September 15, 2002

I first heard about Dr Masooda Jalal from TV reports. She was contesting the elections for the president of Afghanistan in the Loya Jirga convened in Kabul in June. I wanted to find out more about her — notably if she was a writer too.

When I mentioned her to an Afghan NGO worker, shortly after I arrived in Kabul recently, his eyes lit up.

“I know where her house is. I go and find her for you.”

His enthusiasm was evident. He arrived back later that evening with a wry smile. “I did not get to see her. The people say that when she goes to the market, she wears a burqa, because when people recognize her they tease her.”

I was not surprised. For an Afghan woman to have stood for president was indeed a gutsy thing to do, to say the least. I was most intrigued.

Having been told she worked for the World Food Programme, I presented myself at the WFP offices the next day. I had no idea if she would agree to see me. Maybe she did not grant interviews. Maybe she wanted to keep a low profile. That would bear out with her going to the market in a burqa.

The receptionist eagerly took my card and called through. “Yes, yes, she would love to see you, but, please, she is in a meeting. Please you come at one o’clock?”

When I returned another receptionist was on duty: there was the same eagerness. What was it about this woman that made these men so animated at the mention of her name?

I was ushered into a large room, where a woman, dressed in brown, stood proudly but with a look of, well not suspicion, but perhaps a little bit disconcertedness. After a few moments of hesitation, she ushered me into a private office and closed the door. I came straight to the point. I asked her if she wanted to bother with tape recorders etc. or would an informal talk do. When she declared her preference for the latter, I sighed with relief and threw my bag aside. Then for an hour-and-a-half we didn’t stop talking. I quite forgot I was supposed to be conducting an interview. I didn’t even remember that I was to talk to her about her writing — she was supposed to be interested in that. That is the problem with always getting ‘involved’.

Dr Masooda Jalal is a doctor of medicine and was a lecturer at Kabul University, having graduated from the faculty of medicine in 1988. She is married with two daughters and one son. When she talks, her eyes and face glow with enthusiasm and tenacity.

For the last decade she has worked with the UN and international NGOs in Afghanistan. Even during the Taliban years she stayed in Kabul. “They put me in jail,” she said darkly. “They threatened me. They said they would hang me!”

Defiance gleamed from her eyes. I could easily relate to her strength of purpose. Here was a woman to be reckoned with. “At the election. Those men were afraid of me. Who was this woman, they asked. They felt threatened by me.”

I nodded. “I bet they were!” In Afghan society, here was a woman challenging them for the post of president. It takes guts to stick your neck out like that.

The people of district number nine of Kabul city elected her as their representative and consequently she became an independent candidate for the presidency, receiving the second highest number of votes from the Loya Jirga.

Were these her few moments of fame? Was she going to be nothing but a memory? No one who has vision and is committed to the struggle for the poor and the disadvantaged is likely to disappear from the worldstage with a whimper.

Dr Masooda Jalal has plans. Her goals are to modify the attitudes and behaviour that leads to inequality and discrimination: provide women, youth and community organizations with the skills to keep up their cause, mobilize others and ultimately realize their dreams.

But is she a writer too? “I enjoy writing and whenever I am free I am doing that, I have been writing on social issues. The disabilities people suffer from, medical articles, pschychological questions and articles on women and children. In fact I write about everything that becomes an issue,” she says.

Her commitment shows when she says, “I want to encourage Afghan women writers. If I manage to procure funds from the US, that is what I will do. The war has created ‘war writers’. A war culture has emerged in Afghanistan and the writers just want to address the war issue,” she says.

Her guiding principles? “Every human being has a right to humanitarian assistance, irrespective of his race, religion, ideology or political persuasion.” She has been politicized but prefers to be neutral and impartial.

Jalal writes and speaks English with remarkable ease. But Persian is the language she likes to express herself in. All her life she has been in Afghanistan, through the Russian period, the years of strife between the Mujahideen groups and through the dark days of the Taliban. It was only earlier this year that she left her country for the first time: that was to go to the United States to receive a human rights award. Jalal, who is also a translator, has written a number of scientific articles and has translated various booklets and documents for agencies, such as the WHO.

Writing is something she obviously enjoys: “Ensha’Allah, one day I will run my own weekly newspaper,” she says, with that same enthusiasm she had shown when talking about her running for the presidency.

By the time we parted company and had exchanged emails (who exchanges addresses any more?) and promised one another to keep in contact, I felt that I was parting from a dear friend. I reckon more will be heard from this resolute, courageous woman who loves to write but has not done enough of it.

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