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Shukria Barakzai | |
|---|---|
 Barakzai in March 2011 | |
| Born | 1970 (age 54–55) |
| Occupation(s) | Politician, ambassador |
| Known for | Elected toWolesi Jirga in 2005 |
Shukria Barakzai (Pashto:شکريه بارکزۍ) is anAfghan politician, journalist andMuslim feminist. She was the ambassador of Afghanistan to Norway.[1] She is a recipient of theInternational Editor of the Year Award.
Barakzai was born in 1970 inKabul, Afghanistan.
Barakzai went toKabul University in the 1990s. Halfway through a degree, she had to break off her studies because of mounting violence betweenthe government and theMujahideen. In September 1996 theTaliban captured Kabul. By then, many citizens, especially the educated middle classes, had left fora life in exile.
Following the fall of the Taliban regime, Barakzai capitalized on the opportunity and in 2002 Barakzai foundedAina-E-Zan (Women's Mirror), a national weekly newspaper. She campaigns on issues such asmaternal andinfant mortality, areas in which Afghanistan has great difficulty.[2] (TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) calculated that Afghanistan in 2003 had the world's highest proportion of women dying in childbirth (Maternal Mortality Ratio) at 1900 per 100 000 live births.[3]) Barakzai states, "Child marriage,forced marriage, andviolence against women are still common and accepted practices."[4] She focuses on large issues, saying, "in my opinion theburka is not that important. What is important is education, democracy and freedom."[2] She stresses unity among women as well as the role that men have to play.[5]
Barakzai credits technology such as mobile phones, banned under the Taliban regime, with helping young Afghans integrate with the modern world. For example, usingtext messaging to vote for a participant in a television talent show contest demonstrates how democratic voting can work.[6] She also uses her position to point out the lack offreedom of the press and the risks to journalists.[4] (Reporters Without Borders ranks Afghanistan 156 out of 173 in its list of press freedom, and says the situation is especially difficult for women and those working in the provinces.[7])
Barakzai was appointed a member of the2003 loya jirga, a body of representatives from all over Afghanistan that was nominated to discuss and passthe new constitution after the fall of the Taliban.[8] In the October 2005 elections she was elected as a member ofthe House of the People orWolesi Jirga, the lower house of theNational Assembly of Afghanistan. She is one of 71 women out of 249 MPs.[9]
She is one of only a handful of female MPs who speak up forwomen's rights, and facesdeath threats for her views.[10]Her criticisms of the legislature are wide-ranging: "Our parliament is a collection of lords. Warlords, drug lords, crime lords."She defendedMalalai Joya, another female MP who has condemned warlordism, who faced abuse and threats of violence in parliament: "I was I think the only one which is I just announced that some MPs were threatening to rape her. [...] That's why after this, they kept quiet."[11] In November 2014 she was injured in asuicide attack on a convoy in which she was travelling in Kabul. The attack killed three people and injured 17.[12]
Afterthe fall of Kabul in 2021 she fled from Afghanistan.[13]
While expressing gratitude for "the support of the international community" in creating the conditions by 2004 in which hundreds of publications and dozens of radio stations could flourish, Barakzai condemns "the support of armed groups and outlaws, a key part of U.S. policy". Although most of her life has been spent in Kabul, she acknowledges that the capital does not truly represent the country, and refuses to blame the Taliban for all the difficulties that Afghans face: "When we talk about Afghanistan, we should discuss conditions in the entire country. In many provinces and villages, which are in very bad condition, there is no difference between the period before the Taliban regime, the time of the Taliban, and now."[4] She opposesU.S. PresidentBarack Obama's troop build-up plan, asking for "30,000 scholars or engineers" instead of that many soldiers.[14]She intended to stand forPresident of Afghanistan in 2014,[15] as by then she will be over 40, as the constitution requires, but did not run.
World Press Review (Worldpress.org) named BarakzaiInternational Editor of the Year in 2004.[16] In December 2005, she was named Woman of the Year by theBBC Radio 4 programmeWoman's Hour.[17]
Media related toShukria Barakzai at Wikimedia Commons
