Ottawa – An elected member of Afghanistan’s Lower House visited Ottawa last week to attend the Afghanistan Roundtable organized by the United Nations Association in Canada.

Mrs. Safia Siddiqi, who left Canada to work in Afghanistan in 2002 and subsequently ran and won a parliamentary seat from her native province of Ningarhar, also paid a courtesy call on The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Thursday on Parliament Hill.

Ms. Siddiqi thanked the Prime Minister for Canada’s contributions and sacrifices toward security and development in her homeland, and urged that Canada view its commitments to Afghanistan with a long-term outlook.

Prime Minister Harper reiterated Canada’s continued commitment to provide necessary aid for Afghanistan’s stability and rebuilding efforts. He also thanked the elected Afghan MP for visiting Canada and shedding light on developments in her country.

At the UNAC roundtable, Mrs. Siddiqi spoke about the various needs of the Afghans in terms of security and economic revival. She also participated at the opening of the exhibition entitled “Afghanistan: a glimpse of war” at the Canadian War museum Thursday, where she was acknowledged during Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad’s opening remarks.

During her two-day stay in Ottawa, Mrs. Siddiqi also met with Hon. Helena Guergis, Secretary of State (Foreign Affairs and International Trade) at the Lester B. Pearson building, exchanging views about the challenges facing Afghanistan and the role of the elected legislature.

Embassy of Afghanistan

February 10, 2007

Afghans grateful: visiting politician

OTTAWA - Safia Siddiqi arrived in Canada as an Afghan refugee eight years ago but was back yesterday as an elected member of Afghanistan's parliament, advising on her country's future.

After overcoming tremendous odds to become a politician in a country where women have had little standing until recently, she came back here with a hopeful message about how her country is faring. She said Canada's efforts in Afghanistan are appreciated and are making a difference--but more is needed. There has to be more large-scale development and long-term assistance to empower the people to rebuild their nation, she said during an interview at the Embassy of Afghanistan offices.

Ms. Siddiqi, who started school at 15 but went on to become a role model for Afghan women, is one of 68 women of 248 elected parliamentarians in her country. Five years ago, there were no women in office.

She was in Ottawa yesterday for the Afghanistan 2010 Roundtable Dialogue, and met yesterday with members of the Conservative government, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Helena Guergis, the new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to discuss progress in Afghanistan.

In an interview, she said Canada has the right approach in terms of military and non-military assistance.

"For the Afghan people ... the military and non-military components -- both of them are very important," Ms. Siddiqi said. "The Afghan people, they need peace and security and from the other side, we need development in the country. We believe it will be not possible to have peace without development and development without peace."

She did express reservations about the work of the Canadian International Development Agency, which has been criticized for having little impact. Ms. Siddiqi said most of CIDA's projects are too small in scale. Canada, for example, has a microfinance investment program called MISFA, which has given small loans to 300,000 Afghans. Ms. Siddiqi said the country needs electricity, medical clinics, hospitals and trained doctors. Bigger projects would also be more visible to the Afghans and the rest of the world.

She added that more of a long-term strategy is needed, even for things like the MISFA program. "A short-term strategy for development work does not work for a country like Afghanistan."

She acknowledged the enormous task. "This is not that easy to just make development work in one year or two years."

She pointed out there are signs of improvement. "When you compare Afghanistan with five years back, you can see it is a lot of development. The country was really destroyed and we now have at least roads and we have at least hospitals and we have at least schools. From zero, now we have five million children going to the schools, 9,000 schools in the country with 200,000 teachers busy with the children."

In other areas there has been less progress. "First of all, in five years, with an international force in Afghanistan, we couldn't reduce the narcotic cultivation," she said. A second concern is security. "The question is why the international force cannot reduce the security problem in the country."

She said the narcotics problem is one the government and judiciary cannot solve alone. And while Canada has been helping train police, not enough has been done to build an effective national Afghan police and military force.

"When NATO is not in Afghanistan, what will happen to the people?"

She expressed sorrow at the deaths of Canadians -- 44 soldiers and a diplomat. "We are really sorry for 45 [deaths]. We Afghans, we have suffered for many years and we have lost our family members -- we know this is very, very painful, especially when you are going to another country."

She spoke yesterday about the role of women in Afghanistan and feminism, which is becoming fashionable in her country. She supports more power for women but said some feminists "are just blaming everything on the male members of Afghan society."

"As an Afghan woman, I am really proud of the men. It was very risky but the men they have accepted ... that this is possible for [women] to enter the parliament.... I am really grateful to them."