Afghan MPs reject first female Supreme Court judge

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL

Afghanistan's first ever female nominee for a role at the highest level of the country's judiciary has been rejected by parliament. 

Only last week President Ashraf Ghani's decision to choose Anisa Rassouli for the Supreme Court bench was being considered a victory for women's rights but she narrowly lost out on the position on Wednesday, with 88 MPs voting against her and 82 for, while another 14 lawmakers abstained. 

“This [nomination] was the fruit of our long struggle, I hope the president will nominate another woman for the post and women members would not show disloyalty next time,” said leading woman politician Shukria Barakzai immediately after the vote, referring to the 21 women MPs who did not attend.

Women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh Zulfiqar tweeted her reaction to the vote immediately afterwards, claiming "some of our female MPs are worse to women than men."

"Sorry to see the Afghan parliament failed to show itself as supporter of Afghan women once again," she said. "Afghan parliament had no reason to reject a qualified judge into Supreme Court. The only reason was being a woman."

She also claimed that Rassouli was just as qualified as Syed Yosuf Haleem, a male nominee to the Supreme Court who parliament did approve for the position. 

The parliament also approved a director for the central bank with Khalilullah Siddique finally finishing the position crucial to Afghanistan's fragile economy. 

Ghani has struggled to fill his cabinet since taking office in September with problems posed by dual nationality restrictions, bartering with his unity government partners and the opposition of parliament.

The only remaining position to be filled is for the crucial defense minister but two candidates have already been rejected.