Shinkai Zahine Karokhail ( ps, شينکۍ ذهين کړوخېل) is an Afghan politician and rights activist, focusing mainly on the political representation of women and the protection of vulnerable children. She was the Afghan ambassador to Canada. Shinkai Karokhail (2)

Early life

Mrs Karokhail was born to

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

parents in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) 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; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Ac ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

, where she attended the Medical College of the Kabul University and graduated with a medical degree. Similarly, apart from medicine studying political science, she holds a diploma in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

from the National Institute of Modern Languages of

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capita ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. She speaks,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and

Political career

Mrs Karokhail was elected ''

Wolesi Jirga The House of Representatives of the People, or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga ( ps, دَ افغانستان ولسي جرګه), was the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, alongside the upper Ho ...

'' as an MP in 2005 to represent the people of Kabul in the National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. She was re-elected in the 2010 parliamentary elections. Currently, she is the member of the Parliamentary Women Caucus committee and serves on the Budget and Finance Committee. Mrs Karokhail has a vocal advocate of women's rights, alongside working tirelessly on conflict prevention programmes. In 1991, she among others members founded the Afghan Women's Educational Center, initially taking its teaching responsibilities followed by various other posts during the later years. In 2002, she became the director of the NGO heading its developmental and management programmes. Mrs. Karokhail played a pivotal role in opposing the controversial draft

Shia Family Law The Shia Personal Status Law, also known as the Shia Family Law, is a law of Afghanistan that was approved in February 2009 with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's signature. A portion of the law pertaining to sexual relations between husband and wi ...

, which was seen to be oppressing Shiite women and depriving them of many of their rights in a marital relationship. After making international headlines, a number of amendments were made to the draft law in order to make it more acceptable. Moreover, she was also one of the few voices behind the Elimination of Violence Against Women Bill which was approved by the President of Afghanistan in 2009. She was the only parliamentarian alongside other female leaders from various departments to be invited to witness the signing of the bill by President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repu ...

Interests

Mrs. Karokhail focuses on

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

economic Security Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future. It includes: * probable continued solvency * predictability of the future cash f ...

good governance Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for th ...

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

transparency Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still ...

Human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, regional cooperation & security,

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and security issues as well as lobbying for more women in the inner circle of power.

Awards

In 2012, Mrs. Karokhail received the East West Institute's first ever H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Award for Values-based Leadership.

References

External links

Afghan Women’s Educational Centre

Afghans’ Coalition for Transparency and Accountability

The Afghan Women’s Network

Peace Training and Research Organization
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karokhail, Shinkai Afghanistan conflict (1978–present) Pashtun women politicians 21st-century Afghan women politicians 21st-century Afghan politicians Members of the House of the People (Afghanistan) People from Kabul Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Afghan women ambassadors Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Canada Pashtun politicians Pashtun activists Pashtun women