1. Anahita Ratebzad was an Afghan socialist and Marxist-Leninist politician and a member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and vice-president of the Revolutionary Council under the leadership of Babrak Karmal.
15 Facts About Anahita Ratebzad
1. 2.
One of the first women elected to the Afghan parliament, Ratebzad was deputy head of state from 1980 to 1986.
3.
Anahita Ratebzad's father was an advocate of Amanullah Khan's reforms.
4.
Anahita Ratebzad was married off at the age of 15 to Dr Keramuddin Kakar, one of the very few foreign-educated Afghan surgeons of the time.
5.
Anahita Ratebzad received a degree in nursing from the State University of Michigan, School of Nursing from 1950 to 1954.
6.
Anahita Ratebzad was one of the first publicly outspoken social and political Afghan-women activists in the late 1950s and most of 60s in Afghanistan.
7.
Anahita Ratebzad was part of the first ever Afghan-women delegation representing the Kingdom of Afghanistan on international stage at the Asian Women's Conference in Ceylon in 1957.
8.
Anahita Ratebzad founded the Democratic Organisation of Afghan Women in 1964.
9.
Anahita Ratebzad became involved in leftist politics and, along with Khadija Ahrari, Masuma Esmati Wardak, and Roqia Abubakr, was one of the first four women elected to Afghan parliament in 1965, winning the Second District Kabul City seat.
10.
In 1965 Anahita Ratebzad helped found the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan becoming part of the Parcham faction.
11.
Anahita Ratebzad did not contest the 1969 elections, losing her seat in parliament.
12.
Anahita Ratebzad was dismissed from her post as Hafizullah Amin came to power, who launched a purge on Parchamites.
13.
Anahita Ratebzad was replaced as head of DOAW by Firuzah Wardak.
14.
Anahita Ratebzad died of kidney failure in September 2014, at the age of 82.
15.
Anahita Ratebzad's remains were taken back to Afghanistan and were buried in Kabul's Shohada-e-Sa'alehin.