Masuma Esmati-Wardak (1930 – 22 August 2016) was an Afghan writer and politician. She was jointly one of the first women to serve in the Afghan parliament in 1965, and served as Minister of Education in 1990–1992.
Life and career In 1953 she graduated from Kabul Women's College, and received a degree in business in the United States in 1958.Mattar, Philip (2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa: D-K. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 786. .
In 1959, she and Kubra Noorzai became one of the first women to appear in public in Afghanistan without a veil after Queen Humaira Begum had removed hers, supporting the call by the Prime minister Mohammed Daoud Khan for women to voluntary remove their veil.Tamim Ansary (2012) Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
In 1964 King Mohammed Zahir Shah appointed her to an advisory committee that reviewed the draft 1964 constitution,Sarfraz Khan (2013) Politics of policy and legislation affectin g women in Afghanistan: One step forward two steps back Central Asia Journal, Number 73 which granted women the right to vote and stand for election. In 1965 she was elected to represent Kandahar in the House of the People of Parliament, and became a leading advocate of women's rights.Skaine, Rosemarie (2001). The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban. McFarland. . She was the only one of the four women elected in 1965 to run for re-election in 1969, but lost her seat.Louis Dupree (2014) Afghanistan Princeton University Press, p653
In 1987 she became President of the Afghan Women's Council.
In May 1990 she was appointed cabinet minister of Education and Training in the government of Mohammad Najibullah.Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002 She was one of two women in the cabinet alongside Saleha Farooq Etemadi, and one of the first women in the Afghan government.The first five was Kubra Noorzai in 1965, Shafiqa Ziaie in 1971, Anahita Ratebzad in 1976, Masuma Esmati-Wardak in 1990 and Saleha Farooq Etemadi in 1990.
Esmati-Wardak died on 22 August 2016, at the age of 85–86.
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