[2] Her father was at one point a government minister and he was a professor of law at Tehran University and her mother successfully campaigned for women to gain the vote.

She joined the new University of York after completing her A-levels in Brighton and she gained her first degree in 1967 in Social Sciences.

[3] Afshar became a professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York, and a visiting professor of Islamic law at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé (international faculty of comparative law) at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France.

Afshar served on the British Council and the United Nations Association, of which she was honorary president of international services.

She was introduced into the House of Lords on 11 December 2007, as Baroness Afshar, of Heslington in the County of North Yorkshire.

The list was a collaboration between the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Emel Magazine and The Times, to celebrate the achievements of Muslim women in the UK.