:Suraya Dalil
{{short description|Afghan physician and politician|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{infobox officeholder
|name = Suraya Dalil
{{small|{{lang|prs|ثریا دلیل}}}}
|image = Suraya Dalil - 2017 (23660803992) (cropped).jpg
|caption = Suraya Dalil in 2017
|occupation = Physician
|citizenship = Afghanistan
|nationality = Afghan
|blank1 = Ethnicity
|data1 = Uzbek
}}
Suraya Dalil (Uzbek/{{langx|prs|ثریا دلیل}}), (born 1970) is an Afghan physician and politician who served as Minister of Public Health from 2010 to 2014 and has been the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since November 2015.
Early life and education
Dalil was born in Kabul in February 1970. Her father was a teacher and encouraged her education despite it being unusual at the time. She attended the Zarghona High School and graduated from Kabul Medical University in 1991.{{cite web|url=https://www.who.int/global-coordination-mechanism/dr_suraya_dalil/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151215020531/http://www.who.int/global-coordination-mechanism/dr_suraya_dalil/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 December 2015|title=H.E. Dr Suraya DALIL|publisher=World Health Organization|accessdate=24 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.unicef.org/people/afghanistan_27558.html|title=Suraya Dalil: Taking the long way home|first=Thierry|last=Delvigne-Jean|publisher=UNICEF|date=27 June 2005|accessdate=25 May 2017|archive-date=17 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217091511/https://www.unicef.org/people/afghanistan_27558.html|url-status=dead}} Her family then moved to Mazar-i-Sharif after her father was injured during the civil war.{{cite web|url=http://lenews.ch/2016/03/24/most-afghan-girls-dont-go-to-school-how-grit-and-dad-got-this-one-to-the-top/|publisher=Le News|title=Most Afghan girls don't go to school. How grit and dad got this one to the top|first=Renu|last=Chahil-Graf|date=24 March 2016|accessdate=25 May 2017}}{{cite web|work=Harvard Gazette|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2005/06/a-doctor-goes-home/|title=A doctor goes home: Combating Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate|first=Alvin|last=Powell|date=9 June 2005|accessdate=25 May 2017}}
In 2004, Dalil was awarded a Presidential Scholarship to attend the Harvard School of Public Health{{cite web|url=https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/sparking-innovation/|title=The capacity of financial aid to transform millions of lives|work=Harvard Public Health|first=Madeline|last=Drexler|year=2014}} and graduated with a master's degree in public health in 2005.
Career
Dalil worked with Médecins Sans Frontières providing health care to Tajik refugees in northern Afghanistan in 1992 and 1993. She then worked with the International Organization for Migration providing medical assistance to Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan and Iran.
Dalil began working with UNICEF in Afghanistan in 1994, overseeing a large scale measles and polio immunization project. When the Taliban reached Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, she fled on foot with her family to Pakistan, where she resumed working for the UNICEF Afghanistan office which had been relocated there. After the fall of the Taliban, she returned to Kabul in 2002 with her family. She worked there until 2007, when UNICEF appointed her Chief of Health and Nutrition Program in Somalia, where she worked until December 2009.
In January 2010, Dalil was assigned as Acting Minister of Public Health by President Hamid Karzai, and she was appointed Minister in March 2012. She initiated various strategies to reduce child and maternal mortality rates.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghan-vaccines-idUSTRE74G4XT20110518|title=Afghan health minister seeks backing for vaccines|date=18 May 2011|accessdate=25 May 2017|first=Stephanie|last=Nebehay|publisher=Reuters}}{{cite web|url=http://afghanistan.unfpa.org/en/news/ministry-public-health-malalai-hospital-and-unfpa-celebrate-international-day-end-obstetric|title=The Ministry of Public Health, Malalai Hospital and UNFPA celebrate the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula|date=27 May 2014|accessdate=25 May 2017|publisher= UNFPA Afghanistan}}{{cite book|page=57|title=Unsafe Abortion and Women's Health: Change and Liberalization|first=Colin|last=Francome|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdW1CwAAQBAJ|isbn=9781317004219}}
In November 2015, President Ashraf Ghani appointed Dalil as Permanent Representative of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Geneva,{{cite web|url=http://www.gcsp.ch/News-Knowledge/Experts/Guest-Experts/Dalil-Amb-Suraya-Dalil|title=Amb Suraya Dalil|publisher=Geneva Center for Security Policy|access-date=24 May 2017|archive-date=17 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217151935/https://www.gcsp.ch/News-Knowledge/Experts/Guest-Experts/Dalil-Amb-Suraya-Dalil|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/suraya-dalil-submits-credentials-un-geneva-office|title=Suraya Dalil Submits Credentials To UN Geneva Office|date=3 November 2015|accessdate=25 May 2017|publisher=Tolo News}} the first woman in the position.
