Angela Ghayour is an Afghan educator and advocate for women's rights. After facing challenges with formal education as a child refugee in Iran, she began teaching literacy and numeracy to other refugee children. She founded Afghanistan Education Action.

Early life and education

Ghayour was born in

Herat, Afghanistan Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the List of cities in Afghanistan, third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the ...

, and faced challenges with formal education during her early years as a refugee in Iran. After returning to Afghanistan in 2002, she pursued higher education at

Herat University Herat University (HU; ; ) is a public university located in Herat, the capital of Herat Province, in western Afghanistan. It was inaugurated in 1988, beginning with a faculty of Literature and Humanities. Its first President was Abubakr Rashed. T ...

, earning a degree in Persian literature. Her experiences in Afghan classrooms and the impact of the Taliban's rule on education deeply influenced her. In 2021, amidst the Taliban's return to power, she founded the Herat Online School and later established Afghanistan Education Action (AEA), a UK-based charity. AEA provides educational resources and access to quality education, empowering Afghan girls and women despite ongoing challenges. In 2021, she was recognized by the BBC as one of their 100 Women.

References

Living people 21st-century Afghan educators Afghan women's rights activists Herat University alumni People from Herat Afghan women educators {{Afghanistan-bio-stub