Fauzia Gailani was elected to represent

Herat Province Herat ( Persian: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north-western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city a ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Wolesi Jirga The House of Representatives of the People, or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga ( ps, دَ افغانستان ولسي جرګه), was the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, alongside the upper ...

, the lower house of its National Legislature, in 2005.

She won almost 16,885 votes, more than any other candidate in

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

. Prior to her election Fauzia, a mother of six, had established a chain of

fitness center A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...

s. She belongs to the Gailani ethnic

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

family of Afghanistan. Fauzia has spoken out against violence against women, and has spoken out against forced marriages for girls. She herself was forced to marry, at thirteen years of age. She was widely quoted following the murder of

Nadia Anjuman Nadia Anjuman ( fa, نادیا انجمن; December 27, 1980 – November 4, 2005) was a poet from Afghanistan. Life Nadia Anjuman Herawi was born in Herat in northwestern Afghanistan in 1980. She was one of six children, raised during one of A ...

, a young Afghan poet whose husband was arrested for her death after admitting hitting her following an argument. The

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a ...

described Fauzia as one of the independent representatives whose support the

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

administration was struggling to win.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gailani, Fauzia 1971 births Living people Afghan businesspeople 21st-century Afghan women politicians 21st-century Afghan politicians Politicians of Herat Province Members of the House of the People (Afghanistan) Pashtun people Pashtun women