Soraya Serajeddini
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Soraya Serajeddini (1960-2006), was a Kurdish-Iranian human rights activist. She was born in Tehran to a respected family of Naqshbandi Sufis. Her family fled Iran in 1980 and sought refuge in Sulaimaniya and Baghdad for two years, and then moved to the United States in 1982. She attended San Francisco State University and Northeastern University, and received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987.
She joined the Kurdish National Congress (KNC) in 1991 and was instrumental in publicizing Kurdish issues in the United States. Her last post was the Executive Vice President of the Kurdish National Congress of North America.
She organized a conference on the independence of Kurdistan in November 2005 in Iraqi Kurdistan. In March 2005, She and her husband (Thomas Ver Ploeg) were elected to the board of directors of KNC. In January 2006, She chaired the committee on Democracy and Freedom for All Iranians and Kurdish Human & National Rights and through her efforts the first conference of the committee was held in the US Senate building. She was also instrumental in the success of the conference on Syrian Kurdish Human and National Rights held in March 2006 in the US Senate building.
She died due to an asthma attack on July 24 2006 in Millersville, Maryland. She is survived by her husband Tom Ver Ploeg and two children, Aveen and Daryan.
