08 July 2015

First female nominee fails to win seat on Afghan supreme court

The first female nominee for Afghanistan’s supreme court has failed to win enough votes in parliament.

Anisa Rassouli received 88 votes, nine short of the 97 needed for her nomination to pass. Zahir Qadir, the deputy parliamentary speaker who was chairing the session, said: “We ask the president [Ashraf Ghani] to nominate another individual for this position.”

Wednesday’s vote came after clerics and conservatives lined up to criticise the choice of Rassouli, who has been a judge for 24 years and is the current head of Kabul’s juvenile court. They claimed only men were fit to sit in the highest court in the country. [The Guardian] Read more