Rayhana Azad

Political and Social Activist

Author: Mohammad Javad Alavi

Volume One, Second Edition

Rayhana Azad, daughter of Ishaq, was born in 1361 SH / 1982 CE in the village of Zardani, Shahristan District, Daykundi Province. Her mother was a homemaker and her father a teacher who, in addition to teaching, also engaged in farming and livestock raising. Unlike other girls, who were generally not sent to school, she studied under the mullah of a traditional maktab [religious school]. At the age of thirteen, she entered into an unsuccessful marriage with her father’s paternal cousin’s son. The marriage produced two sons, who live with their mother.

Rayhana continued her education at Ghochan School and Sayyid Ismail Balkhi High School. While serving as a representative on the Daykundi Provincial Council, she continued her schooling and completed the twelfth grade. She also participated in short-term educational courses established in Daykundi by Sima Samar. During her term as a member of the Wolesi Jirga [House of the People, the lower house of Afghanistan’s parliament], she enrolled at Kateb Private University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations (Azad, 1396).

Rayhana Azad has served in a number of positions, including as an employee of UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan); head of the Daykundi Province Women’s Council; member of the Daykundi Provincial Council (1384–1388 SH); deputy head of the Daykundi Provincial Council; member of the Monitoring and International Relations Committee; and member of the Committee for Women’s Affairs within the Daykundi Provincial Council.

In 1389 SH, she stood as a candidate in Uruzgan Province and, with the votes of the people of the province, was elected to the sixteenth term of the Wolesi Jirga. During her term in the House of Representatives, she served on commissions concerned with the protection, rights, and privileges of representatives; civil society, human rights, and women’s affairs; health, youth, and physical education; and defence affairs (Afghanistan Parliament Website, 1396).

As the representative of the people of Uruzgan, Azad was, during the more recent political developments, aligned with the Enlightenment Movement (Junbish-e Roshnayi) and became one of the government’s prominent critics.

Sources:

Azad, Rayhana. (1396). In-person interview by Mohammad Javad Alavi with Rayhana Azad. Kabul, 6 Aqrab 1396; Afghanistan Parliament Website. (1396). “Wolesi Jirga, Biographies of Wolesi Jirga Representatives, Uruzgan Province, Rayhana Azad.”