Frontier women to defy Islamists' men-only ballot

[emad]

Frontier women to defy Islamists' men-only ballot
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad



MORE than a hundred tribal women have taken a stand against creeping fundamentalism in northwest Pakistan by declaring themselves candidates in local elections that Muslim leaders had decreed a male-only preserve.

Despite one in three local government seats being designated for women candidates, the governing Islamic alliance has ruled that women should neither contest the polls nor vote. It has warned women that they will be forcibly barred from polling stations and face hefty fines if they try to cast their votes.

At the last election in 2001 the women-only seats were left empty because of a ban by Islamists. However, the federal Government insists that women be guaranteed the same electoral rights as men. More than a hundred women have defied the locally imposed ban in North West Frontier Province.

The women, covered from head to toe by veils and protected by police, went to file their nomination papers in the remote Dir district yesterday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1712640,00.html

[Lars39]

1. True courage.

I hope these women get in a few well-placed kicks or carry some re-bar.

[Mairead]

2. True courage indeed. (nt)

[DemsUnite]

4. Make that three

[emad]

5. Lining up here!

x

[Zenlitened]

3. That takes real guts, surrounded as they are by...

... some of the very worst of fundamentalism and patriarchy.

:yourock:

[xchrom]

6. women's rights whether in pakistan or the u.s. remains

the battle ground with fundies and their hateful ways.