Massouda Jalal is the former Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs and the first woman to run for President of Afghanistan.
Jalal attended Kabul University, where she was a member of the faculty until 1996, when the Taliban government had her removed. Jalal, a psychiatrist and pediatrician, also worked at several Kabul hospitals and, after her removal from the university faculty, as a United Nations employee within the World Food Programme.
In 2002, Jalal became the first woman in the history of Afghanistan to run for president. In 2004, Jalal ran for president again as the only woman in the race against Hamid Karzai. Having turned down a position as vice president within Karzai’s administration, she vocally criticized the Karzai government for not significantly advancing the social position of women. She later accepted the position of minister of women’s affairs, serving from 2004 to 2006.
Leaving politics, Jalal created the Jalal Foundation in 2007, the first woman-led initiative of its kind in Afghan history. The Jalal Foundation seeks to promote, empower, educate and inform Afghan women by building their capacity as human rights defenders and future leaders.
In 2019, Jalal ran on the presidential ticket for a third time during which she was outspoken against extremism and the violations of human rights happening in Afghanistan. Jalal was forced to flee Afghanistan for the Netherlands after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and continues her activism from abroad. In 2022, her husband Faizullah Jalal was temporarily detained by the Taliban for his criticism of the regime.