Posted on: Sunday, September 19, 2004
THE RISING EAST
For Afghan woman, candidacy is victory
By Richard Halloran
She is the woman who would be president. Dr. Massouda Jalal, a pediatrician, medical teacher and mother of three, is standing for the presidency of Afghanistan against the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and 15 other men in the election scheduled for Oct. 9.
She undoubtedly pins her hopes on the 4.4 million women who have registered to vote; they comprise 41 percent of the 10.6 million Afghans who have signed up, which is well above the 7 million expected. Muslim terrorists have threatened many men and women alike just for registering.
Associated Press It may be hard for those of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the West or those who follow the tenets of Buddhism in the East to understand what a revolutionary, even profound, accomplishment it is for Afghan women to take part in politics and athletics — not to say courage.
Under the rule of the Taliban extremists, Afghan women were forbidden to hold a job, teach, practice nursing or go to school. They were required to wear the shapeless burqa tents from head to toe whenever they left home. Speaking up politically or going to the track to train or to the gym to work out was unheard of.
Behind the Taliban's rule has been decades — nay, centuries — of Muslim oppression of women, especially in remote nations such as landlocked Afghanistan.
Bernard Lewis, an authority on Islam, has written that under Islamic law were "three groups of people who did not benefit from the general Muslim principle of legal and religious equality — unbelievers, slaves, and women."
"The slave could be freed by his master; the unbeliever could at any time become a believer by his own choice, and thus end his inferiority," Lewis said. "Only the woman was doomed forever to remain what she was."
Dr. Jalal herself asserted that running for the presidency was more significant than winning. "It's very important," she told Agence France Presse, "because in the 5,000 years of the history of Afghanistan, women have never participated in political power in the leadership of Afghanistan."
A political commentator, Ralph Peters, explained Muslim male domination in somewhat more earthy terms in his book "Beyond Baghdad." Peters said Osama bin Laden, the Muslim terrorist still believed to be at large in Afghanistan, "is scared of girls."
Not all Afghan women are assisting in the painful progress of their nation. Bibi Deendaray, a 55-year-old widow, contributed to this year's record crop of poppies, from which comes opium. According to the South Asia Media Net, she saw it not as an illicit crop, "but rather a blessing which saves the lives of my children, grandchildren, and two widowed daughters."
As for Dr. Jalal's candidacy, she seems undismayed by the obstacles confronting her. In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, she contended: "I can win on Oct. 9 because I am a woman and, in Afghanistan, it is only women who have no blood on their hands."
She gained prominence in 2002 when she ran against Hamid Karzai for the leadership of the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, and came in second. Then, and now, her insistence on speaking out has angered Muslim fundamentalists.
Dr. Jalal practiced medicine even during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. Under the Taliban, she worked in the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and was once jailed for several days by the Taliban for working outside of her home.
Today, she has little money for campaigning and gets little coverage on television and in newspapers owned by rivals. Instead of a political party for support, she has enthusiastic students from Kabul University, where she once taught.
Although she is given little chance of being elected president, she would be the kind of leader of which the United States and other western powers would approve, because she would emphasize the emergence of a civil society, champion women's rights and establish a constitutional government.
"I don't want Afghanistan to be a land of terrorists and drug dealers," she told The Independent. "I want it to be a modern cultured society."
Honolulu-based Richard Halloran is a former New York Times correspondent in Asia.
In a different kind of race, Robina Mugimyar, a 17-year-old girl sprinter, ran in the Olympics in Athens, while Friba Razayee, an 18-year-old judoist, competed in her martial art. Mugimyar ran next to last, and Razayee was thrown in less than a minute. No matter — just showing up was a triumph for the women of Afghanistan.
Afghan women in burqas listened last week to a speech in Kabul by Dr. Massouda Jalal, the only woman among 16 candidates for president. Forbidden under Taliban rule from holding jobs or going to school, Afghan women have emerged three years later as Olympic competitors as well as doctors. Jalal, a pediatrician, is counting on reaching the 4.4 million Afghan women who have registered to vote.
