Female Information

KABUL, (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appointed the country's first female provincial governor, in a major boost for women in the male-dominated Islamic society, his spokesman told AFP.


AFP/File Photo



Former minister Habiba Surabi was picked for the post of governor of the central province of Bamiyan, Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin said.


"This is of course an extremely significant decision the president has made, not only in terms of its impact on women and their empowerment in Afghanistan (news - web sites)," Ludin said.


"It indicates the president's confidence and belief that the women of Afghanistan can take up power and use that power for the benefit of their country, as well as men, as soon as they are given the opportunity," he added.


Surabi, who belongs to Afghanistan's ethnic Hazara minority, was women's minister in Karzai's previous transitional government for three years.


Under the fundamentalist 1996-2001 Taliban regime, women were barred from receiving education or working outside their homes.


After the Islamic hardliners were toppled by a US-led invasion in late 2001, schools reopened for girl students and many women took jobs in government offices. Karzai has three women ministers in his current cabinet.


Ludin said more new provincial appointments were in the pipeline. "It is something the president is doing to improve administration in the provinces," he said.


On February 5 Karzai replaced six provincial heads, some of them linked to the regional warlords of northern and eastern provinces.


Karzai has been trying, with international backing, to reduce the power of warlords and extend his authority throughout the country after winning a landslide victory in the country's first presidential election last October.