At the end of 2017, Dalil was named President{{cite web|url=https://www.apminebanconvention.org/newsroom/press-release-archives/archives-2017/detail/article/1514521737-landmine-treaty-at-20-gains-made-in-mine-clearance-stockpile-destruction-and-universa/|title=AP Mine Ban Convention: Landmine treaty at 20: gains made in mine clearance, stockpile destruction and universalization|website=www.apminebanconvention.org}} of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Treaty), which bans the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines. Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by these weapons.{{cite web|url=http://the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2018/afghanistan/mine-action.aspx|title=Mine Action – Reports – Monitor|website=the-monitor.org}}{{cite web|url=https://www.apminebanconvention.org/states-parties-to-the-convention/afghanistan/|title=AP Mine Ban Convention: Afghanistan|website=www.apminebanconvention.org}}
Other activities
Awards and honours
In 2012, Dalil was awarded a prize by the Vaccination World Union for her achievements in implementing country-wide vaccination.{{cite web|url=http://www.bakhtarnews.com.af/eng/health/item/5332-moph-gains-vwu-prize.html|publisher=Bakhtar News|title=MoPH Gains VWU Prize|date=9 December 2012|accessdate=25 May 2017}} In 2014, she accepted a Resolve Award Special Mention from the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health recognising Afghanistan's efforts to prioritise reproductive, maternal and child health.{{cite web|url=
http://www.bakhtarnews.com.af/eng/health/item/12435-afghanistan’s-reproductive-health-celebrated-by-world-leaders.html|title=Afghanistan's Reproductive Health Celebrated By World Leaders|date=21 May 2014|accessdate=25 May 2017|publisher=Bakhtar News}}
Selected publications
- {{cite journal|last=Dalil|first= Suraya|title=Psychosocial assessment of children exposed to war-related violence in Kabul|journal=Violence and Health: Proceedings of a WHO Global Symposiurn |year=2000|pages=174–1}}
- {{cite book|last1=Dalil|first=Suraya|author2=UNICEF|title=Assessment of services and human resource needs for the development of the safe motherhood initiative in Afghanistan |publisher= Afghan Digital Libraries |year=2002}}
- {{cite journal|last1=Bartlett|first1=L.|last2=Mawji|first2=S.|last3=Whitehead|first3=S.|last4=Crouse|first4=C.|last5=Dalil|first5=S.|title=Where giving birth is a forecast of death: maternal mortality in four districts of Afghanistan, 1999–2002|journal=The Lancet |volume=365 |issue=9462|year=2005|pages=864–870|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(05)71044-8|pmid=15752530|s2cid=581020}}
- {{cite journal|last1=Dalil|first1=Suraya|display-authors=et al |title=Aid effectiveness in rebuilding the Afghan health system: a reflection|journal=Global Public Health |volume=9.sup1 |year=2014|issue=Suppl 1 | pages=S124–S136|doi=10.1080/17441692.2014.918162|pmid=24922192|pmc=4136664}}
- {{cite book|first=Suraya|last=Dalil|chapter=Security for Our Shared Home|title=To Save Humanity:What Matters Most for a Healthy Future|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmJ2CAAAQBAJ|editor=Julio Frenk|editor2=Steven Hoffman|pages=97–98|isbn=9780190221553}}
Personal life
Dalil's native language is Uzbeki, and she also speaks Dari, Pashto, and English. Her husband is also a medical doctor, and they have three children.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150930043306/http://mission-afghanistan.ch/Embassy/index.php/8-ambassador?start=2 Embassy biography]}}
- {{Cite web|url=https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/suraya-dalil-former-minister-of-public-health-for-afghanistan/|title=Afghanistan: Reflections on My Journey|author=Suraya Dalil|work=Voices in Leadership.|date=29 November 2017|publisher=Harvard (T. H. Chan School of Public Health)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalil, Suraya}}
Category:Kabul University alumni
Category:Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni
Category:Afghan public health doctors
Category:Health ministers of Afghanistan
Category:Public health ministers
Category:Women government ministers of Afghanistan
Category:Permanent representatives of Afghanistan to the United Nations
Category:Afghan women ambassadors
Category:Afghan Uzbek politicians