Masuma Esmati-Wardak | |
---|---|
Minister of Education | |
In office 1990-1992 | |
Member of the House of the People | |
In office 1965–1969 | |
Constituency | Kandahar |
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.
In 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]