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KLMNO THE WORLD For pioneering Afghan Olympian, a different kind of race After growing up under the Taliban and running in Athens and Beijing, Robina Jalali turns her talents to politicswith bid for parliament


BY DAVID NAKAMURA IN KABUL


liament, Robina Jalali, a 25-year- old candidatefromKabul, offers a more inspiring biography. Raised during aTaliban regime


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that was brutal toward women, Jalali nevertheless trained as a sprinterand,aftertheTalibanfell, followed her passion to the Olym- pics. No matter that she finished second-to-last in the 100 meters in Athens in 2004 and last in Beijing in 2008. In Afghanistan, a conservative Muslim nation wheremanywomenstill wear the identity-shielding burqa, Jalali’s story is like a fairy tale. Now comes the sequel: Jalali is


running again — for a seat in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan parliament. Though interest among women was ini- tially sparse, a recruitment drive from the Independent Election Committee has resulted in a re- cord 406 female candidates standing in the Sept. 18 elections for at least 64 seats reserved for women under the Afghan consti- tution, which guarantees them 25 percent of the 249 seats. (More than 2,000 men are running.) But these women, including business executives, civic activ- istsandnonprofitworkers, report daily threatsfromtheTalibanand other insurgent groups. In late August, five people working for the campaign of outspoken par- liament member Fawzia Gilani, who is running for reelection in Herat, were kidnapped and killed. “I don’t care about the Taliban


because I’mused to it,” Jalali said in her office, fortified by an iron gate but no armed security guards.Aframed picture of Presi- dent Hamid Karzai greeting her after the 2008 Games is displayed on her desk. “Inthe beginning,whenI start-


ed in the sports world, I got all these threatening leaflets from the Taliban thrown atmy house,” she said. “I was the only girl running with men. Everybody would say things to me. After running, onmy way back home, I used to cry and think, ‘Why can’t I be like the men?’ ” Being treated like their male counterparts has not been easy for the female members of parlia- ment, who have been ignored, shouted down or worse. In 2007,


mid the warlords, ex- mujaheddin, hard-line clerics and shady busi- nessmen running for a seat in the Afghan par-


ing, you need a pretty face and wonderful body,” said Shukira Ba- rakzai, a leading female member of parliament. “But for parlia- ment, the criteria is different. This time women think anyone can be a member of parliament. Well, they take the seat but how can they work? They don’t know the constitution, they don’t know aboutthebudget,theydon’tknow anythingaboutouroversight job.” Jalali said she has gained valu-


able experience working with her father’s nonprofit organization, which teaches poor women how to sew, and spending three years as a secretary at Kabul Bank. She brushes off persistent rumors that Kabul Bank executives are bankrolling her campaign as part of a bloc of candidates who sup- portPresidentHamidKarzai.The only people funding her, Jalali insists, are family members. But Barakzai makes a valid


point: Being a female legislator isn’t easy. In2009, the parliament approved the Shia Personal Sta- tus Law, which mandated that Shiite women could not refuse their husbands’ sexual demands or get an education without their husbands’ permission. Barakzai spoke against the law, but most of her female colleagues, under in- tense pressure, voted in favor of it. With Karzai said to be seeking reconciliation with the Taliban, the ability of female legislators to enshrine women’s rights is criti- cal. Jalali said that her past per- formance is a goodmeasureof the resolve she would show in parlia- ment. In 2008, she agreed to run on


DAVID NAKAMURA/THE WASHINGTON POST


Robina Jalali, at a Kabul cricketmatch, says she isn’t intimidated by Taliban threats—she got many while training for the Olympics. Her father, Haji Jamaludin,


male legislators voted to suspend Malalai Joya, a 32-year-old legis- lator from Farah province who had delivered a rebuke against corrupt warlords on the parlia- ment floor. She went into hiding and remains so three years later, choosing not torunfor reelection. “It was very easy in parliament


to attack women and say they are not Muslim, or not a good Mus- lim,” said Sima Samar, chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. “It was intimidation.” Jalali is unperturbed. With


high cheekbones and large, dark eyes, she has gained as much attention for the heavily made-up glamour shots on her campaign posters as for her athletic prow- ess. She remains single in a cul-


ture in which women marry young, saying she would not be free to pursue political office if she had a husband. Her platform focuses on equal


rights for women and youth, and she angrily recounted an incident in November 2008 in southern Afghanistan when two school- girls were blinded after men threwacid in their faces. Like many girls, Jalali and her


seven sisters (she also has two brothers) were secretly tutored at home during the Taliban era. At 16, she resumed school when the Taliban fell from power in 2001. She also pursued running, train- ing barefoot or in sandals, then in cheap Chinese sneakers, on the trackatKabulStadium,wherethe Taliban had executed prisoners.


