Women's Participation in Afghanistan's
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit Synthesis Paper Equal Rights, Unequal Opportunities Women’s Participation in Afghanistan’s Parliamentary and Provincial Council Elections Oliver Lough with March 2012 Farokhloqa Amini, Farid Ahmad Bayat, Zia Hussain, Reyhaneh Gulsum Hussaini, Massouda Kohistani and Chona E. Echavez This page has been left blank for printing purposes Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit Synthesis Paper Equal Rights, Unequal Opportunities Women’s Participation in Afghanistan’s Parliamentary and Provincial Council Elections Oliver Lough with Farokhloqa Amini, Farid Ahmad Bayat, Zia Hussain, Reyhaneh Gulsum Hussaini Massouda Kohistani, and Chona E. Echavez Funding for this research was provided by the March 2012 UN Women Afghanistan Country Office 2012 Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit About the Authors Oliver Lough was a researcher on the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) project on women’s participation in elections and is also an editor in its communications and advocacy department. Prior to his arrival at AREU, he worked as a journalist in Beijing and studied issues of rural development at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Chona R. Echavez is a Senior Researcher at AREU. Before joining AREU in January 2010, Chona served as an Asia Fellow in Cambodia at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, looking into healing, dreams, aspirations and concepts of peace among Cambodian youth. She also worked as Senior Research Associate at the Research Institute for Mindanao Culture managing a research portfolio that included: population, health, peace and livelihood programmes, considering gender as a crosscutting issue. She has a Ph.D. in Demography from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Her dissertation was on Women and Factory Work in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. About the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is an independent research institute based in Kabul. AREU’s mission is to inform and influence policy and practice through conducting high-quality, policy-relevant research and actively disseminating the results, and to promote a culture of research and learning. To achieve its mission AREU engages with policymakers, civil society, researchers and students to promote their use of AREU’s research and its library, to strengthen their research capacity, and to create opportunities for analysis, reflection and debate. AREU was established in 2002 by the assistance community working in Afghanistan and has a board of directors with representation from donors, the United Nations and other multilateral agencies, and non- governmental organisations. AREU receives core funds from the governments of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Specific projects in 2011 have been funded by the European Commission (EC), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and UN Women. Editing: Toby Miller for AREU Cover Photograph: A female candidate’s campaign poster for the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, by Anna Larson. AREU Publication Code: 1205E © 2012 Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AREU. Some rights are reserved. This publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted only for non-commercial purposes and with written credit to AREU and the author. Where this publication is reproduced, stored or transmitted electronically, a link to AREU’s website (www.areu.org.af) should be provided. Any use of this publication falling outside of these permissions requires prior written permission of the publisher, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. Permission can be sought by emailing [email protected] or by calling +93 (0) 799 608 548. ii Lough, with Amini, Bayat, Hussein, Hussaini, Kohistani and Echavez Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit 2012 Acknowledgements First and foremost the authors would like to thank the project’s research team of Farokhloqa Amini, Farid Ahmad Bayat, Zia Hussain, Reyhaneh Gulsum Hussaini and Massouda Kohistani for their tireless and dedicated work throughout the project. From drafting the first interview guides to putting finishing touches on the analysis, this study has been deeply informed by their extensive professional experience and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the topic. The authors are especially grateful for the team’s help in drafting the methodology section of this paper. The study would also have been impossible without the generous cooperation of the 25 candidates involved, along with the people of the six study communities. The authors are particularly grateful to the generous hospitality of the Yakowlang community which allowed the research team to stay with them for several days, yielding insights that would not otherwise have been possible. The authors would also like to thank Rachel Wareham (National Democratic Institute and formerly the Independent Electoral Commission), Rebecca Haines (Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan), Theresa de Langis (former deputy director of programmes for UNIFEM Afghanistan) and Noah Coburn, Jay Lamey, Anna Larson and Emily Winterbotham (all formerly of AREU), all of whom provided valuable feedback and support at various stages of the study. Additional thanks go to Michael Lou Montejo, Jennifer Lyn Bagaporo and Leah Wilfreda Pilongo for their help in cleaning and processing some of the project’s initial data. Oliver Lough and Chona Echavez January 2012 Equal Rights, Unequal Opportunities iii 2012 Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit Table of Contents Glossary ...................................................................................................v Acronyms ..................................................................................................v Executive Summary .....................................................................................1 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................2 1.1 Overview: The status of women in Afghanistan ����������������������������������������������2 1.2 Historical background: Women’s political participation before 2001 ��������������������4 1.3 The post-2001 context for women’s electoral participation �������������������������������8 1.4 Elections since 2001 ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 2. Methodology and Study Contexts ................................................................. 18 2.1 Research methods ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 18 2.2 Province and community contexts ����������������������������������������������������������� 20 3. Candidates ........................................................................................... 27 3.1 Candidates and their campaigns ������������������������������������������������������������� 27 3.2 General trends ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39 4. Voters ................................................................................................. 46 4.1 Perceptions of women as candidates and voters ������������������������������������������ 46 4.2 Motivation to vote ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 47 4.3 Deciding how to vote �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49 4.4 Access to information ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 52 4.5 Levels of awareness ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 54 4.6 Access to the ballot box ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 4.7 Impact of the elections ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 60 5. Key Findings and Recommendations ............................................................. 62 5.1 Key findings for candidates ������������������������������������������������������������������� 62 5.2 Key findings for voters ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63 5.3 Recommendations ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 65 Appendix: Socio-Demographic Information ........................................................ 68 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 69 Request for Feedback ................................................................................. 72 Tables Table 1: National-level female turnout and candidate numbers for post-2001 elections in Afghanistan ..................................................................................... 11 Table 2: Provincial profiles ........................................................................... 21 Table 3: Provincial and district turnout rates by election ....................................... 21 Table 4: Literacy, women’s education and poverty rates by province ......................... 21 Table 5: Provincial comparison of female/male candidates by year and election ........... 27 Table 6: Levels of competition among female candidates by province, 2009/10 elections .. 28 Appendix