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Nelofer Pazira (born 1973) is a Canadian filmmaker, author and journalist with origin from Afghanistan.

Born in India where her father was then working with the World Health Organization. Pazira grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she lived through ten years of Soviet occupation before escaping with her family to Pakistan in 1989, from where she immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, in 1990.

In 1996, Nelofer attempted to return to Afghanistan — then under Taliban rule — to find a lost childhood friend. Although she was unsuccessful, Nelofer did become the star of a feature film loosely based on her journey. She was awarded the Prix d'interprétation by the FCMM (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal) for her performance in the film Safar e Ghandehar (also known as Kandahar).

Nelofer later performed in, co-produced, and co-directed Return to Kandahar, which won the 2003 Gemini award in Canada.

Nelofer has directed two documentaries about Iran, written for a number of publications, and founded a charity, the Dyana Afghan Women's Fund and works as a journalist for CBC Television's The National.

On March 1, 2006, Pazira's A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan was named winner of the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize for 2005.

Pazira defended Joseph Boyden's novel Three Day Road in Canada Reads 2006.

Pazira 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 received an honorary doctorate of law at Carleton.

In February 2007, Pazira was a keynote speaker at the Religion, Culture & Conflict symposium at Trinity Western University, addressing the topic of suicide bombers in Afghanistan.

Pazira is current president of the freedom of expression organization PEN Canada.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nelofer Pazira", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0