Afghan businesswoman risks death for reform

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A strange man phoned Masoda Younasy about a year ago at the construction company she owns in downtown Kandahar.He would not give his name. And when Younasy, who is now 22, suggested that he come to her offices, the man explained that he was already outside the building but the watchman would not let him through the door.The man was eventually ushered in to meet her and she understood her guard's concern. "I was very scared. He was totally like a terrorist," Younasy said. Her sister Hameda, who was in the office at the time and who accompanied her during an interview with The Globe and Mail, nodded in wide-eyed agreement.But the man had come on an errand of mercy and not murder."He said, 'When you were two months old, I came to your home and I met your family. Your parents, your mom, were very kind to me.' So he said, 'I want to let you know about something,' " Younasy said.He showed her a piece of paper with the names of five men involved in Afghan politics and private business. At the bottom of the list was her own name."He said, 'Okay, Masoda, I got money to kill all these people on this list. First these five gentlemen. At the end, you. And I got $500 to kill you,' " she related."I said, 'Oh my God, the price of my life is only $500!' He said, 'It's much money for me. Killing people is very easy for me.' I said, 'Okay, so you are going to kill me now?' He said, 'No, I am not going to kill you. I am going to kill these five gentlemen and I am going to give them their money back for you.' "There are those in Afghanistan who do not like the fact that Younasy, the granddaughter of the revered former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, runs her own construction business. But the tiny woman in a head scarf, lipstick and sparkling gold and silver jewelry stubbornly insists on charting her own course, defying tradition and murderous insurgents in one of the most dangerous cities on Earth.Younasy was raised in Pakistan, where her Afghan family fled during the war with the Russians. Her parents returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and summoned their 10 children to join them.She took a series of positions -- from justice assistant to the Afghan human-rights commission to field officer for the electoral-management body -- and then landed a job as a project manager with a group of construction companies. Finally she established the Younasy Construction Company.When she was the successful bidder on a contract to build a prayer building outside government offices, gormer governor Asadullah Khalid asked to speak to the head of her company and was startled to find a woman.She pleaded for a chance to show what she could do. The governor reluctantly gave in and the project was completed six weeks early. But there have been no more contracts from the provincial government.Meanwhile, her extended family is enraged by Younasy's chosen occupation. When she planned to leave to take an entrepreneurial course in Michigan, two uncles and three cousins who own their own construction company asked her into their home to discuss business. She went with her mother and sister as companions. They said it was inappropriate for a single woman to travel to the United States alone, and they asked her to stay home and marry a cousin, she said.She refused. A fight broke out. She was slapped and her uncles locked her and her mother and sister in a room, saying they were calling the rest of her family over. "They said, 'We will kill all of you here. No one will know about it. Soon you will be finished,' " said Younasy.Once the door was closed, she said, she pulled out her cellphone and called the Afghan police. They arrived and rescued the three women but refused to lay charges, saying it was a family matter. Younasy said she has not heard from her uncles since that day.Her next ambition, she said, is to get a degree in politics at a Canadian or American university. Hameda, her sister, will look after the construction company and her other projects in her absence. Then, she plans to return home and become a politician in Afghanistan, with the ultimate goal of running for president, she said.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)