Kubra Noorzai

Noorzai was born in Kabul, one of nine children. She was educated at the Lycée Malalaï, before graduating from the College of Science at Kabul University.[2][3] Noorzai subsequently returned to Lycée Malalaï, becoming its headteacher and later headed the Women's Faculty at Kabul University.[3] In 1958 she moved to France, where she studied at the University of Paris for a year.[2][3] She worked as a school inspector for girls schools,[4] and served as director of the Feminine Charitable Institute in Kabul.[5] She also became Dean of the College of Home Economics.[6]

One of the leading feminists in Afghanistan, Noorzai was one of the first women to stop wearing a veil in public, after Queen Humaira Begum had set the example by appearing without hers in 1959.[4] She was an Afghan delegate at UNESCO and the International Women's Congress meeting in Dublin.[2] In 1964 King Mohammed Zahir Shah appointed her to an advisory committee that reviewed the draft 1964 constitution,[7] which granted women the right to vote and stand for election. Following the August–September 1965 elections, she was appointed Minister of Public Health by Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal on 1 December 1965,[8] becoming the first women minister in Afghanistan. She remained in office until 1969.[9]

As director of the Women's Institute, she was elected to the Loya Jirga in 1977 during the rule of President Mohammed Daoud Khan.[10]

Never married, she died at her home in the Kārte Seh neighbourhood of Kabul in 1986.[3]