The Authors

Meet Judge Marzia

Speaker and Women's Rights Advocate

Marzia Babakarkhail served as a family court judge in Puli Khumri, the capital and largest city of the Baghlan Province of northern Afghanistan in the 1990s. During Marzia’s tenure as a judge, the injustices within the Court motivated her to support women and give them a voice. As a judge, she was bound by the law, so she decided to establish a women's organization called the Afghan Women Social and Cultural Organisation in 1994 to empower women. It was in operation until 2008. Marzia was also a member of the Board of Directors and chairperson of the women's committee at the Afghan NGO's Coordination Bureau (ANCB), attending national and international conferences between 2000 and 2008.

In the midst of this, in 1997, the Taliban came to Marzia's house to kill her. She hid out back while the Taliban searched the house, shouting at her family, questioning them and demanding to know where I was. It was then that Marzia knew she had to leave Afghanistan; that the Taliban would never stop trying to find her. She left Afghanistan later that very day and went to Pakistan. In Pakistan, after 3 months, Marzia established a school for Afghan refugee boys and girls. This was open from 1997 until 2008. She continued fighting for Afghan women's rights, both inside and outside of Afghanistan.

Then, in 2000s, Marzia was forced to flee Afghanistan again, because the Taliban targeted her for setting up a foundation for educating girls in Pakistan. They tried to kill her in a high-speed hit-and-run incident as she visited her sick mother in the hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, Marzia was severely injured and spent six months in the hospital.

In 2008, she fled to the UK and was granted refugee status. Marzia had to start her life all over again. When she arrived in the UK, she could not speak a word of English. So, she joined a college to learn and improve her language. In 2016, she became a British citizen.

That same year, she started working with Debbie Abrahams, a Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth, UK, where Marzia still works today.

Since the Taliban came back into power, Marzia has been lobbying and campaigning for Afghan women and especially for Afghan female judges to resettle them in safe countries, because they are at the top of the hit list of the Taliban. Marzia serves as their voice on international media.

Marzia speaks five languages. She won an award from Oldham College in 2015 for making a significant contribution to college and community life. In 2017 she won the Fusion Woman of the Year Award, and was nominated for a pride award in Oldham, the city where she resides. She was shortlisted for a Northern Powerhouse Women's Award as an outstanding mentor, and for a True Honour Award in March 2023.

Marzia’s continuous work for underprivileged people, particularly those in the refugee community, has led her to become a speaker, trainer, and leader in many community projects in the U.K. More importantly, Oldham Member of Parliament Debbie Abrahams employs Marzia as a caseworker and regards her as "an amazing woman and a real asset to the team." She is a consistent voice in the media, appearing on BBC and multiple other international and regional news outlets as a worldwide spokesperson for Afghan women.

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Meet Co-Author Pamela Say

Book Coach & Writer, Non-Profit Consultant

Pamela rose through the ranks in the non-profit and higher education sectors, reaching the c-suite by her mid-thirties. She completed her administrative career as a senior-level VP working alongside presidents and boards. Pamela led high-performing teams in fundraising, marketing, PR, government relations, and community development. Along the way, she created a powerful leader-manager tool that transformed organizations and launched careers. Her teams consistently raised millions of dollars for non-profit missions and smashed through marketing goals.

Through it all, her childhood love for writing never wavered. She took time to invest in her passions. Pamela has written five books of her own and has written and edited hundreds of published articles. She serves as a book coach, writer, and developmental editor for emerging authors, assisting them through the publishing process. Her first successful project was A Song for Kalen: Lessons Learned from the Life and Death of my Son by T.R. Sherlock (2023, NFB Publishing), in which she served as book coach and editor. She supported Cory Allen, author of Breaking Free: A Saga of Self-Discovery by a Gay Secret Service Agent, in developing his press outreach, leading to a tidal wave of PR opportunities and interviews. Pamela earned a Certificate in Literary Representation at UCLA Extension Center. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from St. Bonaventure University and an M.B.A. from SUNY Empire State University.

Today Pamela runs her own boutique consulting firm, supporting non-profit clients in fundraising and marketing, and supporting emerging authors in writing and publishing. She has served as a contracted CEO for a global digital news outlet, helped a large hospital system to reorganize departments, and trained large management teams in organizational leadership principles.

Learn more about Pam at:
Pamela H Say LLC/ Publishing Fundraising Leadership

Our Story

In 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal, Pam was working as a contracted CEO and journalist for a global digital news outlet. She began seeking out subjects to interview who had first-hand experience with the Taliban. In time, Pamela connected with Marzia and interviewed her for a first-person news story on the site. "After learning about Marzia's life - her will to survive and her advocacy for the oppressed - I couldn't get her off my mind," Pam said. One day, Marzia reached out to Pam for feedback editing a quote she wrote for publication. When they next chatted on WhatsApp, Pam asked Marzia if she ever considered writing her memoir. From that moment forward, Marzia and Pam forged a friendship and a professional relationship with a common goal: to share the story of the women of Afghanistan with the world and to tell Marzia's story. The two met weekly for over six months on Zoom. Pam would interview Marzia, write, and send chapters for review. As the book took form, Pamela began to compile all the pieces necessary to query agents and publishers. Marzia served as a powerful guide through the whole process, ensuring every phase of writing, query, and publishing remained true to her story, the experiences of Afghan women, and the spirit of advocacy that remain core to who she is as a person. Since that first meeting to begin the book process, to earning a contract with the University of Nebraska Press, to seeing their work come to life - Marzia and Pam have always held the female judges of Afghanistan foremost in their minds. Their hope is that in telling this story, the world will never forget what the women of Afghanistan have faced and continue to endure.