KHOST CITY - A number of women in southeastern Khost province on Monday asked the government to save from dying Samin Barakzai, who has been on hunger strike over the past one week seeking her reinstatement as lawmaker.
Barakzai was among nine sitting Wolesi Jirga members disqualified by the election commission, which also named as many replacements previously certified as having lost last year's Parliamentary election.
A large number of women were gathered to voice their support for Barakzai, saying "being a woman, Barakzai should be treated kindly".

"The government should take a definitive decision about Barakzai, so she may end her hunger strike because her health condition is worsening day by day," Ziba Barakzai, one of the participants, said.
"We ask the government to take a positive decision about Samin Barakzai by reinstating her in the Wolesi Jirga", she said.

To ensure women's rights, President Hamid Karzai himself should intervene into the matter, Kamila Akbari, a women's rights activist, told the gathering. "We would stand behind Barakzai until she is reinstated," she said.

She said they were very unhappy about the removal of Samin Barakzai from the Wolesi Jirga. She asked the president to give Barakzai her right back.

"Barakzai should end her hunger-strike and should seek other ways to achieve her right," Fazala, another speaker said.

The 'IEC stripped the Herat MP of her seat in August. She began her hunger strike in front of the Wolesi Jirga on October 2, saying she would continue to fast until she died or was reinstated to Parliament.

The Afghan government has not met the lawmaker's demands, her husband Mohammad Barakzai told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Public Health Ministry officials on Saturday said Barkzai would face serious kidney and stomach problems if she continued her strike even one day longer.