The View from the West

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Voting isn't easy for Afghan women

By: Mohammad Ishaq Quraishi

Posted: 08/19/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

HERAT, Afghanistan -- Sima, a second-year student at the Herat Technical Institute, is an educated young woman with strong opinions. She and her three sisters are determined to vote in the elections for president and provincial councils on Thursday, but they will have to do so in secret.

"Our elder brother will not let us go," she said.

The four sisters managed to register for the last elections in 2005, but when their brother found out, he prevented them from voting.

"This time he will not stop us," said Sima's sister, Fatima. "We'll go secretly. But if he finds out he will beat us."

While women are guaranteed the right to vote under the Afghan constitution, men ultimately determine whether they can exercise their franchise. Fathers, husbands, brothers and even sons can dictate what a woman can and cannot do in Afghanistan -- including vote.

It's not that women are not involved in the country's civic affairs. Several members of parliament are women; two women are among the presidential contenders.

In Herat, more than one-third of the 2.5 million registered voters are women. But tradition, along with the deteriorating security situation, means that many may not vote. In fact, government and human-rights officials are fearful that fewer women may vote this year than in 2004 or 2005.

It's easy to understand why.

Sanobar, 45, a seamstress in Herat, said she was so proud of her voter registration card that she showed it to her 18-year-old son, Ahmad.

His response left her in tears.

"He slapped me, and shouted that I was not a Muslim," she said. "Then he tore up the card and left." Ahmad had a simple explanation for his behavior.

"She is my mother and I control her," he said.

His views are hardly unique. Afghanistan is a land of old beliefs and traditions, where some still consider it shameful for a woman to be seen by non-family members.

"How can I let my wife vote when there are so many men around in the polling station?" said Mullah Hussain, who preaches in a mosque in the Sarkoro district of Herat province. "As long as I am alive, my wife will not vote," he said.

The situation is the same elsewhere.

"My husband won't let me and my daughters out of the house, so how would he let us vote?" said Ahoo, 50, the mother of eight. "Only the men vote here. But if my husband would allow me, I would be very happy to go." Ahoo lives in Mandal, a large village in Shindand district. Ahoo's husband explains why his wife and daughters won't be voting in this election.

"I know about the rights of women, but I can't let my wife and daughters use them," he said, "If they go out and vote, it will damage my reputation."

Some women appear to have resigned themselves to the situation.

A woman in the Darkoro district of Herat, who asked that her name not be used because her husband would not approve of her speaking to strangers, said she had no interest in politics or voting.

"Sometimes I hear things -- war, peace, elections," she said. "I don't care about those things. Voting will not give us food or work."

Mohammad Ishaq Quraishi is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict.

--McClatchy-Tribune Services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 19, 2009 A11

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