Jan was born in
Quetta on 5 June 1944, and moved to the United States in 1970 to go to college at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She previously attained bachelor's and master's degrees from the Government College for Women in Quetta. The proprietor of a small tailoring business in
Duxbury, Massachusetts, she served as president of the town's
Rotary Club. After the
September 11 attacks, Jan rallied her New England community to send over 400 homemade blankets to rescue workers who were at
Ground Zero of the attacks. Her efforts expanded to include sending care packages to US troops in Afghanistan. Through her involvement in the military's Operation Shoe Fly, she coordinated the delivery of over 30,000 pairs of shoes to needy Afghan children. starting with 109 students. but then was forced to shut under the new Taliban regime following the
2021 Taliban offensive. The school was allowed to re-open for primary school students, but was forced to stop educating secondary students. The midwifery college was also shut indefinitely in 2021 due to
new restrictions on women's education. A new teacher certification program was due to start in 2021, Jan died from heart failure in
Los Angeles, on 20 July 2025, at the age of 81. ==In popular culture==