Razia Jan

Biography Jan was born in Quetta on 5 June 1944, and moved to the United States in 1970 to go to college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She previously attained bachelor's and master's degrees from the Government College for Women in Quetta. The proprietor of a small tailoring business in Duxbury, Massachusetts, she served as president of the town's Rotary Club.

After the September 11 attacks, Jan rallied her New England community to send over 400 homemade blankets to rescue workers who were at Ground Zero of the attacks. Her efforts expanded to include sending care packages to US troops in Afghanistan. Through her involvement in the military's Operation Shoe Fly, she coordinated the delivery of over 30,000 pairs of shoes to needy Afghan children. starting with 109 students. but then was forced to shut under the new Taliban regime following the 2021 Taliban offensive. The school was allowed to re-open for primary school students, but was forced to stop educating secondary students. The midwifery college was also shut indefinitely in 2021 due to new restrictions on women's education. A new teacher certification program was due to start in 2021,

Jan died from heart failure in Los Angeles, on 20 July 2025, at the age of 81. The book came to the attention of Roya Hosseini and was then used as part of curriculum of the Khaled Hosseini Foundation. Razia's Ray of Hope was a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Title in 2014.