As the clock is ticking for next week’s presidential elections, Afghan women are largely expected to shy away from the vote, thanks to the country’s strictly conservative culture.
Afghan society is very conservative with women are banned from travelling and interacting in public. This has been largely reflected in the poor turnout among women to register for the August 20 ballot. Illiteracy soars among Afghan women to more than 85 per cent. Lack of female security officials to search women at voting stations is also another obstacle. Afghanistan’s 17 million eligible voters are to cast ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations in 34 provinces and 356 districts. There are only two women candidates among the 41 runners in next week’s elections. The vote is the second since the 2001 US invasion and is seen as part of a Western strategy to cover up its losses in Afghanistan by introducing democratic elections to Afghanistan. The restrictions on women participation are also giving floor for fraud on the election day. For instance, women will not have their photographs taken for their cards for culture and religious reasons.