. She now lives in Herat, a city in Western Afghanistan, which allows few rights for women. She does not take the same road to work and she does not go at the same time of the day because of death threats. She puts herself at risk to help women of her country, she lives in fear but she also lives to help.  Despite being asked by friends to register her organization as “Voice of Afghan Women”, Suraya named it Voice of Women.  She has a dream to work for women regardless of their nationalities and backgrounds.  She believes that her concerns and efforts are not just limited to Afghan women but all the women facing various kinds of violence at various levels.

Girls have been at the center of Suraya’s work since she founded her organization, 12 years ago, as her response to the denial of rights of Afghan women and their treatment in the society as second-class citizens. Back then the Taliban were in power, and the men from Kandahar had banned women from schools and offices. Suraya saw how desperate girls in Kabul were to continue their education. She had lost hope of receiving any support from the international community. She thought she is educated and now she has to shoulder the responsibility. Otherwise, the next generation will ask her, “Why didn’t you help us?” So, from its humble start with one small classroom in Suraya’s home, VWO grew into a network of 10 underground girls’ schools across Kabul city, which ran until the Taliban government fell in 2001, and girls could finally be educated out in the open.

Presently the VWO shelter program, in Herat city, provides refuge to girls and women at risk as well as allows them to engage in literacy and income generation activities. Her work, with women in jail and children in conflict with law, aims to establish the rights of the victims of abuse. She also focuses on community paralegal and psychosocial aspects to support the most marginalized groups of Afghan society.

Today, more than a decade after Suraya founded VWO in her living room, she has become known
both within and outside Afghanistan for her commitment to protecting the rights of her nation’s women. VWO now offers a range of services, including ensuring that women have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation (in a country of open sewers) and providing girls and women with education and job skills. VWO offers lawyers and vocational training to women in jail, many of whom are behind bars simply because they are victims of rape or domestic violence. After completing their sentence time in prison, some women move to one of VWO’s shelters, since their families are too ashamed to take them back.

In March 2008, she was honored by the State Department of United States of America to receive the Women of Courage 2008 award. In December 2008, her work was recognized and she was awarded the National Medal ( Malali  Medal) by the President of Afghanistan. In May 2009, for her invaluable work, she was recognized by the TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential persons. Suraya has also been nominated for Voice of Peace Award, 2009 by the Peace Organization, United States of America. She has been awarded with an honorary Associate of Arts degree by the Burlington Country College, New Jersey, Philadelphia, USA in March, 2010.

Two women, victims of domestic violence, were flogged in public, a couple of months ago, for running away from their homes.  Another young woman’s throat was slit by her husband recently in Herat city. Suraya wonders that such things are happening while the international community is here. Suraya admits the growing insurgency is complicating VWO’s work, making it impossible to reach the provinces which need their assistance most.

Last but not the least, very few people know that besides being an ‘Iron Lady’ she happens to be an extremely sensitive and highly skillful poetess as well.  She has produced some outstanding work in Persian poetry and that also has colors of her real life attached to it. Below is the translation of one of her poems, in Persian, that she wrote for her youngest daughter:

We shall prepare the path for you and your children

We shall fight now so that you shall survive

We shall die now so that you shall live