| Shahla Atta | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 46–47) Kabul |
| Nationality | Afghanistan |
| Occupation | Legislator |
| Known for | Candidate for President of Afghanistan in 2009 |
Shahla Atta (born circa 1965) is an Afghan politician, who was a candidate during Afghanistan's 2009 Presidential election.[1][2][3][4][5] She told DiManno she and her family lived for 18 years in the United States. The Contender Biography published by Pajhwok Afghan News has her living in the United States from 1990 to1 1994, and living in Pakistan for the remainder of the period 1986 to 2001, where she administered relief to other Afghan expatriates. She is related to a former President of Afghanistan, Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan.
Atta is a widow.[2][5] David Williams, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, in 2005, when she first ran for Afghanistan's National Assembly, said her husband had been killed in factional fighting. Rosie DiManno, writing in the Toronto Star during her Presidential campaign, wrote that her husband died in the United States in 2002. DiManno wrote that Atta was the target of the innuendo that she murdered her husband and one of her daughters. Atta pointed out to Dimanno that all five of her daughters were still alive. According to DiManno Atta's husband died in the USA in 1992 of natural causes. Atta disputed the murder claim: "So I killed my husband and my daughter and then I ran back to Afghanistan to avoid American justice? This is what they write in the newspapers. I wish we had a functioning court system so I could sue." Williams wrote that Atta had only three daughters, who were living in the USA. DiManno wrote that two of the five daughters were medical doctors, and that one was serving in the US military.
Shahla is a registered nurse and a trained psychologist.[5]
She was elected to the Wolesi Jirga, the upper house of the Afghan National Legislature, in 2005, where she represented Kabul.[1][4] She served on the Jirga's commission for counter-narcotics, and its monitoring commission.
She and Frozan Fana are the only two women candidates in the Afghan presidential election, 2009.[4] After Massouda Jalal came sixth out of eighteen Presidential candidates in 2004 then President Hamid Karzai appointed her Afghan Women's Affairs Minister.
She has said that if elected she will carry on the policies of her relative, President Mohammed Daoud Khan in the 1970s.[4]
Preliminary voting results place Atta fifteenth in a field of thirty-two.[6] Atta won 4356 votes.