Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday rejected the first nomination of a woman for the country's Supreme Court after she failed to win the required vote of confidence, a media report said.
Of the 193 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, 88 voted in favour of Anisa Rasouli. She required 97 votes for her nomination to pass, Pajhwok Afghan News agency reported.
Rasouli, who received her masters degree in penal law and criminology from Islamic Azad University of Iran in 2014 and is the current head of Kabul's juvenile court, addressed the lawmakers before the voting began.
She stressed on fighting corruption and said that judges should be independent in making decisions under law. "Judges should be completely neutral in addressing cases and nothing should affect their decisions," Rasouli added.
After Rasouli failed to garner enough support, Deputy Chairman of Parliament Abdul Zahir Qadeer said: "Unfortunately, Anisa Rasouli... could not get the vote of confidence to become a member of the Supreme Court. We ask the president to introduce another candidate."
Earlier, clerics and conservatives had criticised her nomination by claiming that only men were fit to sit in the highest court in the country.
