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OO RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHPW RUEHYG
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O 251035Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1116
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXP/ALL NATO POST COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 4257
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
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RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 003632 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA.FO DAS GASTRIGHT, SCA/A,G/IWI 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AF
SUBJECT: EMBASSY KABUL'S NOMINATIONS FOR 2008 SECRETARY'S 
WOMEN OF COURAGE AWARD 
 
REF: STATE 126072 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Per Reftel, Kabul is pleased to submit its list of 
nominees for the Secretary's 2008 Award for International 
Women of courage, keyed to the priorities in the reference. 
Per instructions, Embassy Kabul is submitting three (3) 
nominees.  All nominees have been informed of the 
Ambassador's intention to nominate them and are available to 
travel in March 2008.  A list of nominees in rank order 
follows. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  First priority:  Suraya PAKZAD 
Full legal name:  Suraya Pakzad 
Job title/association: Founder and president, Voice of Women 
Date of birth: 01 October 1968 
Country of birth: Afghanistan 
Citizenship: Afghan 
Address:  Bagh-e-Azadi Street, Herat, Afghanistan 
Telephone and email: 093-0799-209-386; 
vwo suraya@hotmail.com; vwo afg@yahoo.com 
Passport number:  OR 917728 
 
Justification:  Ms. Pakzad is the founder of one of only a 
few women's non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan and 
the only NGO that works in the western city of Herat.  She 
founded the Voice of Women in 1988, and it continued 
operating while Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, a huge 
achievement to say the least.  The organization has worked 
continuously since its founding to provide shelter for women 
and girls; to promote the role of women in government, and to 
provide poverty reduction programs.   Ms. Pakzad's 
organization has offices in Kabul but recently opened an 
office in Herat because, as Ms. Pakzad says:  "we're more 
needed in Herat."  One of the organization's core services is 
providing shelter and counseling to women who have recently 
been released from jail, women who have run away from abusive 
relationships and girls as young as three and four years old 
who have run away from forced marriages -- a form of 
indentured servitude under brutal conditions.  The 
organization also works to advocate for increasing the role 
of women in society and does gender issues programs with 
girls, boys, women and children.  Ms. Pakzad has participated 
in several workshops at the local, national and regional 
level, and has visited the U.S. before for workshops.  39 
years old, she is married and has six children.  She speaks 
English well, is a native speaker of Dari and also speaks 
Pashto.  She has been informed of the Ambassador's intention 
to nominate her and is hugely enthusiastic about the 
opportunity.  She is aware of the impact this would have on 
her life and assured Poloff October 16 that she understood 
exactly what this award would bring, both the negative and 
positive aspects.  Ms. Pakzad said she has been threatened 
for being a courageous woman before and continuing to do a 
form of work that many in Afghanistan misunderstand and fear, 
but she continues to do her job, saying &difficult things 
are often the most important, and there are many things here 
I must do.8   She is willing to accept this award and is 
available to travel in March 2008. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Second priority:  Shala MAIHANDOST 
Full legal name:  Shala Maihandost 
Job title/association:  Head of the Kabul Department of 
Women,s Affairs , Ministry of Women,s Affairs 
Date of birth:  02 February 1957 
Country of birth:  Afghanistan 
Citizenship:  Afghan 
Address: 3rd Makroryan, Kabul City 
Telephone and email: 093-799-214-502 
Passport number:  OR 018333 
 
Justification: Mrs. Maihandost has been an outspoken advocate 
for women,s rights for many years in an unforgivingly harsh 
environment.  She worked as a director of several orphanages 
in two northern provinces for many years until the Taliban 
rose to power in 1996.  The most visible advocate for 
women,s rights in the north, she quickly became a target for 
Taliban ire, and while she tried to remain in Afghanistan and 
continue her work, the Taliban looted her house and 
threatened her family.  Fearing for her life and the safety 
 
KABUL 00003632  002 OF 002 
 
 
of her loved ones, Mrs. Maihandost fled to Pakistan, where 
she spent five years as a refugee.  She continued her work 
while in Pakistan as a tireless champion of her cause, 
working the entire time with various women,s and children,s 
rights NGOs and volunteering with the United Nations.  When 
she returned to Kabul in 2001, she drove through the streets, 
dodging Taliban bodies, calling on a loudspeaker for women to 
come out and stand up for their rights to be recognized as 
individuals.  In 2002, she was made head of the women,s 
shura, or council, and later became Deputy Head of the 
district women,s affairs office in the Ministry of Women,s 
Affairs.  In 2005, she became Head of the Kabul Department 
(administrative unit) of Women,s Affairs in the same 
ministry.  A well-known figure in Afghanistan, some say she 
is the voice of women in the country today, and is a very 
public figure who appears regularly on television and at 
conferences.  Although her activities have placed her in 
constant danger of personal attack, she has never given up 
her cause and regularly visits refugee return areas, fighting 
to publicize issues such as domestic abuse and physical 
hardship, both of which often occur in returnee areas.  She 
is married with five children and lives in Kabul.  She speaks 
Dari and Pashto and has basic English comprehension.  She has 
been informed of the Ambassador,s intention to nominate her 
for this award and said that she is not afraid of any 
possible repercussions, while recognizing the need to take 
proper precautions for her safety.  She is willing to accept 
this award and is available to travel in March 2008. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Third priority:  Mahbooba HAIDARY 
Full legal name:  Mahbooba Haidary 
Job title/association:Operation and Maintenance 
Specialist/Trainer, Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation 
Project 
Date of birth: 06 March 1976 
Country of birth:  Afghanistan 
Citizenship:  Afghan 
Address:Hayat Street, District 6, Mazar-e-Sharif 
Telephone and email: 093-0700-510-550, 
mahbooba.balkhi@eirp-afg.org; mahboobahaidary@yahoo.com 
Passport number: OR 087941 
 
Justification:  In addition to three decades of civil war and 
brutal rule by the Taliban, Afghanistan suffers from poor 
irrigation and a low water table.  Female engineers are 
particularly rare in Afghanistan, and Ms. Haidary is even 
rarer in that she is a young, educated woman who worked 
successfully for an NGO while Afghanistan was under Taliban 
rule.  She has a degree in engineering from Balkh University 
in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a relatively 
progressive area of Afghanistan.  Ms. Haidary works primarily 
in surveying, designing and executing rural infrastructure 
development works like schools, clinics, roads and water 
supply facilities.  Her projects have helped provide relief 
to vulnerable communities, and she has worked with the 
International Organization on Migration to design over 20 
schools for girls in the four northern provinces of 
Afghanistan.  She has also briefly worked with the 
International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent here in 
Afghanistan on sanitary water and latrine projects.  She is 
unmarried, has no children, and lives with her mother and her 
brother (who is a judge) in Mazar-e-Sharif.  She speaks 
English, Dari, Urdu and Russian.  She has not traveled 
internationally before but would welcome the chance to see 
the United States and learn about U.S. culture 
enthusiastically.  She has been informed of the Ambassador's 
intention to nominate her for this award.  She said that she 
was "cautious" of the threat posed by the added publicity but 
that it would be "worth it to do this for my work and for my 
country." She is willing to accept this award and is 
available to travel in March 2008. 
 
 
 
WOOD