Female Governor Sets Out Agenda

As the new governor of Bamian province in central Afghanistan, Habiba Sorabi has a clear idea of what she hopes to accomplish.

She wants to build roads, open schools and supply electricity to residents of the province, located about 200 kilometres west of Kabul.

She also hopes to lure visitors to this poor, war-ravaged region, despite the fact that its most famous tourist attractions – two huge, 1,600-year-old stone Buddhas – were destroyed by the Taleban in 2001.

Sorabi has already gone a long way toward accomplishing one of her primary goals – raising the status of women in society – simply by being appointed the first female governor in the country in March.

"There is no difference between men and women in handling their jobs," she told IWPR during a recent interview in her apartment in Kabul. "I'm happy that the word 'woman' doesn't have any negative connotations about talent or ability."

Trained as a pharmacist, Sorabi, 48, was a lecturer at the Institute for Secondary Medical Education in Kabul until the Taleban took power in 1996. Fleeing the country, she taught refugees in Pakistan and took up the cause of telling the world about the plight of women and children under the Islamic militia.

When she returned to Afghanistan, she was appointed minister of women’s affairs by President Hamed Karzai in 2002 and held that post until late last year.

Women have made strides in Afghan society since the defeat of Taleban in 2001, she said. But much remains to be done, particularly in the area of education and in alleviating the hardships of village life. As a minister, she helped establish women's employment centres in 14 provinces, she noted.

Karzai appointed her as governor of Bamian last month.

Several factors may be working in her favour as governor here. As an ethnic Hazara, she will run a province where this group is in the majority. Hazaras are generally regarded as more tolerant of women than most other ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

In addition, she has the support of influential Hazaras such as Ghulam Hasan Naseri, a member of the political committee of Hezb-e-Wahdat – the dominant party in this region - who called her appointment a step forward for Afghan democracy.

Still, Sorabi, who is married and has three children, acknowledged that her job might remain dangerous until security is restored to Afghanistan. Protest demonstrations followed her appointment to succeed local leader Mohammad Rahim Aliyar.

"We have to make sacrifices to serve the people and the nation," she said. "I'm not afraid of anything in that regard."

Some think it’s a good sign that the country has its first women governor.

Noor Amirz, a Kabul blacksmith, saw the appointment as a sign that the country was becoming safer.

"Work is the same whether you're a man or a woman," he said. "In fact, those men that believe women aren't capable of accomplishing great things don't really know Islam or the world."

Suheila Muhseni is an IWPR staff writer in Kabul.