Afghan grandmother is a crimebuster on wheels
It's unusual for a woman to be a leader in Afghanistan but Zarifa Qazizadah has become the country's only female village chief through force of personality and determination to get things done - even if that means cross-dressing, wearing a false moustache and driving around on a motorbike at night. "I tell the men of the village, all I want is your prayers," she says. "When you have a problem, I'll speak to the government on your behalf and whenever there is any disturbance at night-time, I'll pick up my gun and come to your house to see what's going on."
When the mother of 15 first sought political office, and told local men she wanted to connect the village to the electricity grid, they laughed. That was in 2004. She lost the election, but she got the electricity all the same, and two years later the men asked her to apply for the post of head of the village - Naw Abad in the country's northern Balkh province. Now she guards the electricity supply with a vengeance, and if anyone wires their home up and starts stealing it, they have to watch out.
"I can't let that happen because we have to respect the law," she says. "When something happens in the village at night and I have to react quickly, I'll put on men's clothes and ride my motorbike." Women in rural Afghanistan are rarely seen riding motorbikes alone and Qazizadah disguises herself, with the clothes and a fake moustache, to avoid attracting too much attention. She has also been known to come to the rescue of her villagers by wrestling Jeeps out of ditches with a tractor. "She does the type of work that even men are not capable of doing," says Molavi Seyyed Mohammad, one of her local supporters. Qazizadah does not take "No" for an answer...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18145805
When the mother of 15 first sought political office, and told local men she wanted to connect the village to the electricity grid, they laughed. That was in 2004. She lost the election, but she got the electricity all the same, and two years later the men asked her to apply for the post of head of the village - Naw Abad in the country's northern Balkh province. Now she guards the electricity supply with a vengeance, and if anyone wires their home up and starts stealing it, they have to watch out.
"I can't let that happen because we have to respect the law," she says. "When something happens in the village at night and I have to react quickly, I'll put on men's clothes and ride my motorbike." Women in rural Afghanistan are rarely seen riding motorbikes alone and Qazizadah disguises herself, with the clothes and a fake moustache, to avoid attracting too much attention. She has also been known to come to the rescue of her villagers by wrestling Jeeps out of ditches with a tractor. "She does the type of work that even men are not capable of doing," says Molavi Seyyed Mohammad, one of her local supporters. Qazizadah does not take "No" for an answer...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18145805
