Masooda Jalal's Campaign for President of Afghanistan

Jalal is Afghanistan's female warlord of sorts, though her weapons are not the traditional kind. She is armed primarily with a strength of spirit that has helped sustain her through jail time and direct threats. The 41-year-old mother of three is one of eighteen candidates running for the top office in Afghanistan's first-ever Western-style elections, scheduled for Oct. 9.


Jalal has little money and no publicity machine, and women, her natural constituency, have been slow to register to vote. Nevertheless, she is making history in this conservative Islamic country where the vast majority of women still wear the burqua -- some stores even sell burquas for dolls -- and the legal system views women as the property of their men.

Read the rest, by my friend Masha Hamilton, here:Masooda Jalal's Campaign for President of Afghanistan