This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 000257 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA/FO, SA/A, S/CT, EUR/RPM 
NSC FOR AMEND AND HARRIMAN 
OSD FOR BREZINSKI 
REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76 
USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PINR EAID PHUM KJUS AF KFEM
SUBJECT: PRT/QALAH-E NAW: MP BIOS: BADGHIS PROVINCE 
 
Ref:  05 Kabul 5180 
 
¶1.  Summary:  This cable provides biographic 
information on three members of the Afghan National 
Assembly from Badghis province.  Azita Rafat is a 
young female activist focused on development for her 
province and with a particular concern about the 
Badghis custom of selling girls.  Yaqub Khan is a 
pharmacist and former mayor of Qalah-e Naw. Haji 
Mullah Abdullah is a former commander and farmer from 
Qhormach district.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Azita Rafat: Views on Parliament 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Azita Rafat ranked third among all candidates in 
votes for National Assembly candidates from Badghis. 
In a meeting in December 2005, she told PRToff she 
considers herself an independent and is working with 
others to form a non-aligned block of about 90 
representatives.  Unlike the more well-known Malalai 
Joya from Farah province, who has sharply criticized 
the presence of mujahadeen and drug lords in the 
National Assembly, Rafat believes it is important to 
work with fellow representatives, regardless of their 
pasts.  She is sharply critical of Joya, whom she 
regards as a grandstander with no positive agenda. 
She has met frequently with the other three 
representatives from Badghis and hopes to lobby the 
central government to pay more attention to Badghis. 
In her view, provincial priorities are potable water, 
electricity, and roads. 
 
¶3.  Rafat is supportive of the Spanish PRT, installed 
in Badghis in June.  She believes, however, that it 
has not sufficiently solicited the opinions of people 
in Badghis as to development priorities.  She also 
feels that the PRT has not hired the economically 
neediest people to work on its projects.  Although she 
is aware the Spanish are planning a road from Qalah-e 
Naw (the provincial capital) to the Herat border (to 
connect with a road to be constructed by Iran from 
Herat to the Badghis border), she has seen no 
progress.  She would like to see roads built within 
the province linking the districts. 
 
¶4.  Rafat discussed the prevalent sale of girls in 
Badghis for marriage.  She said the going price is 
between USD four and ten thousand.  She stated that 
the price has gone up recently because people are 
poorer after several years of drought and fathers are 
therefore demanding more money and because commanders 
and drug lords are willing to spend more.  The sale of 
girls has become a common practice, according to 
Rafat, and it will be difficult to end since people 
are uneducated and the judicial system is undeveloped 
and corrupt. 
 
¶5.  Comment.  Azita Rafat is bright, assertive, and a 
committed democrat, unusual in a province where women 
are as oppressed as anywhere in Afghanistan.  Like 
many Afghans, she is impatient with the pace of 
reconstruction; this translates into criticism of the 
Spanish PRT and international assistance in general. 
She will be a positive force in the National Assembly, 
but her effectiveness will likely be impeded by her 
relative youth and gender.  End Comment. 
 
--------------- 
Bio-Azita Rafat 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  Azita Rafat, a Tajik, was born in Qalah-e Naw and 
graduated from high school there after studying in 
Kabul.  She is married with four daughters, including 
six-year-old twins.  Her husband is unemployed.  Her 
father is an academic who has taught at the University 
of Kabul; he presently works as a businessman. 
 
¶7.  After graduating from high school, Rafat became a 
teacher.  During the Taliban years she worked in 
health, assisting women and children in villages. 
After the fall of the Taliban, she worked for a German 
NGO in the health field, and then with UNAMA in voter 
registration.  She is a member of the Afghan Red 
Crescent and a member of the Afghan Independent 
Commission for Human Rights.  Before being elected to 
the National Assembly, she was Director of Women?s 
Affairs in Badghis; in this capacity she started a 
computer learning center in Qalah-e Naw.  Rafat speaks 
Dari, Pashtu, Urdu, Russian, and conversational 
English. 
 
-------------- 
Bio-Yaqub Khan 
-------------- 
 
¶8.  Yaqub Khan was the leading vote getter in 
parliamentary elections in Badghis.  An Uzbek, he is 
50 years old and is married with eight children.  His 
two oldest sons run an English language and computer 
center in Herat. 
 
¶9.  Yaqub Khan attended secondary school in Qalah-e 
Naw and teacher training schools in Herat and Kabul. 
He taught school in Badghis from 1985-1995.  After 
1995, teaching became difficult as Badghis became a 
fault line of conflict between Ismail Khan and Junbesh 
and the Taliban and Junbesh.  Yaqub Khan then opened 
up a pharmacy.  After Karzai became president, Yaqub 
Khan became mayor of Qalah-e Naw but resigned a year 
later because he perceived the then-governor and chief 
of police to be corrupt.  He subsequently managed his 
pharmacy and worked for an NGO. 
 
¶10.  Yaqub Khan describes himself as an independent. 
He is supportive of the current governor, but noted 
that the governor is not present enough in Badghis and 
does not travel sufficiently in the province to 
develop his authority.  According to Yaqub Khan, 
Ismail Khan still has influence in Badghis, but it is 
diminished. 
 
------------------------ 
Bio-Haji Mullah Abdullah 
------------------------ 
 
¶11.  A Pashtun, Haji Mullah Abdullah is 58 years old 
and has lived his entire life in Ghormach district 
which borders on Turkmenistan and Faryab province.  He 
has two wives and no children.  He considers himself a 
political independent. 
 
¶12.  Abdullah has no formal education but studied 
religion as a youth.  He worked on his family?s land 
until leaving his village and becoming a commander to 
fight the Soviets.  He returned to his home after the 
Soviets left Afghanistan and resumed his agricultural 
livelihood.  He did not engage in organized resistance 
against the Taliban. 
 
¶13.  According to Abdullah, the Badghis governor is 
well-intentioned, but has paid only one visit to 
Ghormach.  In his opinion, many other provincial 
officials are corrupt.  He has no opinion about the 
PRT; it has been inactive in Ghormach. 
 
¶14.  Abdullah believes that one of the biggest 
security threats in Badghis is the Gulian, a group of 
Pashtun families in Gormach.  About 60 of the 300 
families are engaged in animal rustling and common 
thievery.  Although Abdullah claims to have kept them 
in check during his days as a commander, he said the 
current corrupt police force has allowed their 
criminal pursuits. 
 
NORLAND