Leading Female Delegate Denied Platform

Dr Massouda Jalal, a Kabul psychiatrist and programme officer for the World Food Programme, tried to have a press conference on Monday, the second day of the Loya Jirga, to respond to President Hamed Karzai's opening speech. But officials told her she couldn’t.

Sultan Ahmad Bahin, press officer for Constitutional Loya Jirga, said Jalal, a delegate at the gathering, hadn't followed the rules by setting a time for the event with his office and not attempting to hold one while the assembly was in session.

Jalal's husband, Faizullah Jalal, got into a shouting match with officials at the time, and one journalist who witnessed the encounter claimed that the couple had been treated rudely.

Jalal herself, who normally appears good-natured and smiling, said, “There are some people in this country who rein in democracy. They want just enough so that their personal interests are restored - they don’t want any more than that.”

She said she wanted to respond to Karzai's “exaggerations” of his accomplishments, and criticised the assembly’s procedures, claiming delegates were not given enough chance to speak their minds.

However, she told IWPR on Thursday night that the current work of the Loya Jirga, in ten committees, is much more conducive to discussion and she feels progress is being made.

Jalal, 40, was born in Karpisa province to an educated family. Her father, Tela Mohammad, was head of a factory. She went to elementary school in Karpisa before moving to the capital, where she attended high school and then entered the medical faculty at Kabul University.

She became a psychiatrist in 1989 and worked in psychiatry and pediatrics at various hospitals in Kabul. During the Taleban regime, she headed a women's programme for the United Nations, and began working as a health adviser for World Food Programme in 1998.

Her husband is a teacher in the law faculty at Kabul University. They have three children, two girls and a boy.

Throughout the civil wars and Taleban regime, Jalal never left Afghanistan or joined a political party. As a result, her sudden emergence as a presidential candidate at the Emergency Loya Jirga in June 2002 was quite a surprise.

Her speech, outlining a programme for the nation, garnered a fair amount of national attention, but this failed to translate into votes.

Undeterred, Jalal plans to nominate herself as a presidential candidate again in general elections planned for June 2004.

Mustafa Basharat is participating in IWPR's Loya Jirga reporting project.