Focus on women's empowerment

Rula Ghani hails from a Lebanese Christian Maronite family, and opponents of Ashraf Ghani had attempted to use this fact against him during the recent presidential campaign. But after taking office, President Ghani thanked his wife Rula Ghani for her support and said the country's first lady would remain active to promote women's and children's rights.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank my partner and wife for her support to me and Afghanistan,"the president said during his inauguration ceremony on September 29. In Afghanistan's conservative Islamic society where first ladies mostly remain out of the public eye, these comments by the head of state are highly unusual. Although President Ghani's comments were widely welcomed by Afghans, they also sparked criticism among some conservatives who believe the new first lady does not know the country and the culture well enough.

Critics claim Rula Ghani has foreign roots and only lived in Afghanistan since 2002. The first lady, however, says her association with Afghanistan dates back to 1975 when she first traveled to the then calm and peaceful country.

Visiting different Afghan provinces and keeping in constant contact with the people have increased her knowledge about the country and its culture, she said. "I don't claim to know everything, but I have been to many places in Afghanistan and I have talked to a lot of people," the new Afghan first lady said in a DW interview.

'Misrepresented'

Rula Ghani stressed that women and children will remain her focus, although she is yet to decide on the specifics of her future work. Underlining that women were playing an "important role" in Afghanistan, the first lady - a journalist by training - criticized that the media has failed to represent them in the right way. "There may not have been first ladies who were active in public life, but there are a lot of ordinary women who have been active in society and are doing a lot of work, whether it is on the social or political domain, or even in business," she pointed out.

Rula Ghani, however, stressed that she will not try to revolutionize and change everything in Afghan society. "I feel Afghanistan has a very strong social fabric and sense of family […] what I would like to do is encourage everybody in the country to appreciate more the role of women at home and outside," she explained.

Shukria Barkazai, member of Afghanistan's parliament, is of the view that a new positive trend has started in the country's male-dominated society with Rula Ghani's pledge to actively promote women and children rights. "It will help the moral of Afghan women and children when they see support for them coming from the presidential palace," Barkazai said.

Unusual for Afghanistan

It is very rare for the Afghan president's wife or other female family members to come out in the open and take part in politics or do social work. Former Afghan first lady Zinat Karzai, for instance, was rarely seen in public.

It was only for a brief period – between 1919 and 1929 - that Afghans got to see the wife of a leader openly campaign for women's rights. After King Amanullah Khan proclaimed Afghanistan's independence, his wife, queen Soraya, started advocating women's right to education.

Soraya's active involvement in politics and social campaigns was one of the reasons which led to the King's ouster by religious conservatives. Since then, Afghan queens and first ladies have remained under the radar and appeared alongside their husbands only in very special and rare occasions.

Early life

In the 1970s, Rula and Ashraf Ghani met when they were both studying at the American University in Beirut. Later, Rula Ghani accompanied her father to Afghanistan in order to meet the family she was marrying into. "We came [to Afghanistan], met the family and my father gave his approval. I went back to Lebanon where my then husband-to-be came and we got married," recalled Rula Ghani.

After marriage, Rula Ghani returned to Afghanistan and started living in Kabul. But three years later, Ashraf Ghani, who was then teaching at the Kabul University, decided to pursue a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Columbia in the US. They were supposed to stay in the US for two years, but a coup and the Soviet intervention of 1979 in Afghanistan changed everything for them.

"For many reasons we were told not to come back. Many members of my husband's family were in Pul-e Charkhi prison and it was feared that if we came back he [Ashraf Ghani] would be also in prison," Rula Ghani said. "So we stayed in the US and what should have only been a two-year stay, turned out to be a thirty-year stay," she added.

Rula Ghani raised two children, a son and a daughter, in the US. She is believed to have received the Afghan citizenship and voted in presidential elections that made her husband the president of Afghanistan. Rula Ghani returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and has been involved in social work in the Aschiana Organization which helps children who live on the streets since.