was a businessman in the com- puter industry, traveling to Dubai and China. He recalls a young Robina telling him, “Do not con- sider me a woman. Consider me as a son.” “I let her go out and do sports,”


Jamaludin said. “I ignored all the comments of people who told me not to allowmy daughter to travel outside Afghanistan, that as a woman it was a disgrace.” Jalali said she traveled to more


than 30 international track meets. In Athens, she was one of two women on the five-member Afghan Olympic squad, lining up in her 100-meter heat, her only race, againstU.S. star GailDevers. She finished in 14.14 seconds, far behind the winning pace of 10.93.


the Olympic team after Afghan sprinter Mehbooba Ahadyar re- ceived death threats and sought asylum inNorway. “Fear is something I lived with


In Beijing, she was Afghanistan’s only woman, and she insisted on running in a hijab, a traditional Muslim head scarf. After both Olympics, she was hailed as a hero by the international media —if not at home. “I did not have popular sup-


port,” she said. “People spoke ill of megoing on trips.” Jalali’s bid for office has been criticized by an unlikely contin- gent: fellow women who com- plain that she is an opportunist with a sparse resume. A local newspaper recently


projected her as one of the nine womenlikely to win a seat among the 90 running in Kabul, but not everyoneisconvincedsheisready to govern. “If you want to run for model-


every day,” she said. “If I caved to fear and left the country, what would happen to all the Afghans who were left behind? What kind of role model would I be?” Jalali recently presided over a


32-team cricket tournament or- ganized by her campaign. Wear- ing a slim-cut black pantsuit, matching heels and a red, green and black hijab, Jalali removed oversized sunglasses and ad- dressed the players, telling them she was proud of their athletic accomplishments. Then, a youngmanhanded her


a cricket bat and motioned her to thebatter’sbox.Hewoundupand delivered a half-speed pitch, which Jalali promptly smacked over his head. She laughed, and the men around her applauded. nakamurad@washpost.com


North Korea suggests more family reunions; party conference waits BY CHICOHARLAN


seoul — North Korea remained silent Saturday about a kickoff date for a political conference widely expected tomark a heredi- tary power transfer, but it took a step in the meantime toward mending frayed ties with South Korea. The North’s state-run news


agency reportedSaturday that the Pyongyang government wants to resume a reunion program for families livingonopposite sidesof the border that divides the penin- sula. If theSouthagrees,asobserv- ers say is likely, selectKoreanswill be able to see relatives for the first


time ina year. However, no further clueswere


offered about an upcomingWork- ers’ Party conference in Pyong- yang, which state media had ini- tially slated for “early September.” Nor was any mention made of leaderKimJong Il’s youngest son, Kim Jong Eun, who analysts pre- dict will emerge from the confer- ence with a key party position, confirming his anointment as the Stalinist dictatorship’s future leader. As North Korea adheres to its


standard secrecy, outside experts have tried to make sense of the mystery, debating not only the meaning of the meeting’s delay, but also thedefinitionof “early.”


The widely accepted assump-


tion had been that the North would hold itsmeeting last week, before the Sept. 9 holiday com- memorating its foundation. The Korean CentralNewsAgency said Monday that party delegateswere arriving in Pyongyang,where bill- boards proclaim the event. Now, observerswonderwhether “early” justmeans before Sept. 15. In Seoul, some analysts have


wondered whether the holdup is linked to economic difficulties. Some speculate that it has to do with last-minute security checks on delegates.Others say it reflects ongoing debates about policy changes,giventhat theconference is a stage for announcements, not


arguments. Ha Tae-keung, who runs Open


Radio for North Korea, a Seoul- based station with informants in the North, attributes the delay to KimJong Il’shealth.Kim,Ha said, is still fatigued from a recent trip toChina. “Kim Jong Il has to appear at


the conference for four to five hours a day for two days, and without getting much-needed rest, it would be impossible for him to be present,” said Ha, who saidheexpects theconferencewill beheldsometimenextweek. “There is a very slim chance of


the conference being held and us not knowing it,” added Sohn Kwang-joo, editor ofDailyNK, an


DIGEST INDIA


Violence reignites at Kashmir protests Police firedwarning shots and


tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who attacked a police post and burned govern- ment offices inKashmir onSatur- day as tens of thousands of peo- ple took to the streets to protest Indian rule in the Himalayan region, officials said. At least seven civilians and six


officerswere injured at the police post on the outskirts of Srinagar, the heart of a 20-year insurgency against New Delhi’s rule of a region that is crucial to peaceful relations betweenIndia and Paki- stan.


