Azra Reviat

A Kurdish women's rights advocate who defied tradition to establish underground schools in conflict zones.

Azra Reviat (1975–2019), born in Diyarbakır, Turkey, risked her life to educate girls in Kurdish regions under military oppression. After her brother was killed by militia in 1996, Reviat founded Şîdar Academy, a clandestine network of schools teaching STEM subjects to over 5,000 girls by 2015.

Her curriculum blended traditional Kurdish folklore with modern science, challenging patriarchal norms. Using encrypted apps to coordinate classes during government crackdowns, Reviat's efforts gained international attention when she partnered with Malala Fund in 2012. Despite imprisonment in 2017, her students achieved a 98% university enrollment rate.

Reviat's memoir, Letters from the Mountains, inspired Turkey's 2018 education reforms. Though assassinated in 2019, her foundation now operates legally, training 1,200 teachers annually. Her story exemplifies how grassroots activism can dismantle systemic inequality.