Sediqa Balkhi () is an Afghan politician and former Minister in the government of

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...

Early life

Balkhi was born in 1950 in

Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

Balkh province Balkh (Dari and , ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The city o ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Her father,

Ismael Balkhi Sayed Isma'el Balkhi () (1918 –14 July 1968) was one of the most prominent Hazara reformist leaders in 20th-century Afghanistan. As a poet, mystic and a political leader, Balkhi is considered the figurehead of modern Hazara history. Lif ...

, was imprisoned multiple times in Afghanistan and ultimately poisoned. She completed her B.A. in Islamic Studies and pursued further education while staying in Iran. She taught for a while and worked as a manager. She was married at a young age and had six children. Her brother, Seyyed Ali Balkhi, was an economist who was killed during the reign of the communist

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), known as the Homeland Party ( Dari: , ) from June 1990, was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 ...

Career

Balkhi led the Islamic Center for Political and Cultural Activities of Afghan Women during 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) ...

rule, which was based in

Khorasan Province Khorasan ( ; also transcribed as Khurasan, Xorasan and Khorassan), also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian Empire, Parthian times, was a Provinces of Iran, province in northeastern Iran until September 2004, when it was divided in ...

, Iran. She moved to Afghanistan in 1991 where she continued her work secretly. In December 2001, she was one of three women who participated in the Bonn Agreement. She was elected twice to the

Meshrano Jirga The House of Elders or Mesherano Jirga (), was the upper house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the lower House of the People (Wolesi Jirga). It was effectively dissolved when the Taliban seized power on 15 August ...

(upper house of the Afghan bicameral parliament). She served as the Chair of the Women's Affairs Committee in the Meshrano Jirga. She served the Minister of Martyrs and Disabled in the Hamid Karzai government from 2004 to 2009. In 2005, Balkhi and Afghan army chief

Bismillah Khan Mohammadi Bismillah Khan Mohammadi (; born 1961, in Panjshir Province), or Bismillah Khan, is an Afghan politician who served as the defense minister of Afghanistan from 2012 to 2015 and for two months in 2021. From 2002 to 2010, he served as Chief of S ...

survived a helicopter crash. The crash is thought to be an accident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balkhi, Sediqa Living people 1950 births 21st-century Afghan women politicians 21st-century Afghan politicians Afghan women's rights activists Hazara politicians Afghan Muslims People from Mazar-i-Sharif People from Balkh Province Hazara women politicians