Mahboba Rawi grew up in Kabul. As a high school student she was involved in student demonstrations protesting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, in 1982, at the urging of her family, she crossed the border into Pakistan to live with relatives in Peshawar.
In Peshawar Rawi met an Afghani man and the two began plans to marry. After some difficulties with Rawi's family and a period of separation, during which her husband-to-be was granted a permanent residency visa for Australia, they were married in India. The couple then settled in Sydney and later moved to Melbourne. Rawi became an Australian citizen in 1989.
In Australia Rawi first worked as a cleaner and a machinist, while raising a family. Her marriage began to flounder, however, following the death of her son, one of several Afghan people who died when they were swept off the rocks during a visit to the Kiama blowhole. Separated from her husband, Rawi returned to education, completing a tertiary education course at Meadowbank TAFE and then undertaking a course in community welfare at Granville TAFE. She became involved in health programs and English language programs for Afghani women.
In 1995, Rawi became aware of the work of Dr Nasrin Nadree in Peshawar who was seeking funds to provide assistance to orphaned refugee children. Rawi and the women in her English class sent $120, and in reply they received a letter with the thumbprints of 35 children their money had helped, along with a brief message from one of the orphans who wrote 'Thank you for giving us hope.'
'On that day my life changed,' Rawi writes (p. 171). She began to devote herself to fundraising efforts which would eventuate in the establishment of 'Mahboba's Promise', a non-profit organisation assisting women and children of Afghanistan.
In 2005, Mahboba Rawi's life story was published, written with Vanessa Mickan-Gramazio. [Source: Mahboba's Promise]
