Published on 08-Mar-2020
Khushboo Razdan
On March 8, 2010, Fawzia Koofi, the first woman MP of Afghanistan, was returning to Kabul after celebrating International Women's Day with her daughters and sister when her convoy was attacked by Taliban assassins. She managed to escape. Nine years later, Koofi sat across the table with men from the same group who tried to kill her – this time to negotiate peace.
"I went there to give them a message that yes we oppose each other to the extent that you tried to kill me, you jailed my husband, you denied Afghan women their rights and opportunities, but here I am to tell you that no matter what happened with me and other women in the past we will participate equally in the construction of our country and I am not asking you to give me that right because it is the right that my constitution has given me," Koofi said in an exclusive interview with CGTN Digital.
She was part of a pan-Afghanistan delegation that held several rounds of talks with the Taliban in Moscow last year. The Moscow effort ran parallel to the U.S.-Taliban peace negotiations in Doha, Qatar. "It was an interesting experience – initially tough because there were people who not only disliked women being physically present there, but also they didn't want to see the capabilities and qualities that we possess," she recalled.