Shafiqa Habibi | |
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 Shafiqa Habibi talks to Hasht-e Subh Daily, 8 March 2019 | |
| Born | 1941 (age 82–83) |
| Nationality | Afghan |
| Occupation(s) | journalist, television anchor, activist and politician |
| Years active | 1961 - |
Shafiqa Habibi is a journalist, television anchor, activist and politician from Afghanistan. She is known for her work to support women journalists, and for her 2004 candidacy for Vice President of Afghanistan as the running mate of Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Shafiqa Habibi is from an Ahmedzai Pashtun family from an upper-class background. [1] Although she grew up in Kabul, her family is from Logar province. [1] In 1966, Habibi obtained a degree in journalism from Kabul University. [2] [3] She is married to Mahmoud Habibi, who served in various positions in the Afghanistan government. These roles included information minister to King Zahir Shah, and president of the Afghan senate under President Mohammad Najibullah. [1] When the Mujahideen took control of Kabul in 1992, she and her husband briefly moved to Mazar-e-Sharif, along with hundreds of thousands of others. [1] When the United States began bombing Kabul in 2001, Habibi fled to the city of Peshawar, in Pakistan. [2] [3]
Soon after getting her degree, Habibi began working for Radio Afghanistan. She also read poetry on television. [2] [3] She was also a television anchor, and was a founder of the Women's Journalist Center. [4] As of October 2016, Habibi was the head of the Afghan Women's Journalist Union. [5]
In 1994, Habibi founded the Women's Radio and Television Broadcast Organization, to support women journalists. [2] [3] When the Taliban came to power in 1996, she was prevented from making news broadcasts. During the five years of the Taliban government, she organized "craft schools", at which women could manufacture handicrafts that could later be sold. [2] [3] She also founded an underground women's organization. [2] [3] While the Taliban held power in Afghanistan, Habibi secretly ran 8 home schools for girls, which were kept secret from the government. [1] After the Taliban was overthrown in 2001, she worked for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. [1]
In 2004, Habibi was a candidate for Vice President of Afghanistan, as the running mate of Abdul Rashid Dostum, a general in the Afghan army. [1] She was one of only three women in that year's presidential race. [1] Habibi is the director of the non-governmental organization New Afghanistan Women Association, which investigates cases of sexual violence. Habibi has states that the Afghan government is indifferent towards sexual violence against women, and is to blame for rising rates of such violence. [6]
Habibi is known as a campaigner for human-rights and as a public intellectual. [1] In 2002, she won the Ida B. Wells Bravery in Journalism Award. [1] Also in 2002, the non-profit organization Women's eNews named Habibi as one of "21 Leaders for 21st Century" in 2002, for her work as a journalist covering women's rights, and also for organizing other women journalists. [7] In 2005, she was among a thousand women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [1] In 2021 the book about her The Laureate of All Orators [8] was written.
Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, he was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.
Abdul Rashid Dostum is an Afghan exiled politician, former Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party Junbish-e Milli. Dostum was a major army commander in the communist government during the Soviet–Afghan War, and in 2001 was the key indigenous ally to U.S. Special Forces and the CIA during the campaign to topple the Taliban government. He is one of the most powerful warlords since the beginning of the Afghan wars, known for siding with winners during different wars. Dostum has also referred to as a Kingmaker due to his significant role in Afghan politics.
