Zinat Karzai

She has been called Afghanistan's invisible first lady. Zinat Karzai, the 43-year-old wife of Hamid Karzai, is rarely seen in public, prompting criticism that she is not doing enough to further the cause of women's rights in her country. This week she gave a rare interview to the BBC's Maryam Ghamgusar and Freba Zaher.
"Thank you and welcome," says a smiling Zinat Karzai greeting the BBC team in her modest, light-filled sitting room. "I'm very pleased to have you here."
Afghanistan's first lady lives behind a formidable barrage of security in the presidential palace in central Kabul.
It took five security checks, each more rigorous than the one before, to reach the ground-floor apartments which are currently home to her, her husband and their two young children.
It is clearly a situation which poses big challenges to everyday family life.
"It's very, very difficult… to be constantly under guard all the time," she says. "I would prefer it if I could live outside the palace."
The security constraints are one reason why this intelligent and articulate woman rarely appears in public .
"I have not travelled to anywhere inside Afghanistan," she says. Instead, people come to her.
Zinat Karzai's lack of visibility has prompted criticism from some Afghans, especially the younger generation, that she is not doing enough to stand up for women's rights and to set a positive example.
All the more so, her critics say, because she is a qualified doctor who before her marriage worked for some years in Pakistan.
When she talks about current circumstances, Karzai is not just talking about security issues.
Her role is clearly also constrained by cultural sensitivities. She says the country is simply not ready for a high-profile first lady appearing at her husband's side.
Despite being out of the public eye, Zinat Karzai has met a number of other visiting first ladies.
She numbers Cherie Blair, Laura Bush and Gursharan Kaur, the wife of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, among the first ladies she admires. She is also close to Iranian President Ahmadinejad's wife, Azam al-Sadat Farahi, whom she speaks to on the telephone.