AustLit

Rukhshana Sarwar is a writer, poet, tutor and community worker. She completed a degree in literature at Kabul University. She lectured in the university's faculty of languages and literature until she was forced to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan. She came to Sydney in 1997 to start a new life. Immigration procedures meant that she was separated from her family in Afghanistan for over a year. In Australia she has been involved in establishing the Afghan women's network and the Community Language School. In 2005 she read her work at the Sydney Writers' Festival. (Sources: Poetry Across Rooftops, p. 88, Afghan Women's Dobaiti Poetry, p. 58 and 'Radio Eye,' broadcast on Radio National on 25/10/2003.)