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By Thalif Deen
01/23/2004

POLITICS: Afghan Women's Vote Threatened, U.N. Warns


United Nations, Jan 23 (IPS) - The United Nations, which has strong reservations about the feasibility of upcoming elections in politically unstable Afghanistan, is now expressing fears that women might be marginalized in the national polling.

''The registration process and the holding of free and fair elections in mid-2004 will be a major test for Afghanistan,'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a 19-page report released Friday.

''Some disturbing signs have appeared in the early days of the registration process, where some women have been barred from registering,'' he added. Titled 'The Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan', the report says that women should be encouraged to stand for political office -- in addition to having the right to vote. They also need to be strongly supported by local and international actors, it adds.

''The capacity of potential women candidates needs to be strengthened and intensive voter education and awareness programmes implemented to dispel negative stereotypes of women as leaders,'' said Annan.

Earlier this month, a traditional assembly of Afghan leaders approved a new constitution for the country, which guarantees equal rights for men and women. But exercising those rights will be women's biggest challenge, many observers have stressed since then.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told reporters Thursday that so far about half a million people have registered to vote for the June vote, about 395,000 men but only 113,000 women.

Overall registration still falls far short of the 10.5 million eligible voters, of a total population of 25 million. ''There was a spike in the number,'' Almeida e Silva said, ''just after the high-profile registration of Afghan President (Hamid) Karzai on Jan. 18.''

Asked about the low voter registration, especially of women, in southern Kandahar province -- birthplace of the former Taliban regime -- Almeida e Silva told reporters: ''This is a matter of concern, and, of course, it has to do with security and it has to do with the availability of registration sites.''

On Wednesday, about 500 women marched through the streets of the capital Kabul to show support for voter registration. Local TV personality Nafeesa Ghyasi led the marchers to a registration site. ''The women were registered and then received new civic education posters that encourage women's participation,'' Almeida e Silva said.

Annan says that given the country's low literacy rates, particularly among women, one major challenge is to identify enough Afghan women who are literate and can travel -- not only beyond their villages, but out of their family compounds, without a male relative as escort.

The Karzai government, which was installed by the United States two years ago following the ouster of the rigidly anti-women Taliban regime, was expected to redress the grievances of Afghan women.

In March last year, the government did ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. By doing so, Afghanistan is now required to uphold women's civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Additionally, it also has to take all appropriate measures to bring national legislation into compliance with the convention.

Documentary filmmaker Meena Nanji told IPS that despite the fall of the Taliban, regional warlords continue to dominate Afghanistan, propped up by the United States and Britain. Nanji, who has been travelling in Afghanistan while working on a film on Afghan women, said many people in the country privately complain that although some warlords are now clean-shaven, clad in western suits and serve the government, ''they are still fundamentalists at heart, and thereby anti-democratic, anti-women and anti-modern''.

The Kabul-based Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has said there can be no peace in Afghanistan while the warlords are in power, added Nanji, whose documentary 'View from a Grain of Sand' is to be released shortly.

RAWA, a gender oriented non-governmental organisation (NGO), also believes the warlords should be barred from holding any ruling posts in the country and that they and their militias must be disarmed, or there will be no peace in the country.

Addressing the U.N. Security Council last week, former U.N. Special Representative in Afghanistan Lakdhar Brahimi said the deteriorating security environment was hurting voter registration.

''Naturally, the national electoral registration and, later, polling exercises cannot be conducted from behind a hardened compound wall,'' he told delegates.

''Electoral teams must go to the voters, and each eligible and willing voter must be served directly at the village level,'' he said. In a report released last month, Annan said the security situation was ''a major concern'' throughout the country, ''with criminality, factional fighting and the illegal narcotics trade all having a negative impact.''

''Credible elections that advance the peace process will require an environment that allows the exercise of political rights, including freedoms of _expression and association,'' he said.

''Lacking this, the outcome of elections risks merely legitimising through the ballot box political figures whose current authority stems from the use of force,'' Annan warned. Completing the electoral process will require overcoming major challenges of geography and climate, culture, security and donor resources.

''The challenges of timely funding and security will be the most difficult to overcome,'' he added. In August 2003, the Karzai government presented to donors a budget of some 78 million dollars to complete the voter registration process. But the lack of early donor response caused the start of the exercise to be delayed from October to December To date, only 40 million dollars have been contributed and committed for registration. (END/2004)