Fatima Aziz (; ; 1973 – 12 March 2021) was an

Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...

physician and politician. In 2005, she was elected to the lower house of parliament as representative of

Kunduz province Kunduz () is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northern part of the country next to Tajikistan. The population of the province is around 1,136,677, which is mostly a tribal society; it is one of Afghanistan's most ethnically ...

in Afghanistan's first free parliamentary election in decades. She was re-elected in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2018 elections The following elections occurred in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. Africa *2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018 *2018 Sierra Leonean general election 7 and 31 ...

. She served as an MP until her death from cancer in 2021.

Early life and education

Fatima Aziz was born in 1973 in the province of

Kunduz Kunduz (; ; ) is a city in northern Afghanistan and the capital of Kunduz Province. The city has an estimated population of about 268,893 as of 2015, making it about the List of cities in Afghanistan, seventh largest city of Afghanistan, and the ...

, Afghanistan. In 1987, she completed her secondary school education at Naswan High School in Kunduz. She earned a

bachelor of medicine A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

from

Kabul Medical University Kabul Medical University (Pashto د کابل طبي پوهنتون / Persian: دانشگاه طبي کابل; formerly known as Kabul Medical Institute) is located in Kabul, Afghanistan on the campus of Kabul University. The medical institution ...

in 1993.

Career

For 13 years, Aziz worked in

maternal–fetal medicine Maternal–fetal medicine (MFM), also known as perinatology, is a branch of medicine that focuses on managing health concerns of the mother and fetus prior to, during, and shortly after pregnancy. Maternal–fetal medicine specialists are physic ...

Wazir Akbar Khan Wazir Akbar Khān (1816–1847) also known as Mohammad Akbar Khān or Amīr Akbar Khān was a Barakzai prince and military commander who served as emir of Afghanistan from 1842 to 1843. He also served as vizier and heir apparent to his fathe ...

and Malalai hospitals in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

. She also worked for non-governmental organizations and the

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

. In the aftermath of the

2001 Afghan War 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, Aziz was elected as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

member of parliament (MP) to the lower house of parliament, representing Kunduz province. She was part of the 2002 loya jirga. During the

Wolesi Jirga The House of Representatives of the People, or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga (), was the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, alongside the upper House of Elders. The House of Representatives of t ...

2005 election, Aziz received 4,725 votes. She was deputy chairwoman of the communications, transportation, city development, and municipalities committee. Aziz was re-elected in subsequent elections during the Afghan Peace Jirga 2010 and 2018. She was one of the first women elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

after the fall of the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

. Known for her liberal stances and advocacy of

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

, her comments in parliament attracted controversy. As representative of

, Aziz criticised the

National Directorate of Security The National Directorate of Security (NDS; ; ) was the national intelligence agency, intelligence and security agency, security service of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, and it had field offices and ...

after a series of coordinated Taliban attacks in 2012. She provided information to the international media during the Battle of Kunduz in 2015. She fled the city with her family due to the battle. While the city was occupied by the Taliban, she campaigned for the city's liberation to the Afghan government and international community, while drawing attention to the humanitarian situation on the ground. Aziz said that voter turnout in Kunduz for the

2019 Afghan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 28 September 2019. According to preliminary results, which runner-up Abdullah Abdullah appealed against, incumbent Ashraf Ghani was re-elected with 923,592 votes, 50.64% of the vote. After dela ...

was low due to problems with security in the region. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan, she believed

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

and government failures caused a shortage in

oxygen tank An oxygen tank is an oxygen storage vessel, which is either held under pressure in gas cylinders, referred to in the industry as high pressure oxygen cylinders, or as liquid oxygen in a cryogenic storage tank. Uses Oxygen tanks are used to stor ...

Personal life and death

Aziz's first language was

Dari Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

and she also spoke

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, English, and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. She was married to an engineer and had two daughters and two sons. Her brother was a representative in Kunduz's Ministry of the Economy. In 2020, Aziz tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, and posted a video of her online in bed with an oxygen tube. She died of cancer on 12 March 2021, in a hospital in Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aziz, Fatima 1973 births 2021 deaths Members of the House of the People (Afghanistan) Afghan physicians Afghan women physicians People from Kunduz 21st-century Afghan women politicians 21st-century Afghan politicians 20th-century women physicians 21st-century women physicians Afghan Tajik people Kabul University alumni Deaths from cancer in Switzerland Tajik women Tajik physicians