AFGHANISTAN Mother wins most votes

The last governor in her province was almost as oppressive as the Taliban.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
HERAT, Afghanistan -- Fauzia Gailani is an unlikely election winner in this conservative, western city: an aerobics instructor, a mother of six, and, most obviously, a woman.
But somehow, Gailani won 16,885 votes in the recent parliamentary race, more than any other candidate in Herat province and more than any other woman in Afghanistan. Only 20 men nationwide won more votes than Gailani.
Her campaign posters hang in people's living rooms and stores. Women talk about how she has helped them lose weight and how she's better than any man. Men talk about her as if she's a sex symbol.
"I love her," said Nazer Ahmad, a police officer who voted for Gailani.
Her victory is all the more shocking because it happened in Herat, the province where the one-time conservative governor oppressed women almost as much as the Taliban he replaced.
It's just one sign of how life has changed for women since strongman Ismail Khan was removed as provincial governor in September 2004.
Under Khan, it was rare to see a woman on the streets of Herat, even in a burqa. Now women shop in the markets. Although many still are in burqas, some wear the Iranian-style chador, which cloaks a woman in black but shows her face. Women work in some shops. A few women even have a driver's license.
"During the Taliban and Ismail Khan, life was pretty bad," said Sadiqa Mohsini, wearing a chador and shopping in a busy market area. "We couldn't go out. We didn't have any freedom."
Women's status
Not everything has changed. Women still set themselves on fire to protest unwanted marriages. Although some women have driver's licenses, they rarely drive. One woman in a burqa chastised another for wearing only a head scarf.
"In this country, all the women should wear burqas," said Mallika Rauf as she shopped for another burqa.
The win by Gailani, who often wears just a head scarf, has larger significance than just for Herat. For many, women such as Gailani, with no ties to the country's brutal past, are the bright spot in the new parliament, which will be filled largely with former warlords, fighters and clerics.
Final results in the historic Sept. 18 parliamentary elections are expected to be announced soon. But unofficial results indicate that many women would have been elected even if 68 of the 249 seats had not been reserved for them.