Zohra Yusuf Daoud (Dari: زهره يوسف داود); (born 1954 in Kabul) is an American TV celebrity, radio show host, Miss Afghanistan (1972) and a journalist of Afghan descent.
In 1996 she co-founded the Afghan Women Association of Southern California, and she still hosts a radio talk show on the 24-hour Voice of Afghanistan.
[1] However, Zohra maintained a low profile about her former beauty queen status until 11 September 2001 when she grew weary of the media's treatment of Afghan women as illiterate, burqa-clad victims, and felt the need to speak out.
As a part of that project she also co-authored a book [1] by the same name, that was edited by Sunita Mehta, and also featured contributions from Homaira Mamoor, Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal and others.
Zohra also held negotiations with a Taliban delegation in the United States, being the first Afghan woman, and woman in general to hold such negotiations, at the beginning of their rule, to put the case for liberation for her sisters back home[2] and has spoken at various Human Rights conventions and conferences, including the Afghan Women's Summit, that was held in Brussels in December 2001.
With their increase in income, Mohammad and Zohra Daoud assisted in the relocation of the rest of their family members into United States, as well as settling in their California home.