To let people know the other side of Afghan history and Afghanistan. In fact, that was one of the objectives in writing this book. Thank you very much for that description. Your book The Favored Daughter was not only about your personal story but also a quest to find Afghanistan’s identity. After 33 years of war and conflict how do you see the country’s identity? We would like Afghanistan to stand on its own feet, but the problem is that it’s not like that now. But like this, it will not resolve in peace in Afghanistan. I think the best solution would be to have elections in 2014 and to prepare the ground for a transparent and fair election, and then gradually, once we had a strong government, the international community could depart from Afghanistan. This planned withdrawal is based on ground realities from the West, not based on ground realities in Afghanistan. The people in Afghanistan are very anxious and confused. Given the fact that the security in Afghanistan is one of the main challenges, I think the 2014 withdrawal is not realistic. I think that the links to the Taliban and Al-Qaida are still there, I think they have become stronger, I think their social standing has expanded and they can be, at any time, a security threat for Afghanistan and for our international friends. I think that we were not able to achieve both objectives. The international community came to Afghanistan with two objectives: to help the people of Afghanistan establish a strong government, and for security reasons. This is also a very important year for Afghanistan because we will have presidential elections, so there will be a political transition of power as well. What is the atmosphere in Afghanistan, what do people think about it? The international community set up this plan to withdraw in 2014, which is very close, two years from now. How do you feel about the foreign troops withdrawing soon? Corruption is also a major problem in Afghanistan.

There is no strong government to be able to deliver proper services to the people of Afghanistan- such as rule of law and service delivery-a government that is able to provide people with jobs.

Both in terms of security, which is a big challenge but also lack of good governance. What is Afghanistan’s biggest challenge at the moment?Īs you know, the country right now is at a very critical time.

Fawzia Koofi is a leader with a vision: to change Afghanistan into a society that is based on the rule of law, civility, and human rights. Despite numerous attacks on her life, what she is most afraid of is “being misunderstood by people.”

The Favored Daughter by Fawzia Koofi