Fawzia Koofi

Fawzia Koofi
فوزیه کوفی
Koofi speaking at Chatham House in 2012
Vice President of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Member of the Wolesi Jirga for Badakhshan
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Personal details
Born	Fawzia Koofi 1975 Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Children	Two
Residence	Kabul, Afghanistan
Alma mater	Preston University
Occupation	Politician, rights activist
Religion	Islam

Fawzia Koofi (Persian: فوزیه کوفی‎‎) (born in 1975 or 1976) is an Afghan politician and women's rights activist. Originally from Badakhshan province, she is currently serving as a Member of Parliament in Kabul and is the Vice President of the National Assembly.

Born into a polygamous family of seven women, Koofi was first rejected by her parents because of her sex. Her father, a member of Parliament, had married a younger woman, and her mother sought to have a son to maintain her husband's affection. The day Koofi was born, she was left out to die in the sun.

She managed to persuade her parents to send her to school, making her the only girl in the family to attend school. She subsequently graduated from university with a master's degree in business and management. Her father was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 25 years but died at the end of the first Afghan war (1979–1989), killed by Mujahideens.

Koofi originally wanted to become a physician, but chose to study political science and become a member of UNICEF. She worked closely with vulnerable groups such as Internally Displaced People (IDP) and marginalized women and children, and served as a child protection officer for the organization from 2002 to 2004.

Koofi began her political career in 2001 after the fall of the Taliban, promoting the right to education of girls in her "Back to school" campaign.

From 2002 to 2004 Fawzia Koofi worked with UNICEF as a Child Protection Officer to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse.

In the parliamentary elections in 2005, she was elected to the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan National Assembly, for the Badakhshan district in the northeastern part of the country and served as the Deputy Speaker of the lower house whose president also carries the title of Vice President of the National Assembly. She was the first female Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan. She was re-elected in the parliamentary elections of 2010 and then elected MP from a total of 69 female members of the Assembly.