Afghan Electorate’s Veiled Demographic
by Pamela Constable, Washington Post Foreign Service
February 25, 2024

GARDEZ, Afghanistan—A dozen Afghans warmed themselves around a wood-burning stove in a chilly schoolroom, waiting for their new voter identification cards. Some were villagers in muddy shoes who had traveled hours to reach this registration site in Paktia province, drawn by radio ads urging people to participate in their country's political future.

But a few blocks away, at an empty registration hut for women behind the public hospital, the female staff had nothing to do but sip tea. In Paktia and many rural areas, millions of women are being prevented from registering for Afghanistan's first democratic elections by winter weather, physical insecurity and conservative Muslim and tribal culture.

"This is an illiterate country, and people are very traditional," explained Saadat Khan, 55, a car dealer in a yellow turban who drove four hours from a town near the Pakistani border to register. "I am certain no one will bring their wives to the city for these elections, but if you send people to help them in the villages, bravo!"

Since registration sites opened in eight cities two months ago, a little more than 1 million people have signed up to vote, but only 209,000 of them are women. U.N. officials estimate there are 10.5 million eligible voters in the country—and slightly more women than men after years of war and civil conflict. They say 7 million people must register for the elections, scheduled for late June, to be credible and fair.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan, noted that in some cities, women are registering in equal numbers with men, but that in many rural areas they are only a small fraction of the total. Gardez, the capital of Paktia, has 13 percent female participation.

Enthusiasm for the elections is widespread, and even in conservative rural areas, most men do not appear to object to the idea of women voting. The problem is how to arrange for them to participate without violating rural customs, which hold it improper for women to travel far from home or to have their photographs taken.

Last week, in an effort to boost the numbers and prevent the elections from being seriously delayed, Afghan and U.N. officials announced that by early May they plan to open more than 4,000 new, single-sex registration sites in towns and villages, after hiring 30,000 men and women to process new voters.

At the same time, U.N. and election officials have been reaching out to tribal and religious elders in conservative areas. In Khost, a city near the Pakistani border, officials recently persuaded local leaders to formally endorse the right of women to participate in elections. In return, they agreed to waive the requirement for women's ID photos and to provide separate registration facilities with all-female staffs.

"In many conservative rural areas, especially [ethnic] Pashtun areas, men control the family. Our policy is to negotiate with locally influential men, and to try and enlighten their minds so they will let the women vote," said Ghotai Khawry, the only woman on the National Electoral Management Board.

In remote southern provinces such as Khost, Uruzgan and Paktika, there are only a few dozen women with the education necessary to process ID cards and manage voting. Officials said they would rely first on provincial teachers and policewomen to handle those duties, then bus in female election workers from the cities as a last resort.

Already, the voter registration drive has dramatically illustrated the gap in opportunities and attitudes between rural and urban Afghan women. The divide, which has deep historical roots and strong ethnic overtones, was exacerbated during the 1990s, when the Taliban Islamic militia arose out of the Pashtun-dominated south and imposed its village views on most of the country.

In the two years since the Taliban was ousted from power, Afghan women have made considerable strides, especially in urban areas. Thousands attend universities and hold professional jobs, and scores participated in two national political assemblies held in Kabul last June and December.

But in some rural areas, women's lives have changed little. They remain largely confined to their homes, pressured to marry and begin bearing children as adolescents, kept out of school after sixth grade and relegated to performing primitive domestic chores while men travel, shop, socialize and make all family decisions.

But in such major cities as Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, women have been quick to grasp the importance of elections for their future, and some groups have held rallies to promote female registration.

Registration centers in Kabul overflowed this week with women eager to sign up to vote for the first time. Families helped grandmothers climb schoolroom steps to put their thumbprints on voter ID cards. Teenage girls tried in vain to persuade registrars that they were 18 and eligible to vote.

"We came because we want to vote for a proper government and a fair president. It is our right now," said Gul Alai, 35, a housewife who had just signed up to vote in the Taimony district of Kabul. Her face was hidden behind a veil, but her smile was almost visible as she proudly held up her new picture ID.

Inside the community hall, an animated buzz rose and a steady stream of women moved from table to table, where they answered a few basic questions ("Are you Afghan? Are you 18?"), posed for photos and waited for their cards to be printed. A curtain had been hung between the male and female sections, but everyone was too busy to notice that it had slipped.

"I came here because I want to vote for peace and security," said Khanum Gul, 55, pulling her veil down over her face as she emerged from the registration hall. "We had nothing but war for so long. Now, I just want to have a normal life, where my daughters can go to school and work and not have to stay home anymore."

Last Wednesday, national registration hit the 1 million mark, and a 23-year-old woman was designated as the symbolic millionth voter at a high-profile ceremony in Kabul. But even in the capital, cultural barriers have prevented prominent women from setting an example.

When President Hamid Karzai's wife registered the other day, no photographers or TV cameras were permitted to record the event.

In the countryside, lack of security is another major reason why many women have stayed away from registration sites. In the south, revived Taliban forces have become active, and purported Taliban officials have warned that there will be violent attacks against people who participate in the elections.

Afghan and U.N. officials said they had not formed a plan to provide security for the greatly expanded number of registration sites but that they were hoping to use a combination of Afghan soldiers, police and NATO peacekeeping forces to protect the elections.

Throughout the west and north, there is separate concern about electoral intimidation and manipulation by ethnic militia commanders who still control large numbers of men and arms. In Herat, voter registration has been high among both men and women, but there are reports that Ismail Khan, the area's powerful militia leader, has been promoting the female vote to bolster his own political fortunes.

In Gardez, officials said they had done everything possible to protect female voters, stationing police in each site registering women and making sure no other men entered. But even so, there was little for the five female registrars at one site, an unmarked mud hut behind the public hospital, to do last Wednesday except sip tea.

Nafisa, 22, the registration supervisor, said only about 50 women a day had been showing up—almost all of them from the city. At first she suggested that once the weather improved, perhaps more would come from the villages. But then she shook her head.

"It's because men's minds are so dark here," she blurted. "Even if women hear about registering on the radio, they don't know what it's for and the men don't tell them. If we don't get teams out to the villages, they'll never register." As she said this, she gestured out the window in frustration. "Do you see a single woman on the streets?"

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

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