Rarely seen without a smile on her face, Shukria Barakzai is one of the most successful women in male-dominated Afghanistan — a member of parliament who hopes one day to be president.
A politician at the vanguard of women’s rights and praised in the fight for democracy, Barakzai is a good news story in the country’s post-Taliban era.
But in her personal life she describes herself as “a victim of tradition.” Not unusually for Afghanistan, her husband took another wife. The fact that he could do so without even telling her left her feeling “disturbed and hurt.”
Photo: AFP
For most of her countrywomen, polygamy is an unquestioned part of life. But for Barakzai, with her more Western outlook, it was a bitter blow.
“Many people might think I’m a successful woman. Outside the home, it’s true, I’m successful, I’m happy,” Barakzai says “but in my personal life — that’s not the case.”
“It is very painful for me that my husband has another wife. I myself am a victim of male violence against women in this country. My husband married his second wife without even telling me,” she said.
Even more painful was the fact that she could do nothing about it in the devout Islamic nation, where men are allowed to have up to four wives. Sharia law, on which Afghanistan’s constitution is based, says that men with multiple wives must treat all wives equally and that their first must approve a second marriage.
“I learnt it later from friends. It really hurt,” Barakzai said of her husband’s second marriage in 2004, 12 years after their own wedding.
The 37-year-old mother of three decided to launch a campaign with a group of like-minded women to fight against polygamy and protect other women.
As part of her efforts, Barakzai has been campaigning against forced marriages and child marriages — practices that are still common in Afghanistan.
“I have gone through this pain, so I know the cure. Through campaigning among Afghan women we are working to encourage them to not become the second wife of a man,” she said.
Barakzai has dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights — under Taliban rule that banned women from public life and in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
During the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, Barakzai, who has a degree in geology and archeology from Kabul University, ran underground schools for girls who were officially banned from receiving an education.
Thanks to her secret classes, eight of her students went on to university.
With the collapse of the Taliban after the 2001 US-led invasion, Barakzai published Women’s Mirror, a weekly magazine in a bid to launch a women’s rights campaign.
In 2005, she won “International Editor of the Year” from the World Press — a US-based media rights group. The same year, Barakzai won a seat in parliament, beating hundreds of rivals including her husband, Abdul Ghafar Dawi, a prominent Kabul-based millionaire.
Her success has given her courage to hope to run for president in 2014 — the next presidential ballot after scheduled polls this year.
“Not this time, but in the next elections, surely I will stand for president and I’m sure I’ll win. I’ve already started campaigning for it,” she says, smiling.
In Afghanistan, long ruled by men, mostly from conservative ethnic Pashtun tribes who oppose female influence in political life, few women have made it to the top levels of government.
Barakzai says that era has gone.
“Look at the parliamentary elections. My husband, Ghafar, spent half a million dollars on his campaign but couldn’t secure half the votes I won. I think the era when women didn’t have a voice is gone.
“If people trust me and vote for me in the parliamentary elections then why not the presidential elections?” she said. “I’m going to stand and I’m going to win it.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS