The Politics of Gender and Reconstruction in Afghanistan

EVOLVING INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS: POTENTIALS AND LIMITATIONS
Women needed the permission of men both to vote and to participate in the women’s shuras or committees. This
could prevent elected women from actually participating, and was indeed found to do so in some villages. In
some districts the apparently high numbers of female members in CDCs did not reflect actual participation in
joint decision-making with regards to project proposals and prioritization. Where there were joint committees,
elected female members were often marginalized by the men and not invited to participate in CDC meetings. 50
A more encouraging finding was that attitudes to women’s participation were not homogenous, with different
levels of acceptance in different districts. A number of factors, such as levels of formal education, degrees of
exposure to the outside world through experiences of displacement, and membership of different ethnic and
confessional groups, appear to have an influence on women’s levels of participation. 51
A case study carried out in Panjao (Hazarajat) corroborates some of the findings about the effects of age and
social status (deriving from property ownership or lineage) on participation at the household and community
levels (Wakefield 2004). The belief that women lack the necessary “knowledge” to participate in decisionmaking
(except in daily matters concerning their households) is often put forward as a justification for their
exclusion. 52
These observations on women’s community-level participation contain broader lessons for local and national
electoral processes in Afghanistan. There were signs that women were being marginalized from voter-education
projects because of both the logistic difficulties of reaching them and fears in some quarters that involving
rural women could upset conservative sensibilities in the provinces and stall the process of reconstruction
(ACSF/swisspeace 2003). An exclusive focus on civic education training may also miss elements that are
essential to understanding the actual dynamics of women’s access to the polls, which is routinely mediated by
male gatekeepers who allow or disallow access. 53 It is therefore incumbent upon election planners and policy
makers to devise more creative ways of engaging with male community leaders and elders so as to ensure that
provisions for women’s rights to political participation can translate from principle to reality.
Moreover, the sociocultural constraints that impede women from voting or standing as candidates are not
amenable to change through the quick fix of training or civic education. Longer-term engagement with local
communities and a thorough understanding of the types of patronage networks that operate among men,
between men and women, and among women themselves are essential. A fact that is sometimes conveniently
overlooked is that women, however marginalized, more often than not share the same political culture as the
men in their communities (including views about women’s appropriate place and conduct). In the absence of an
adequate time frame to devise well thought out and locally appropriate strategies, the rush to include women
may backfire and inadvertently produce a hardening of attitudes in some communities.
50 The most striking example offered was the case of a woman accountant who had been elected on the strength of her bookkeeping skills but was
excluded from CDC meetings because they took place at the mosque. The choice of venue apparently led to her exclusion.
51 Women belonging to the Shi’a Ismaili communities were found to be participating actively in the joint election in Badakhshan province, whereas it
was more difficult to include Sunni women. Similar experiences were reported regarding Hazaras in Bamiyan who are also Shi’as. Pashtun communities
were found to be particularly resistant to women’s participation.
52 This construction also has the quality of a self-fulfilling prophecy. To the extent that women—especially the unmarried and the young—are kept in
seclusion, they lead a sheltered existence that cuts them off from any contacts except with their close kin. The restriction of their social horizons coupled
with their lack of education is then invoked to explain their exclusion on grounds of “ignorance”. With advancing age, both experience of life and a relaxation
of strictures placed on mobility vests women with greater authority, especially within their own households.
53 An Asia Foundation (2004) public opinion poll reported in July 2004 that 87 per cent of women needed permission from their husbands to vote, and
18 per cent of husbands said they would not allow such participation.
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