—Associated Press, Reuters MEXICO


Car bomb detonated on grim day in Juarez Mexicanpolice carriedout the


controlled detonation of a car bomb in Ciudad Juarez around midnight Friday after receiving a phone tip that a person had been executed nearby, officials said. In July in Juarez, across from


El Paso, drug traffickers staged the first successful car-bombing inMexico, killing three people. The incident capped the dead-


liest day in more than two years in the city, with gunmen killing 25 people in separate drug-gang attacks. Also Friday, 85 inmates scaled


thewalls of a prison in the border city of Reynosa, Mexico’s biggest jailbreak in recentmemory. —Associated Press


AUSTRALIA


Ousted Rudd named foreign minister Former primeminister Kevin


Rudd was named Australia’s new foreignminister Saturday, a post- ing some see as a consolation prize for being ousted from the


leadership. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who narrowly won elec- tions last month just weeks after toppling Rudd in an internal Labor Party insurrection, made the appointment as part of sever- al changes to her cabinet. Before enteringpolitics,Rudd,


53, was a senior diplomat. He spent years in China, one of Australia’s key trade partners, and speaksMandarin. —Associated Press


Iranian diplomat resigns in Fin- land: Hossein Alizadeh, a senior diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Helsinki said he had resigned to join the political opposition movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


Seaport suicide attack thwarted in Somalia: Somali police said they foiled a suicide attack by Islamist rebels on the seaport in the capital Mogadishu, two days after a bomb attack on the city’s airport. A police officer at the port said the driver of a petrol


tankerwas forced by a gunman to speed through a checkpoint at the port’s entrance. Government troops opened fire.


5 Americans detained in Zimba- bwe:


Five Americans who


worked with AIDS orphans and patients in Zimbabwe have been arrested in the southern African country and accused of operating without proper medical licenses, their attorney said.Onewas iden- tified as Gloria Cox Crowell, head of a church-run AIDS programin Oakland, Calif.


Klingon opera lifts off in The Hague: “DaHjaj ‘oH Qaq jaj vaD bI’reS.” That, for the uninitiated, is how one says “Today is a good day for opera” in Klingon. The invented language, spoken first by the fictional aliens of “Star Trek,” is being put to earthly use in an opera that opened for a three-day run Friday in the Neth- erlands. The opera is titled “U,” Klingonfor universe or universal. —Fromnews services


online news outlet. “It involves several thousand participants na- tionwide, and it requires rehears- als beforehand. But therewere no movementsdetectedabout it yet.” North and South Korea used


early September to step back slightlyfromhostilitythatdates to the March torpedoing of the South’s Cheonan warship. In re- cent weeks, Seoul proposed an $8.4million donation of flood aid to theNorth.TheNorthreleaseda captured South Korean fishing boat. Then it requested rice, ce- ment and machinery. Politicians in the South spoke encouragingly about approving the request — thoughithasn’thappenedyet. The North’s latest proposal, for


reunions of families separated by the demilitarized zone, is seen by analysts as another safe step to- ward repairing relations. Accord- ingtoitsnewsagency, it suggested that officials fromtheNorth’sRed Cross meet with South Korean counterpartsassoonaspossibleto discuss the idea. The reunions couldtakeplaceSept.22,aholiday akintoThanksgiving. The idea for the family visits


grewoutofaNorth-Southsummit in 2000. Since then, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agen- cy, some 20,000 Koreans have beenreunited. harlanc@washpost.com


Special correspondent Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010


SAJJAD HUSSAIN /AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS/GETTY IMAGES


In Srinagar, Kashmir, a man shouts pro-freedom slogans through a clock tower during a demonstration against Indian rule that turned violent. Tens of thousands chanted, “Go India, go back!"


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