Fawzia Koofi, the 19th of her father’s 23 children by seven wives, was put outside to die after she was born, because she was female. Badly burned by the sun, she survived. Backed by her strong-willed, illiterate mother, she overcame the horrors of civil war and Taliban rule to become a leading member of the Afghan parliament, and a probable 2014 presidential candidate. Her gripping new memoir, “The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan Into the Future,” details how a determined girl surmounted impossible odds to become a voice for Afghan women and children. So there are few better qualified than Koofi to warn about the danger that U.S. talks with the Taliban pose for Afghan women. “I have a fear,” she said by phone from Kabul last week, “that we will lose the gains we have made over the past 10 years.” A way out As Americans tire of the endless Afghan conflict, talks with the Taliban seem to offer a way out. Preliminary meetings between U.S. officials and Taliban officials have been held in recent weeks. But given the White House commitment to bring most troops home by 2014, there seems little reason for the Taliban to compromise on core principles, including repression of women. Nor have Afghan women been given a say in setting the agenda for talks. That gives Afghan women good reason to worry. A recent poll by the international humanitarian agency ActionAid found 86 percent of women questioned were deeply concerned at the prospect of a Taliban-influenced government. Koofi’s memoir shows how much they have to lose. She was raised in the remote province of Badakhshan, bordering China and Tajikistan, where her father was a respected political leader who was murdered at the onset of decades of Afghan civil war. Taken by her widowed mother to Kabul, she managed to get an education, only to watch her liberal-minded husband dragged off to a gruesome jail by the Taliban shortly after their marriage. In prison he contracted the tuberculosis that ultimately killed him. “I lived in Kabul under the Taliban and I know what their attitude is like,” she told me. The Taliban’s return, she says, would mean “depriving women of education, forbidding them to go out of their houses.”
GMT 23:56 2018 Tuesday ,23 January
UAE Ambassador meets South Korean Health MinisterGMT 10:48 2018 Tuesday ,23 January
The struggle for gender equality and participation in the Gulf statesGMT 13:13 2017 Thursday ,30 March
Teach your children to love the artsGMT 12:24 2017 Monday ,13 March
How to deal with early childhood cariesGMT 12:22 2017 Thursday ,09 March
Coping with exam stress as a parentGMT 14:38 2017 Wednesday ,22 February
How do you get the best from a senior-friendly workout?GMT 11:44 2017 Thursday ,16 February
Simple secrets for overcoming gym intimidationGMT 08:48 2017 Wednesday ,08 February
Best four new ladies’ nights in DubaiMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor