WUNRN
Afghanistan Research &
Evaluation Unit
AFGHANISTAN - WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION
IN PARLIAMENT & PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Direct Link to Full 83-Page 2012
Report:
Women’s Participation in Afghanistan’s Elections
The establishment of a democratic system under Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution
has without doubt led to an unprecedented expansion of political participation
for its women. In the years that have followed, millions of women have turned
out to vote in successive rounds of presidential, legislative and provincial
elections. Thousands more have competed for positions in parliament and the
provincial councils. A new AREU paper explores some of the dynamics of women’s
participation as candidates and voters in these elections, drawing on
conversations with successful and unsuccessful female candidates, along with
men and women in six study communities spread across Balkh, Bamiyan and Kabul
provinces.
It finds that there is no one blueprint for a successful female candidacy, and
the stories of individuals interviewed for this study were as diverse and
complex as the various political environments in which they operated. In almost
all cases, successful candidates ultimately secured victory via a combination
of good access to financial resources, ties to a powerful family or a political
party, and—often most importantly—a strong relationship with a given community
or other constituency of voters. Significantly, surprisingly few female
candidates chose to court female voters
Women voters in the research communities generally had reasonably unhindered
access to the ballot box, and understood how to cast their votes. However,
their voices were shut out of the community-level discussions so vital to
electoral politics in contemporary Afghanistan. Although they were rarely
forced to vote for a given candidate, the refusal of their husbands to talk
politics with women in their households left many of them struggling to make
informed choices. Nonetheless, taking part in elections had a deeply positive
personal impact on many of the women in this study, providing a vital affirmation
of their equal rights in the eyes of the state, boosting their self-confidence
and raising hopes for changing the existing status quo.