Afghan MP ‘critical’ on eighth day of hunger strike

An Afghan woman MP was in a critical condition, after entering the eighth day of a rare hunger strike to protest against her expulsion from parliament over alleged vote fraud.
Semin Barakzai, a 30-year-old mother of three and one of nine MPs expelled from the national assembly over vote rigging claims, has refused to eat until she is reinstated to the parliamentary seat she claims to have won in 2010 polls.
Her persistence comes one day after dozens of lawmakers returned to the lower house of parliament, ending a boycott over the disqualifications after a year of bitter dispute over the polls.
“The law has been violated. Justice has been undermined and I won’t end this (hunger strike) until justice is done and the law restored,” Barakzai told AFP, lying in a protest tent outside parliament and barely able to speak.
A doctor assigned to monitor her told AFP she was entering a critical condition after eight days without food.
“She’s not doing well. She already had stomach problems and I’m afraid this is dangerous for her,” Doctor Mohammad Fardin said. On Saturday, Barakzai’s blood pressure dropped and she was given a drip overnight.
On Sunday, Barakzai refused to take a further drip in front of an AFP reporter. “I don’t want it,” she whispered, shaking her head, lying on a bed in a white tent in the heavily guarded neighbourhood.
She and eight other members of the Wolesi Jirga were kicked out by the Independent Election Commission last August in an attempt to resolve nearly a year of disputes over widespread graft in September 2010 parliamentary polls.
Hunger strikes, particularly by a woman, are unusual in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative male-dominated society where violent protests are more normal expressions of frustration.
Several cabinet ministers and Vice President Karim Khalili have been to visit Barakzai in her tent, along with journalists and rights activists.
Dozens of MPs who boycotted parliament calling the move unconstitutional, on Saturday returned to their seats, but said they still supported Barakzai.
“We decided to return and carry on our struggle from inside parliament. We support the move by Mrs Barakzai,” lawmaker Ahmad Behzad told AFP, adding that he considered the expulsion of the MPs illegal.
The election row exposed a lack of transparency in Afghan politics, 10 years after the 2001 US-led invasion sought to impose parliamentary democracy and as foreign combat troops fighting the Taliban aim to withdraw in 2014.
Trying to find a way out of the impasse and quell opposition, President Hamid Karzai has offered official positions to the nine outgoing lawmakers.
Part of the urgency is that he needs parliament to confirm seven acting cabinet ministers before an international conference on the future of Afghanistan scheduled for December in the German city of Bonn.
Jandad Spinghar, executive director of the Free and Fair Election Foundation, said Barakzai’s hunger strike should be supported as evidence of a growing culture of civil protest rather than violence.
“We ask the president to solve this problem in a way that her protest should bring a result. We want the culture of peaceful protests to expand, especially for women, instead of self-immolation and violence,” he said.
He said his organisation was in contact with the government to help her.
“We are worried that if Mrs. Barakzai’s protest fails, the culture of peaceful protests will fail too,” he added.