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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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4

Afghan Elections a Setback for Women

Low female turnout could mean leaders even less responsive to women

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(AP) – For women, Afghanistan's recent elections appear to have been more of a setback than a step forward. Early reports strongly suggest that voter turnout fell more sharply for women than for men in last week's polls. Election observers blame Taliban attacks, a dearth of female election workers, and the closure of at least 650 polling stations for women.

Some worry the result could be a new government that pays even less attention to women's concerns in a country where cultural conservatism already restricts female participation in public life. "The rockets started coming from the early morning and, until night, the rockets still came," said a woman who didn’t vote. "The government hasn't done anything for women, and there were a lot of security problems. That's why I didn't cast my vote."

Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots at a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday Aug. 20, 2009.
Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots at a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday Aug. 20, 2009.   (David Guttenfelder)
Two women await their turns at a polling center in Herat, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Afghans head to the polls to elect the new president for the second time in the country's history.
Two women await their turns at a polling center in Herat, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Afghans head to the polls to elect the new president for the second time in the country's history.   (Saurabh Das)
Afghan women show their cards after casting their votes at a polling station in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009.
Afghan women show their cards after casting their votes at a polling station in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009.   (Farzana Wahidy)
Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Kabul Thursday Aug. 20, 2009.
Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Kabul Thursday Aug. 20, 2009.   (Rafiq Maqbool)
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4 comments
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DeniseVB
Aug 24, 09 11:12 AM CDT
How's that war going ? Didn't Russia spend 14 fruitless years there? Reply
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prowlerzee
Aug 24, 09 12:21 PM CDT
Didn't you hear? Zerobama answered the reporter who asked that while human rights were a nice "ideal" we're not there to free women...we're there to "pertectkt the Murican people." Bush's line. Especially bitter since it was the U.S. who put the women BACK under the veil by propping up the Taliban to fight the Russians. Before then they wore western clothes, went to school, work, were physicians, etc. Looks like the new, narcissistic know-nothing misogynist puppet of the corporate war industry is no different from our last one.
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prowlerzee
Aug 24, 09 12:23 PM CDT
Looks like a pink ghetto in here. The underhung pigs who frequent Newser don't give a damn about women's rights....they don't rise to human rights to the likes of the mouthbreathers whose only thoughts about women must be inner rage that the female of the species give the likes of them wiiiiiiddddde berth. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
schmidtkoff
Aug 24, 09 12:57 PM CDT
you dweeb . do a little research. here's some: By Malcolm Potts August 23, 2009 The war for Afghanistan's women It's not worth risking U.S. lives unless we raise the status of Afghan women. This feudal, fundamentalist, warrior society will never join the 21st century -- or even the 16th century -- unless we win the war to liberate women. Unless women are given the freedom to choose whether or when to have a child, by 2050 there will be millions more angry men age 15 to 25 in Afghanistan.
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