Afghan Biographies

Barakzai, Shukria Mrs.


Name Barakzai, Shukria Mrs.
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1972
Function/Grade Ex Ambassador
History and Biodata

Mrs. Shukria Barakzai
Phone: 0700281804

2. Previous Functions:
Wolesi Jirga Member 2005 MP MNA Kabul,
Wolesi Jirga Member 2010 MP MNA Kabul reelected
Ambassador to Norway (20151121-)

3.Biodata:
Barakzai_ShukriaShe was born in  1972 (1351) in Kabul and started primary education in 1356 in Malalay School. Barakzai completed her early education in Kabul. She began her higher education at Kabul University in the 1990s, but was forced to leave during the war. She resumed her education after the fall of the Taliban. She has a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and Geology, which she earned from Kabul University in 2003.

During Taliban times she was in Kabul. During all last decades, she served as a teacher, then as chief of Asian woman association. Her social activities started bringing effects into the social and political lives of Afghans while she started 2002 the “Aina-e-Zan” newspaper. She formed the Afghan women journalists association. She has been the head of NGOs including the Afghan Women Journalist’s Association and the Asia Women’s Organization (AWO).

Barakzai was appointed a member of the 2003 loya jirga, a body of representatives from all over Afghanistan that was nominated to discuss and pass the new constitution after the fall of the Taliban. In the October 2004 elections she was elected as a member of the House of the People or Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the National Assembly of Afghanistan. She is one of 71 women out of 249 MPs. She is an independent MNA. Shukria Barikzai is the Head of the Defense Commission of Wolesi Jirga 2010.

She is one of only a handful of female MPs who speak up for women's rights, and faces death threats for her views. The fourth Group established in the Wolesi Jirga is the Khat-e-Seowom (Third-Line Group). It comprises 21 MPs and is headed by Shukria Barakzai, MP from Kabul. Other known members are Abdulkabir Ranjbar, MP from Kabul, Noor Akbari, MP from Daikundi, Daoud Sultanzoy, MP from Ghazni, and Hashim Wantanwal, MP from Uruzgan. Barakzai is married to Abdul Ghafoor Dawi, a millionaire who stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at the same time as her. In 2004, 12 years after they were wed, he took a second wife, as is his right under Muslim marriage law. He did this without telling Barakzai, who learned of it through friends, and she admits to feeling "disturbed and hurt" and "a victim of tradition" because of his decision. She has turned her attention to campaigning against multiple marriages, trying to persuade women not to become a man's second wife.
 

Commission (2012): Defense and Territorial Affairs (Previous Chair, 2011)
 

Kabul MP, Shokria Barakzai in support of MP Yasemin Barakzai's (Herat) hungerstrike accused the head of the election commission for betrayal, asking for his trial.(20111012)

Barakzai, hailing from a conservative Pashtun tribe from the south, has made her mark not just on Afghanistan but internationally as a liberal female politician in male-dominated and tribal Afghan society. She played an important role in Ghani's campaign and is likely to shine once again alongside First Lady Rula Ghani Ahmadzai in the new regime.(20140930)
 

Shukria Barakzai has survived a suicide bombing attack on her vehicle in Kabul, suffering slight wounds, but three civilian bystanders have died and 22 have been injured. Barakzai is a women's rights advocate and a close ally of new president Ashraf Ghani. (20141116)
Brawl among the Afghan lawmakers started after MP Shukria Barekzai criticized the recent decision by joint parliamentary commission to reject the Minister nominees of President Ghani and the CEO Dr. Abdullah due to dual citzenship, insisting that the Parliament House is not authorized to deprive the rights of an Afghan national from election and voting.(20150114)

Ghani appointed female lawmaker Shukria Barekzai as the chairperson of the electoral commission, but Abdullah says discussions are still under that who will chair the commission.(20150330) One of the main problems Abdullah is said to have with Ghani's reform plan is the personnel of the commission. Abdullah's office has reported that Shukria Barekzai was removed as the Chair of the commission. However, Barekzai has not confirmed that and recently said that the commission would soon begin work.(20150412)

However, after the death of Mullah Omar, she did confuse many when she went on an Afghan TV channel, wearing all black, mourning the Taliban leader’s death. She even referred to him as a mujahid. During the Taliban rule, women were extremely oppressed. Barakzai also backed Ashraf Ghani for president in the recent elections. It appears her loyalty has been rewarded with the Ambassador posting in Norway.

On 11 February 2016, Shukria Barakzai presented her credentials as Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of Afghanistan to the Kingdom of Norway to King Harald V of Norway at a special ceremony at the Royal Palace.

Shukria Barakzai, the former Afghan ambassador to Norway and a human rights activist, said she was on the Taliban's wanted list after the fall of Kabul in 2021, and attributed her successful escape from the Afghan capital to London to the assistance provided by the British.

Shukria Barakzai, former Afghan ambassador to Norway, participated in a Vienna meeting of afghan Migrants. A three-day meeting of Afghan political figures in Vienna, Austria, ended on Saturday in which the participants called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan through negotiations. Some Afghan refugees held a rally in the same city to protest the meeting. But some other Afghans meanwhile held a rally in support of the meeting. But the Islamic Emirate said that the war is over and that the individuals who attended the summit “are not trustworthy.”(20220918)
 

She has two sons and three daughters.
 

She speaks Pashtu, Dari and English.

Last Modified 2023-07-30
Established 2009-10-12