Voting was on Thursday (this is only the second democratic election i Afghanistan). Many women, particularly from more rural areas, were not permitted to vote (by their men) because there were insufficent numbers of female security officers to frisk female voters.
To solve this problem, men were permitted to vote on behalf of heir female relatives. This meant that men could easily abuse this power if they wanted to, and vote multiple times on their own behalf. In some aears of Afghanistan women were allowed voter cards that did not have ID photos on them (because it is ‘bad’ for them to have their photo taken). Again, this left the system open to further corruption. In some places there were more women who voted than there were women in that area.
Parties and politicians campaigning for Parliament in the this years Afghanistan election have hardly paid any consideration to women’s concerns, politics is still a “men’s club”. For whatever reason not one party is really trying to get the female vote. Hopefully by the time the next election roles around in Afghanistan the predominantly male politicians will be more desperate for the female vote.
