Other names Sonia Nassery Spouse Christoper Cole Role Director | Name Sonia Cole Years active 1994 – present Movies The Black Tulip | |
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Occupation ActivistDirectorWriterProducer Books Will I Live Tomorrow?: The Making of the Black Tulip Similar People Walid Amini, Jack Scalia, David Michael O'Neill, Edoardo Costa, Chris Innis | ||
Sonia nassery cole afghan american activist and director
Sonia Nassery Cole is an Afghan American activist, director, writer, and producer.
Contents
- Sonia nassery cole afghan american activist and director
- Malzberg sonia nassery cole lynching of afghan woman worst human rights violation ever
- Early life
- Humanitarian work in Afghanistan
- Film career
- Personal life
- References
Malzberg sonia nassery cole lynching of afghan woman worst human rights violation ever
Early life
Cole was born in Afghanistan, daughter of an Afghan diplomat, in the town of Kabul. She landed a job with the United Nations. From the Soviet Union she wrote to Ronald Reagan to help her country; he agreed to meet her and accept her into the anti-Soviet elite, and at age 19 she organized a fund-raiser with Reagan. She was married for 21 years to real-estate mogul Christopher H. Cole.
Humanitarian work in Afghanistan
In 2001, Cole returned to Afghanistan and established the Afghanistan World Foundation in 2002 which raised funds used for various necessities such as the construction of a hospital for women and children in Kabul, 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.
Film career
Cole has made several appearances 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 at the 83rd Academy Awards. The film won "best picture" awards in Boston Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival, and Salento Film Festival.
The film, which premiered at the Ariana Cinema Theater on September 23, 2010 and screened at the NATO base as well as an American Embassy, and distributed by SnagFilms, is about a family in Kabul opening a restaurant business after the fall of the Taliban regime. The film received press in New York Times, New York Observer, NBC, and ABC.
Personal life
She currently resides in New York City and Beverly Hills, California and is now divorced from Christopher H. Cole, but retains his surname. She has one son, Christopher A. Cole.
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. In 2013, she received the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA. She is also a member of the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.
She has a book, "Will I Live Tomorrow?," released in October 2013.