Masuma Esmati-Wardak (1930 -), was an Afghan writer and politician. She was jointly one of the first women to serve in the Afghan parliament in 1965, and served as Minister of Education in 1990-1992.
Masuma Esmati-Wardak | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 1990-1992 | |
| Member of the House of the People | |
| In office 1965–1969 | |
| Constituency | Kandahar |
Life and career
editIn 1953 she graduated from Kabul Women's College, and received a degree in business in the United States in 1958.[1]
In 1959, she and Kubra Noorzai became one of the first women to appear in public in Afghanistan without a veil after Queen Humaira Begum had removed hers, supporting the call by the Prime minister Mohammed Daoud Khan for women to voluntary remove their veil.[2]
In 1964 King Mohammed Zahir Shah appointed her to an advisory committee that reviewed the draft 1964 constitution,[3] which granted women the right to vote and stand for election. In 1965 she was elected to represent Kandahar in the House of the People of Parliament, and became a leading advocate of women's rights.[1][4] She was the only one of the four women elected in 1965 to run for re-election in 1969, but lost her seat.[5]
In 1987 she became President of the Afghan Women's Council.[1]
In May 1990 she was appointed cabinet minister of Education and Training in the government of Mohammad Najibullah.[6] She was one of two women in the cabinet alongside Saleha Farooq Etemadi, and one of the first women in the Afghan government.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c Mattar, Philip (2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa: D-K. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 786. ISBN 978-0-02865-771-4.
- ^ Tamim Ansary (2012) Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
- ^ Sarfraz Khan (2013) Politics of policy and legislation affectin g women in Afghanistan: One step forward two steps back Central Asia Journal, Number 73
- ^ Skaine, Rosemarie (2001). The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-78648-174-3.
- ^ Louis Dupree (2014) Afghanistan Princeton University Press, p653
- ^ Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002
- ^ The first five was Kubra Noorzai in 1965, Shafiqa Ziaie in 1971, Anahita Ratebzad in 1976, Masuma Esmati-Wardak in 1990 and Saleha Farooq Etemadi in 1990.
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