Female Vice-President for Afghanistan

I found it most appropriate that in the month during which International Women’s Day falls, discussion has been taking place in the international media on the subject of Women and Power,{{more}}politically speaking. Indeed, I have been following an intriguing discussion on what the world would possibly be like if we had more female leaders, presidents and prime ministers.

Interestingly, the discussants were mostly optimistic about the state of the world if more women were in leadership positions. The optimism is based on the fact that, given their nature, women are more inclined to use what is termed “soft power,” less likely to adopt bellicose rhetoric and to get involved in launching needless wars. In answering the contradictory point of warmongering leaders like Britain’s late Dame Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir of Israel, it was pointed out that these were exceptions, women who were influenced by the hard battles they had to fight to rise to the top in a male-dominated world.

Overall, the trend towards more women seeking high political office was welcomed and the role that leaders such as Angela Merkel of Germany play noted. Women were encouraged to continue in this vein.

One specially encouraging development was the growing emergence of women in the political field in Afghanistan. A mere 13 years ago, under the Taliban, women could not dare seek political office; indeed, they were even banned from going to school. Today, in the upcoming elections in that country, there are several female candidates and one of them, 57-year old Habiba Sarabi, stands a good chance of becoming Afghanistan’s first-ever vice-president.

A female vice-president in Afghanistan? Truly a most remarkable SIGN OF THE TIMES.