PROFILE: LONE FEMALE CANDIDATE MASSOUDA JALAL PREPARES TO TAKE ON THE MEN IN AFGHANISTAN'S HISTORIC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Record ID:
648610
PROFILE: LONE FEMALE CANDIDATE MASSOUDA JALAL PREPARES TO TAKE ON THE MEN IN AFGHANISTAN'S HISTORIC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
- Title: PROFILE: LONE FEMALE CANDIDATE MASSOUDA JALAL PREPARES TO TAKE ON THE MEN IN AFGHANISTAN'S HISTORIC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 27th September 2004
- Summary: (W3) JABAL-ES-SARAJ, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT)(REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MASSOUDA JALAL CAMPAIGNING (4 SHOTS) 0.26 2. MV: JALAL SPEAKING DURING CAMPAIGN 0.36 3. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) JALAL SAYING: "Voting is sacred. I am the only woman candidate in Afghanistan. I am your sister. You know how the women in Afghanistan have suffered in the past. I know that very well. Vote for me." 0.57 4. VARIOUS OF WOMEN IN BURQAS LISTENING (2 SHOTS) 1.08 5. CU: AFGHAN WOMAN APPLAUDING 1.12 (W3) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) 6. JALAL WITH HER TWO DAUGHTERS 1.19 7. SOUNDBITE (English)JALAL SAYING: "There is no interest. I can only receive the journalist from different countries for interviews and there is no contact, there is no interest, there is no attention. I am a candidate, a citizen within an individual citizen who is imperial and independent. I use my personal possibilities and community-based possibilities for my election. My competitors have they have financial power, they have military power, they have press power, they have political organizations, parties working for them." 2.05 8. SOUNDBITE (Dari) HASSINA JALAL, MASSOUDA'S DAUGHTER, SAYING: "When I'm old enough to vote, I will vote for a person who can serve my country." 2.14 9. VARIOUS OF JALAL CAMPAIGNING IN THE MOSQUE (4 SHOTS) 2.38 (W3) KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) 10. AFGHAN WOMAN BIBI MALIKA WITH HER CHILDREN 2.46 11. SOUNDBITE (Pashto)BIBI MALIKA SAYING: "I don't think she will succeed because she is the only female candidate. The situation in Afghanistan won't allow for a woman to become President. If she can't even defend her own rights, how will she defend the rights of others." 3.03 12. CU: MALIKA WITH HER VOTING CARD 3.07 (W3) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) 13. WS: JALAL CAMPAIGNING 3.13 14. CU: MORE OF AFGHAN WOMEN LISTENING 3.21 15. JALAL PRAYING 3.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 12th October 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JABAL-ES-SARAJ, KABUL AND KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN
- Country: Afghanistan
- Reuters ID: LVA4K036WRXH86SAJQPQUQ11C23B
- Story Text: Lone Afghan woman takes on men in Afghanistan's
historic elections.
Almost three years after the fall of the Taliban
regime, Afghan women are finally making their voices heard.
Recently, in the town of Jabal-es-Saraj, outside the
capital Kabul, more than a hundred women, many still
wearing their traditional blue burqa, gathered to listen to
a forty-one-year-old doctor and a mother of three.
"Voting is sacred. I am the only woman candidate in
Afghanistan. I am your sister. You know how the women in
Afghanistan have suffered in the past. I know that very
well. Vote for me," said Massouda Jalal, one of 18
candidates running in Afghanistan's historic presidential
elections on October 9.
Jalal's experience of working as a pediatrician with
the United Nations during the Taliban's harsh rule from
1996 to 2001 has made her determined to stand up for
women's rights in a country dominated not only by men, but
men with guns.
Her main vote bank will be women who have had little
political say in the country but now make up 42 percent of
the
9.4 million Afghans who have registered to vote so far.
She is from a line of strong women. Massouda's mother,
almost uniquely in Afghanistan's male dominated society,
led her tribe after her husband died.
Defeatism is not in her character and she firmly rejects
notions that she is a no-hoper despite being an independent.
""There is no interest. I can only receive the
journalist from different countries for interviews and
there is no
contact, there is no interest, there is no attention. I am
a candidate, a citizen within an individual citizen who is
imperial and independent. I use my personal possibilities
and community-based possibilities for my election. My
competitor has, they have financial power, they have
military power, they have press power, they have political
organization, parties working for them."
Two years ago she came a distant second to Karzai in a
vote by 1,700 representatives of Afghanistan's traditional
Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) to choose a president.
She refused to serve in Karzai's government as it would
have been, in her view, a betrayal of her supporters. But
her election as a Loya Jirga delegate, after a campaign
lasting just one day, fired her supporters' ambitions.
Massouda sees a risk that a falling out among the groups
in power could result in more violence come the election.
From an extended family of illiterate peasants,
Massouda's own parents were educated and they ensured their
children received even better opportunities.
The same strength, and intuitive grasp of politics, is
evident in Massouda's eldest child, Hasina Jalal, a
nine-year-old girl with forthright views and a firm
handshake.
"When I'm old enough to vote, I will vote for a person
who can serve my country," she said.
But most analysts think Jalal's gender is her strength
and weakness.
In the southern city of Kandahar, once known as the
spiritual stronghold of the Taliban, some women are not
pinning their hopes on Jalal.
"I don't think she will succeed because she is the
only female candidate. The situation in Afghanistan won't
allow for a woman to become President. If she can't even
defend her own rights, how will she defend the rights of
others," said Bibi Malika who says she will vote on October
9, but refuses to say who she would be voting for.
Despite the odds, Jalal is determined to put up a good
fight. Although she has yet to attract a large crowd, she
has been received warmly by both men and women.
Most of the 18 presidential candidates want the Oct. 9
poll to be delayed to allow security to improve, as
remnants of the Taliban and their militant allies wage an
insurgency against the government that has claimed over
1,000 lives since last August.
But analysts believe U.S. President George W. Bush, who
bids for re-election in November, is keen to hold the
Afghan poll on time and portray Afghanistan as a foreign
policy "success" while U.S. troops face daily turmoil in
Iraq.
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