Woman MP from Herat dies in road crash

HERAT CITY/KABUL (PAN): A woman legislator from western Herat province has died along with two children in a road crash in neighbouring Iran, officials said on Monday.

Wolesi Jirga member Shahnaz Himmati was a killed late on Sunday evening when she was on her way from Karaj city to Tehran, a public representative from Herat, Khalilullah Shahidzada told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi called her death a huge loss for Afghanistan’s people and parliament. “Himmati was one of scholarly, progressive and efficient parliamentarians.”

Ibrahimi said arrangements were being made to bring home the victim’s body from Iran.

Meanwhile, Senate Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar also described Himmati’s death as an irreparable loss for the country. He extended his sincere condolences to the MP’s family.

The Herat governor’s spokesman, Mohiuddin Noori, said they were in touch with Iranian authorities on the nature of the mishap. Himmati was twice elected as lower house member from the province.

Himmati’s husband and two other family members were wounded in the incident, said a religious school administrator in Herat, Syed Ali Mehdi.

She was born in 1978 in Herat. In 2002, she earned her BA degree in Islamic Studies from the Al-Azhar International University in Iran. Before being elected to parliament, she served as a teacher in the Mahjuba Herawi High School in Herat.

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