Faizullah Zaki, a member of the Afghan parliament who fled the country in 1991 to escape the Taliban, said he recalls a time when the Afghani people were denied basic rights and women were banned from going to school.
Though Zaki said he left the country before the Taliban was fully in power, he still knew exactly how things were in the country in which he was born and brought up.
“Even if you don’t live in that country, you can’t just close your eyes and ears and pretend you’re not hearing, seeing or feeling anything,” Zaki said.
As soon as the Taliban was overthrown, Zaki returned to Afghanistan, where he soon became a member of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghan parliament.
He said he returned because he wanted to help his people.
Zaki plans to speak at UCLA today about his experiences in Afghanistan after the Taliban. Specifically, he will focus on the benefits and challenges of democracy in the country and how the newly installed democratic government is doing.
“Democracy is not a perfect system, but humanity has not invented a system of government better than that,” Zaki said.
Afghanistan became a democracy after the events of Sept. 11, and because its concepts are still new to the people in the country, he said they are slowly adjusting to them.
He said he believes having a democratic government has improved Afghanistan in several ways. It has given people the ability to choose who they want in power in what he calls a post-conflict country.
This idea of introducing democracy into the country has attracted the interest of some students.
Richard Huntling, a fourth-year psychobiology student, said his interest in the Afghan democracy grew after he attended an event where Malalai Joya, a member of the Afghan parliament, spoke about the different problems they must handle.
“It would be interesting to see his views on the problems they face,” he said.
As a member of parliament, Zaki is pushing for education to be made available to all children.
When the Taliban was in power, women were not permitted to attend school, and for the men that were permitted, the schools were not in the best condition.
“(The) Taliban was a very dark regime. … (It) did not respect basic human rights,” he said.
Zaki said he is working to improve the schools in Afghanistan because he believes education plays a key role in stopping acts of terrorism.
“(I) believe that fighting against terrorism not only requires force and improving the national army and police. The country should also challenge terrorism through educating people,” he said.
He said if people are educated, they can make well-informed decisions.
He is working with Developing Opportunity, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that aims to help Afghani children receive an education.
The organization, founded by Ellen Mai, has already built two schools in Afghanistan. Mai met Zaki when she made a trip to Afghanistan for a video shoot.
She saw that he was passionate about bringing education to the young people in Afghanistan and asked him to help with the organization.
“He helped us build the first school in Afghanistan,” Mai said. “We built a second one ““ a computer center with 22 computers.”
Zaki is also on the Natural Resources Committee and serves as the deputy chairman of the Junbesh Party, the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan.