Early Life
She was born in 1972 in Kabul, Afghanistan. "Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtun, one of the country's main ethnic groups, and was shared by its rulers from the 1830s until the overthrow of the last king, She speaks both of Afghanistan's official languages, Pashto and Dari, as well as English.
Barakzai went to Kabul University in the 1990s. Half way through a degree, she had to break off her studies because of mounting violence between the government and the Mujahideen. In September 1996 the Taliban captured Kabul. By then, many citizens, especially the educated middle classes, had left for a life in exile, but she stayed in the city of her birth. In 1999, she felt ill and went to see a doctor; the religious police caught her on the street without her husband and beat her for what they saw as a crime (see Taliban treatment of women). Barakzai felt that she had to resist in some way, so set up an underground school in her home. She resumed her education right after the Taliban were driven out of Kabul in late 2001 following the American-led war in Afghanistan, and gained a degree in archaeology and geology.
Read more about this topic: Shukria Barakzai
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