Mazar-i-Sharīf, also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fourth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with an estimated 500,207 residents in 2021. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highways with Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the southeast, Herat in the southwest and Termez, Uzbekistan in the north. It is about 55 km (34 mi) from the Uzbek border. The city is also a tourist attraction because of its famous shrines as well as the Islamic and Hellenistic archeological sites. The ancient city of Balkh is also nearby.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a women's organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy. It was founded in 1977 by Meena Keshwar Kamal, an Afghan student activist who was assassinated in February 1987 for her political activities. The group, which supports non-violent strategies, had its initial office in Kabul, Afghanistan, but then moved to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is an afghan militant movement in Afghanistan with an ideology comprising elements of Pashtun nationalism and the Deobandi current of Islamic fundamentalism. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the American invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 following the departure of most coalition forces, after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country. Its government is not recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been internationally condemned for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
The following lists events that happened during 1996 in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the Peshawar Accords of 26 April 1992. Many Afghan mujahideen parties participated in its creation, after the fall of the socialist government. Its power was limited due to the country's second civil war, which was won by the Taliban, who took control of Kabul in 1996. The Islamic state then transitioned to a government in exile and led the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. It remained the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan at the United Nations until 2001, when the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan was created and an Afghan Interim Administration took control of Afghanistan with US and NATO assistance following the overthrow of the first Taliban government. The Transitional Islamic State was subsequently transformed into the Islamic Republic, which existed until the Taliban seized power again in 2021 following a prolonged insurgency.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on October 9, 2004. Hamid Karzai won the elections with 55.4% of the vote and three times more votes than any other candidate. Twelve candidates received less than 1% of the vote. It is estimated that more than three-quarters of Afghanistan's nearly 12 million registered voters cast ballots. The elections were overseen by the Joint Electoral Management Body, chaired by Zakim Shah and vice-chaired by Ray Kennedy, an American working for the United Nations.
Atta Muhammad Nur is an Afghan exiled politician and former Mujahid Leader who served as the Governor of Balkh Province in Afghanistan from 2004 to January 25, 2018. An ethnic Tajik, he worked to educate the Mujahideen after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, gaining the nickname "The Teacher". He then became a mujahideen resistance commander for the Jamiat-e Islami against the Soviets.
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At that time, many non-Pashtun Northerners originally with the Republic of Afghanistan led by Mohammad Najibullah became disaffected with Pashtun Khalqist Afghan Army officers holding control over non-Pashtun militias in the North. Defectors such as Rashid Dostum and Abdul Momim allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Ali Mazari forming the Northern Alliance. The alliance's capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and more importantly the supplies kept there crippled the Afghan military and began the end of Najibullah's government. Following the collapse of Najibullah's government the Alliance would fall with a Second Civil War breaking out however following the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's (Taliban) takeover of Kabul, The United Front was reassembled.
The 1992–1996 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Second Afghan Civil War, took place between 28 April 1992—the date a new interim Afghan government was supposed to replace the Republic of Afghanistan of President Mohammad Najibullah—and the Taliban's conquest of Kabul establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996.
The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October 2001: a period that was part of the Afghan Civil War that had started in 1989, and also part of the war in Afghanistan that had started in 1978.
The following lists events that happened during 1997 in Afghanistan.
The mass media in Afghanistan is monitored by the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC), and includes broadcasting, digital and printing. It is mainly in Dari and Pashto, the official languages of the nation. It was reported in 2019 that Afghanistan had over 107 TV stations and 284 radio stations, including 100s of print media and over 1,800 online media outlets. After the return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in 2021, there was a concern that the mass media will significantly decrease in the country. The number of digital media outlets is steadily increasing with the help of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and other such online platforms. IEA's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested that the media should be in line with Sharia and national interests.
Deborah "Debbie" Rodriguez is an American writer, hairdresser, and humanitarian. She is noted for creating safe spaces that provide women with a way out of domestic violence and chaotic circumstances.
Shukria Barakzai is an Afghan politician, journalist and Muslim feminist. She was the ambassador of Afghanistan to Norway. She is a recipient of the International Editor of the Year Award.
The Battles of Mazar-i-Sharif were a part of the Afghan Civil War and took place in 1997 and 1998 between the forces of Abdul Malik Pahlawan and his Hazara allies, Junbish-e Milli-yi Islami-yi Afghanistan, and the Taliban.
Muhammad Sarwar Danish is an Afghan academic and politician in exile who was the second vice president of Afghanistan, from 2014 to 2021. He was previously the acting minister of justice from 2004 to 2010 and acting minister of higher education from 2010 to 2014. When Daykundi province was carved out of Urozgan province in 2004, Danish became its first governor.
2003 in Afghanistan. A list of notable incidents in Afghanistan during 2003
Zahra Joya is an Afghan journalist. She is the founder of Rukhshana Media, an outlet in Persian and English which she runs from exile.
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