Zakira Bibi challenges patriarchy in LG polls

She is contesting polls from an area where traditionally women are not supposed to print their names on posters

UPPER DIR:

Zakira Bibi is the mother of six and second wife of a local school teacher. As per the local tradition, she is responsible for all the household chores and taking care of family cow. In addition to this she works in the nearby fields too on a daily basis. In the local bodies elections she is also an independent candidate on reserved seats from village council Drowra, Upper Dir district of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P).

She is contesting polls from an area where traditionally women are not supposed to print their names on election posters and her introduction too is ‘wife of Badshah Muhammad’ on the posters and pamphlets. “In Dir Upper all the women work more than the men of their family as they have to take care of the household, children, cattle and their fields too.

This is the norm in these hilly tracts. But I feel somehow privileged because my husband is an educated person and due to this I enjoy a little extra freedom,” she said while talking to The Express Tribune. “There is a huge misunderstanding that women can contest only on reserved seats and we need to remove it,” she added.

“There are 466,000 male voters in the district and the number of male candidates stands at 2,034 while the number of female voters is 48,000 but only 276 women candidates are in the field,” she said, adding that women despite their superior numbers are under-represented. Zakira suggests elimination of reserved seats for women.

“If I am elected then I would really like to bring women to the level of their male counterparts,” she observed, saying that even those men are begging women to vote for them in order to ensure their victory who didn’t allow them to go to polling stations until recently.