Soraya Alekozei

Soraya Alekozei (born 1955) is an Afghan-German interpreter and veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan six times between 2004 and 2011 as a reserve officer in the Bundeswehr. Alekozei worked in military broadcasting and served as an interpreter for local politicians and German International Security Assistance Force officials. She founded an orphanage in Kabul. Alekozei was seriously wounded by an improvised explosive device in May 2011 and later authored a memoir about the experience in 2014.

Early life Alekozei was born in Kabul in 1955. She married with Wali Alekozei. He was participated in a study abroad program and the couple relocated to Bonn in 1976 for his studies where their first of two sons was born. After suffering from homesickness, they returned to Kabul. Shortly thereafter, they returned in to Germany in December 1979 due to the Soviet–Afghan War.

In 2014, she published a memoir about her experiences: