28 August 2013 – The Asia Foundation (TAF) launched a new nationwide project today, in support of Afghan electoral institutions and the government, to increase women’s participation in the political and electoral processes ahead of next year’s Presidential and Provincial Council elections in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan head of TAF, Mark Ezzat, said that the new project seeks to “promote formal and informal dialogue forums in order to broaden support for women’s participation in election and enable views of the public to be heard.”
“The project will provide support to Ulema (religious scholars) and other traditional leaders to develop and communicate their messages, to give voice to them about what they think about the importance of women’s participation in our society,” said Mr. Ezzat, speaking at a ceremony organized in the capital, Kabul, to launch the project.
TAF is a non-profit international development organization that strives to improve lives across Asia, according to its website.
At the ceremony, Mr. Ezzat was joined by a number of electoral and government officials including the head of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC), Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, Deputy Minister for Women’s Affairs Sayeda Muzghan Mostafavi and parliamentarian Shukria Barkazai.
Women make half of Afghanistan’s estimated 27 million people and their increased participation in elections makes its outcome more credible.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) believes that Afghan-led and Afghan-managed 2014 elections are at the very heart of a credible, inclusive, transparent, and sustainable political transition, according to a UNAMA news release issued on Tuesday following a meeting between Dr. Nuristani and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš.
“A smooth and widely accepted transfer of political authority is critical for future stability [of Afghanistan],” said the news release.
In his latest report on Afghanistan to the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Afghan authorities to ensure “broad and inclusive participation” of all Afghans in the country’s political and electoral processes.
Under the new TAF project, training sessions will be conducted for 69 women Members of Parliament, 122 women members of Provincial Councils and 400 other potential female candidates on the skills of negotiation, leadership, resource mobilization, campaigning and networking, according to TAF.
Modules for the training have been developed jointly by the UN Women (UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), IEC and the National Democratic Institute.
Mr. Ezzat said the trainings will also be conducted in two phases during 2014 and 2015 in all the regions targeting potential women candidates. “There will be 68 formal and informal dialogue sessions conducted throughout the country,” he added.
Earlier, in his remarks at the launching ceremony in Kabul, Dr. Nuristani said Afghanistan was passing through a historical period and a broad participation of people in the upcoming elections was “a decisive element” for the country’s stability.
“IEC is striving to provide equal opportunities to all citizens of Afghanistan so that no one remains deprived of using their right to vote,” he added.
The head of the IEC Secretariat, Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, said limited participation of women in the electoral process could have an impact on the legitimacy of elections.
Stressing that holding an election was not the job of IEC alone, Mr. Amarkhil called on the civil society, political parties, tribal elders and religious scholars to help IEC conduct successful elections.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister Mostafavi said that the government has prepared a national policy to raise awareness among the people, particularly womenfolk, to take active part in all stages of the election process.
Under the policy, she said, the women would not only be encouraged to vie for leadership roles and participate in elections, but also the existing “social, conceptual and customary hurdles” coming their way would be removed.
Ms. Barkazai stressed that steps taken for increasing women’s participation in electoral processes should not just be symbolic but “serious and real.”