Sonia Nassery Cole (born 1965) is an Afghan-born American human rights activist, filmmaker, and author.

Early life

Sonia Nassery Cole was born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, the daughter of an Afghan diplomat.. At fourteen, she fled

amid the Soviet invasion of 1979 to seek refuge in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

without her family. At seventeen, wrote a nine-page letter to President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

about the situation in her country and pleaded for help and invited to meet with him.

Humanitarian work in Afghanistan

Cole founded the Afghanistan World Foundation in 2002 and began making films. She was instrumental in raising funds used for various necessities such as the construction of a hospital for women and children in

, medical care for land-mine victims, and other causes. Cole primarily deals with improving the conditions for women and children in Afghanistan. Sonia also befriended singer Natalie Cole while she was working with the Afghan World Foundation. She became a board member for the organization along

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

Prince Albert of Monaco Albert II – Website of the Palace of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, since 2005. Albert was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and he is the second child and only son of Prince Rai ...

Anne Heche Anne Celeste Heche ( ; May 25, 1969August 11, 2022) was an American actress, known for her roles in a variety of genres in film, television, and theater, receiving numerous accolades, including a National Board of Review Award and multiple Emmy ...

and Susan Sarandon.

Film career

Cole has worked in film since 1994. In 2007, she directed the short film ''The Bread Winner''. In 2010, her film '' The Black Tulip'' was selected as Afghanistan's official entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

83rd Academy Awards The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2010 in the United States and took place on February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beg ...

. The film won "best picture" awards in

Boston Film Festival Boston Film Festival (BFF) is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September. The Boston Film Festival premiered such notable films as '' The Last Kiss'' ...

Beverly Hills Film Festival The Beverly Hills Film Festival (BHFF) is a film festival in the United States founded in 2001 by independent filmmaker Nino Simone. The festival is an international competition dedicated to showcasing the art and talent of emerging filmmakers a ...

, and the Salento Film Festival. The film, which premiered at the Ariana Cinema Theater on September 23, 2010 and screened at the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

base as well as an American Embassy, was distributed by SnagFilms, a nd is about a family in Kabul opening a restaurant business after the fall of the Taliban regime. The film received press in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

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, NBC, and

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. Her film ''I Am You'' (2019) is an independent feature film based on the true story of three Afghan refugees.

Author

In 2013, she received the

Freedom to Write Award Awards presented by the PEN American Center (today PEN America) that are no longer active. The awards are among many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN in over 145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been ch ...

from

PEN Center PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

USA. She has a book, "Will I Live Tomorrow?," released in October 2013.

Personal life

She currently resides in New York City and

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

and is now divorced from Christopher H. Cole, but retains his surname. She has one son. She is the recipient of a "Congressional Recognition" award on December 4, 2006, "Afghan American Sisterhood Award," and the "UN Women Together Award" on June 7, 2012. Cole is a member of the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Sonia Nassery Living people People from Kabul Activists from New York City People from Beverly Hills, California Afghan film directors Afghan film actresses Afghan emigrants to the United States Afghan human rights activists Afghan socialites 20th-century Afghan actresses 21st-century Afghan actresses 1965 births