LANDI KOTAL: With the election campaign coming to a close throughout the country, candidates for the two National Assembly seats in Khyber tribal district have failed to a great extent to convey their message to women voters.

Except for a lone corner meeting within the four walls of a private house in Jamrud organised by women workers of PPP, none of the other candidate in any of the two constituencies -- NA-43 and NA-44 -- could arrange a gathering of female voters in any part of Khyber region during the last few weeks of their election campaign.

All the candidates and their supporters exhausted their energies while organising ‘all-male’ gatherings and rallies with very little mention of resolving issues confronted by the womenfolk of the region.

Social, cultural taboos termed main causes of poll contenders’ failure

Candidates having political affiliations and independents confessed in their conversation with Dawn that they failed in reaching out to the women electorates in both constituencies due to social and cultural taboos.

Some of them said that they urged their male supporters to carry along their campaign messages and election manifestos with them when they went home after attending campaign rallies and gatherings and share the same with their female members of family.

Some had engaged female members of their families to conduct a door-to-door campaign in their respective areas but that too in a restricted manner. Election Commission of Pakistan has made it mandatory to get a minimum of 10 per cent female vote for the successful candidate in any constituency.

“This rule of ECP is discrimination against the people of tribal regions as women participation in election campaigns and polling their votes is considered against the tribal norms and traditions,” MMA candidate for NA-43 Mufti Ejaz told this scribe when he was asked about lack of female participation in electioneering process.

He, however, quickly added that his party or MMA was not against women participation in such affairs but women in those areas were not politically aware.

However, unlike the past, none of the candidates, tribal elders or political organisations in Khyber region has openly or clandestinely reached an agreement to bar women voters from exercising their right to vote on July 25.

Maroof Khan, an independent candidate for NA-44, acknowledged the importance of women participation in electoral process but insisted that making direct contacts with the female voters was ‘an uphill task’ for him and his team.

He said that their only source to convey their message to female voters was their men relatives. “We try our best to educate male voters about conveying our manifesto to the female voters of their families,” he said, adding that a two-year long ban on mobile internet was another hurdle to them to reach to female voters.

Shah Faisal of JI and Hazrat Wali of PPP, however, argued that women activists of their parties were engaged in limited capacity to make contacts with female voters by conducting door-to-door campaign.

Laima Shinwari, a medical student, said that she along with her two sisters and other women relatives would cast vote on July 25 despite an ‘all-male’ election campaign.

Jamima Afridi and Mamanrra Afridi, two activists of a political party, were also not happy with ignoring thousands of female voters by the candidates during their campaign. They said that not only they were deprived of active participation in electioneering, but none of the candidate made the resolution of their problems a part of the election manifesto.

Ali Akbar, a resident of Tirah, told Dawn by telephone that although no restrictions were imposed on women to poll their votes, yet most of their womenfolk would stay away from voting on July 25 due to their complete ignorance about the election process.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2018