According to estimates, women made half of the registered voters in the landmark election. PHOTO: REUTERS
Lines of blue burqas marked Saturday’s Afghan elections as women turned out in large numbers to vote in several cities – unthinkable under the Taliban, who would not allow women to work or study, let alone cast their ballot.
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, three women posed for photographers outside a school turned into a polling station for the first round of the presidential election. Each held a baby in one hand and with the other proudly showed her index finger, stained purple to show she has voted.
Nearby, 20-year-old Ayesha wore a look of unwavering determination as she went to cast her first-ever vote, ignoring the threat to attack the polls from Taliban insurgents, ever-present in this part of Afghanistan.
“I am eligible to vote and even if there were suicide attacks by the Taliban, I would have not cared about it,” she said. “We have to vote to show the enemies we are not afraid of them. We should give our enemies a jaw-breaking answer by casting our ballot.”
Shabnam, also in her 20s, who like many Afghans uses only one name, shared her defiance.
“Today is women’s day for us and it is our day, I have come here with lots of excitement to come and cast my ballots to choose our next leader,” Shabnam said.
In Jalalabad and the surrounding area, women formed long queues even before polls opened — a sign of a changing society, increasingly aware of the importance of elections.
The deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, pointed to encouraging numbers such as the 300 women standing in provincial council elections.
“When I left home, my wife and daughter told me they were also interested to cast their ballots for the election, and I did not oppose them,” one male voter in Jalalabad told AFP.
But, according to local officials, female voters were much fewer in number in rural areas, where the Taliban have more influence.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2014.
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The Afghani women in their brave turnout to defy Taliban threats. It is surprising it s neighbor Pakistan showed little support to guard these women & send a strong message to to the Taliban. This was a perfect time for women of Pakistan to hold rallies in all cities of Pakistan to show solidarity with their sisters across the border to show defiance to the Taliban that their reign of terror is over. Instead there was deafening silence from the women in Pakistan who copied their male counterparts who have tolerated the Taliban were rendered incapable of getting rid of the Taliban evening allowing them to dictate the terms of peace.
These brave young women have sown the seed with their votes that one day the President of Afghanistan shall be a Humanist Secular Woman!