Zabiullah Rashidi: Fawzia Koofi: 2014 Afghan Presidential Candidate!

Fawzia Koofi, born in 1975 or 1976, is an Afghan politician and women's right activist. Originally from Badakhshan province, she is currently serving as a Member of Parliament in Kabul, and she is the Vice President of the National Assembly. She has also announced her intention to run as a presidential candidate in the 2014 elections in Afghanistan. Born into a polygamous family of seven women, she was first rejected by her parents because of her sex. Her father, a member of Parliament, had married a younger woman, and Koofi's mother sought to have a son to maintain her husbands' affection. The day she was born, Koofie was left out to die in the sun. She managed to persuade her parents to send her to school, making her the only girl in the family to attend school. She subsequently graduated from Preston University in Pakistan with a master's degree in business and management. Her father was a Member of Parliament (MP) for years, but died at the end of the first Afghan war (1979-1989), killed by Mujahideens. Koofi originally wanted to become a physician, but chose to study political science, and become a member of UNICEF. She worked closely with vulnerable groups, such as Internally Displaced People (IDP) and marginalized women and children, and served as a child protection officer for the organization from 2002 to 2004. Koofi began her political career in 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, promoting the right to education of girls in her "Back to school" campaign. In the parliamentary elections in 2005, she was elected to the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan National Assembly, for the Badakhshan district in the north eastern part of the country, and became its Vice President. She was the first female Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan. She was re elected in the parliamentary elections of 2010, and then elected MP from a total of 69 female members of the Assembly. She has survived several assassination attempts, including one on March 8, 2010, near the town of Tora Bora. Koofi is currently running as a candidate in the upcoming 2014 Afghan presidential election. She is running on a platform of equal rights for women, promoting universal education and the opposition to political corruption. Koofi has made it a priority to defend women's rights in Afghanistan.