Name: Nelofer Pazira-Fisk

Based in: Dublin and Ottawa

Current Occupation: Journalist/Filmmaker, Kandahar Films Inc

Speaks: English

Website/Blog URL:

LinkedIn Profile:

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Biography

NELOFER PAZIRA is an award-winning Afghan-Canadian author, film director, journalist and actress.
Her starring role in Kandahar, the acclaimed feature film presented at Cannes in 2001, brought Nelofer to the world’s attention. The film was based on her real life story and she was awarded the Prix d’interprétation by the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal for her performance in Kandahar.
Nelofer performed in, co-produced, and co-directed Return to Kandahar, which won the 2003 Gemini award in Canada. In 2008, she directed and produced Audition, a documentary about images and cinema in Afghanistan, premiered at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. She is the writer and director of Act of Dishonour (2010), a dramatic feature film about honour killing and the plight of returning refugees in Afghanistan. She’s been a jury member at film festivals including Locarno, Geneva, Sao Paulo, Edinburgh, and Montreal.
In 2001-2002 she assisted UNESCO as a cultural ambassador in their work inside Afghanistan. In 2009, Nelofer represented Canada in Europe as a cultural delegate accompanying then Governor General Michaelle Jean.
Nelofer is a former president of PEN Canada when she was involved in the successful release from prison of Chinese journalist Jiang Weiping, Afghan journalists Ahmed Ghous Zalmai and Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh.
Nelofer is a frequent speaker at international conferences, universities and colleges.
As a journalist Nelofer has worked for the Canadian Broadcasting (CBC) TV and Radio. Her radio documentary Of Paradise and Failure — about the fate of a young suicide bomber in Iraq and his family – was the winner of the Silver Medal at New York’s media award.
She has written for The Independent (London), Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen, the British film journal ‘Sight and Sound’ and many other publications.
In 2006, Nelofer’s book A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan was named winner of the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize in Canada.
Nelofer holds a degree in Journalism and English Literature from Carleton University (Ottawa), and an MA in Anthropology/Sociology and Religion from Concordia University (Montreal). She has also received an honorary doctorate of law at Carleton, Ottawa, Ontario and an honorary doctorate of letters from Thomson Rivers University, BC.
In 2003, she founded a charity — The Dyana Afghan Women’s Fund – named after her childhood friend who died during the Taliban rule. It provides education for women in Afghanistan.
Nelofer is an Afghan, born in India where her father was then working with the World Health Organization. She grew up in Kabul during the ten years of Soviet occupation before escaping with her family to Pakistan in 1989. From there, they immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, in 1990.

Area(s) of Expertise

Democracy, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Equality, Human Rights, Women Peace and Security

Region of Expertise

Middle East

Country of Focus

Afghanistan

Lebanon

Media Experience

-- https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-road-to-damascus-1.3285997
• Contributor, CBC Radio, The Current, 2016: Aleppo, Syria
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-december-21-2016-1.3905467/there-was-nosign-
of-any-living-thing-journalist-nelofer-pazira-takes-us-inside-aleppo-1.3905548
2016: Turkish-Kurds
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-december-21-2016-1.3905467/turkish-kurdssay-
they-re-not-going-anywhere-despite-crackdown-1.3905540
2005-2013: various docs: ‘Of Paradise and Failure’ [winner Silver NYC Media Ward] ‘Afghan
Media’, ‘The Balkans’, ‘The Dark Knight’, ‘In His Footsteps’
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/sep-24-2013-1.2909368/in-his-footsteps-corporal-jameshayward-
arnal-1.2909369
• Contributor, CBC Radio, This Morning
Guest host: The Current
• Contributor: CBC Website: 2010-2016 a number of articles, including:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syrian-daily-life-amid-war-a-jumble-of-strange-contrasts-
1.3272123
https://soundcloud.com/cbc-radio-one/inside-the-syrian-civil-war
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/aleppo-syria-war-al-assad-1.3664962
The Guardian (UK), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/29/father-carriessuit-
kabul-canada-fled-afghanistan-refugees-soul-left-behind
• The Independent (UK)
• Nexus Institute Magazine (The Netherlands): 2017 ‘Flight & Identity’; 2018 ‘Of Gods And
Men’
Nexus Institute Conference: 2017, Last Revolution:
https://nexus-instituut.nl/activity/the-last-revolution/

Contact Nelofer Pazira-Fisk