MANCHESTER: Zerbanoo Gifford, human rights campaigner, author and founder of The ASHA Centre in the Forest of Dean, has been honoured with the Emmeline Pankhurst Award at the Women of the Year Luncheon & Awards, held at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on Friday, 9 October 2026.
Now in its 44th year, Women of the Year promotes positive female role models who provide inspiration across all areas of society and the business community. This year’s event brought together inspirational women, politicians, business leaders and supporters. The award, presented to Zerbanoo, recognises her “remarkable historical breakthrough for the Global Majority women in the British political system” and her lifetime contribution to human rights, equality and social justice.
It was a fitting honour. Emmeline Pankhurst was the mother of the suffragette movement, which helped win women the vote in Britain, and Zerbanoo has spent more than 50 years fighting for equality, championing women’s and children’s rights and campaigning against modern slavery. For many, she is the face of moral courage and impactful compassion, someone who has worked tirelessly for the true representation of women in public life.
A speech about gratitude
In her thank-you speech, Zerbanoo spoke about the importance of gratitude and, with her trademark honesty, about her near-death experience and what it taught her: that there is no escape from one’s thoughts, words and deeds.
“When you meet your maker, as is inevitable for all of us, you will have the extraordinary experience of viewing one’s life under scrutiny. One feels the unkindness inflicted on others, and one’s disregard of Mother Nature’s well-being. It is not a nice experience. You also feel the happiness you have given others, and it makes you want to ensure that the rest of your life will bring joy and true kindness to all. You will experience how you have impacted on all the lives you have interacted with.”
The auditorium, filled with more than 400 women, gave her a standing ovation. One leading politician in the House of Lords told a BBC journalist that she felt Zerbanoo had given her life clarity.
The ASHA Centre
Zerbanoo founded the ASHA Centre in the Forest of Dean in 1996 as an international education centre for young adults of different nationalities and religions, with a focus on real-life skills and confidence, sustainable living and the arts. It is a charity working for the empowerment of young people, sustainable development, and peace and reconciliation worldwide. Speaking to Parsi Khabar in 2020, she described the Centre’s purpose this way: “Over the last decade, the ASHA Centre has helped to transform many lives in giving people the space to connect and grow. We have created an environment of outstanding educational value and natural beauty, in which everyone who visits experiences a deep sense of inspiration, connection and purpose.” Her own image for it: “ASHA is like a well in an oasis, I hope it shows the way the caravan must go.”
Nurturing a new generation of Zoroastrian leaders
Nowhere is her commitment to young people clearer than in the World Zoroastrian Youth Leaders Forum (WZYLF). Founded by Sanaya Master, the Forum found a home at ASHA from its beginning: the first gathering in 2018 helped facilitate the beginnings of a generational transition in leadership, and Zerbanoo, who has always been passionate about empowering young adults, was keen to host a second. For her 70th birthday in 2020 she chose a youth leaders’ forum over any other celebration, calling investment in young people her priority: “We have to help them to connect with each other, and offer them the head-heart-hands education where the whole being is integrated and feels valued.”
In May 2026, the 3rd WZYLF brought young Zarathushtis from India, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Germany to ASHA for eight days of leadership training, workshops and project-building, and Zerbanoo was part of the organising team. Her warmth, vision and unwavering support, Parsi Khabar reported, “have made ASHA a true home for generations of young Zarathushtis.” Arzan Sam Wadia, a co-organiser, said: “Zerbanoo is a rare combination of dreaming big things and making them happen. Her Zoroastrian ethos comes through everything she does especially for the youth of our community. She puts her vast network and experience in areas of interfaith and women’s right to shape the thinking of the next generation.”
A lifetime of firsts and honours
Born in India and brought to Britain at the age of three, Zerbanoo was educated at Roedean School. In 1982 she became the first British Asian woman elected as a Liberal councillor in England, in Harrow, and in 1983 she was among the first three Asian women to stand for Parliament. She was twice elected by the party’s membership to the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive, the first ethnic minority person elected to a major UK party’s supreme body. She has served as a director of Anti-Slavery International and of the Charities Aid Foundation, and was active in the movement against apartheid in the 1980s, including presenting a petition to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling for sanctions against South Africa and the release of Nelson Mandela.
Her awards include:
- Emmeline Pankhurst Award, 2026, at Women of the Year in Manchester
- Social Entrepreneur Award, 2022, presented at the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress in New York City, where she also launched the ZASHA website, an online resource celebrating the lives and work of hundreds of inspirational Zoroastrian women
- International Woman of the Year, 2006, for her humanitarian work
- Nehru Centenary Award, 1989
She was also welcomed into the Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table in 2018. She is a past President of the WZO, as was her father, Bailey, its founding President. Her books include The Golden Thread: Asian Experiences of Post-Raj Britain, Dadabhai Naoroji: Britain’s First Asian MP, and Z-A of Zoroastrianism, and her biography, Zerbanoo Gifford: An Uncensored Life by Farida Master, was published in 2015.
Nobel Peace Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu once said of her: “Zerbanoo’s commitment to peace, to young people and to creating a better world is evident from her track record.”
Parsi Khabar congratulates Zerbanoo on this latest, richly deserved honour.
More: zerbanoogifford.org | ashacentre.org
