Akbar completed her Master’s Degree in composition and orchestral conductor at Hacettepe State Conservatory, Turkey where she arrived in 1990 to write the music score of a film on world ecology that her husband had written. Akbar and her husband decided to stay permanently, and acquired Turkish citizenship. She received the “Degree for Proficiency in Art” in 1993 after submitting her thesis in the class of Ass. Prof. Turgay Erdener on the subject of Russian composer A. Skriabin’s “Analysis of Selected Piano Works in Harmonic, Melodic, Rhythmic, Formal and Philosophical Aspects” and composing “Symphony No.1” in Hacettepe State Conservatory. (“Proficiency in Art” is the equivalent of Doctorate for composers.)