Nelofer Pazira, actress, journalist, and filmmaker, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, at the 2:00 p.m. ceremony on Wednesday, June 14, “in recognition of an outstanding career as a journalist and actress.
Born in India to an Afghan family, Pazira spent her youth in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the Russian occupation. The Pazira family fled to Pakistan when Pazira was 16, immigrating to Canada a year later. In 2001, Pazira co-produced and starred in Kandahar, a fictionalized version of her attempt to return to Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban.
She subsequently produced, directed, and edited, with Paul Jay, the CBC documentary, Return to Kandahar, winning the Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary at the 2003 Gemini Awards. Recently she was awarded the 2005 A.D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction, Carleton’s most prestigious alumni honour. Pazira is the author of A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan, which won the DrainieTaylor Biography Prize awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Now a regular contributor to CBC, she is also the founder and chair of the Dyana Afghan Women’s Fund, a Canadian charity set up to provide education and skills training for young women in the city of Kandahar.