Civic duty: NGOs striving hard to lure women to polling booths

Workshops conducted in Mardan, Swabi, Peshawar to raise awareness.

PESHAWAR:

Experts and organisations working to increase awareness among women voters claim the increasing number of attacks on political parties will affect the turnout of female voters in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

In addition to terrorist attacks, harassment at the hands of political workers could also prevent women from showing up at polling stations to cast their vote. Female politicians told The Express Tribune threatening pamphlets distributed in the past few days in suburban Peshawar has deepened this fear.

Presently, six non-governmental organisations, namely Aware Girls, Blue Veins, Khwendo Kor, Sawera, Shirkatgah and Aurat Foundation are actively striving to increase awareness on voting and women rights in K-P.



Gualali Ismail of Aware Girls said the media has played a major role this election season in creating awareness and the voter turnout will be high compared to previous elections despite attacks. Ismail added her organisation has conducted workshops to raise awareness in Mardan, Swabi and Peshawar, and people have also provided feedback.

“People told us women turnout in the past elections remained zero in many of the remote areas in the three districts because of illiteracy and the worsening security situation in this part of the country,” said Ismail. Increased awareness will help women who attended the workshops to convince their family members to overcome their fears and vote, she added.

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) ban on political parties providing transportation for voters is a problem for many women. Due to this, women might not opt to go to polling stations in remote areas, which would in turn adversely affect turnout, said Ismail.

Azra Yousafzai, editor of online magazine Pakhtun Ghag, said they ran features and stories wherein women from Kohistan, Buner and Swat complained of not being allowed to cast their vote by male members of the family.

Caretaker information minister Musarat Qadeem earlier said whoever restricts women from voting on Election Day could be imprisoned for up to five years.

Surprisingly, health and education officials requesting anonymity argued against voting, saying contesting candidates do not fulfill their promises and manifestos. Some officials also mentioned the threatening pamphlets warning voters to stay away from polling stations, adding a few of their colleagues have refused to perform duties because of a sense of fear.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2013.