Women stayed home in Afghan election

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The willingness to vote shown by Afghanistan women five years ago was not as apparent during this year's presidential elections, advocates say.

In 2005, with Afghanistan largely at peace, women took advantage of easing taboos to vote in large numbers and participate in the country's electoral process. But in this month's vote it was a different story, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The newspaper said Taliban threats, poor planning, fear, tradition and apathy deprived many Afghan women of the franchise in the Aug. 20 election,, with segregated women's polling places in some cities remaining virtually empty.

"Everywhere I went before elections, I urged women in the villages to vote," Safia Siddiqui, a legislator from Nangahar province, told the Post. "But when the day came, even professional women in the city who normally felt free to go to work and shops and weddings stayed home. I was shocked."

"Our constitution gives all men and women equal rights to vote, but in most areas that were not safe and secure, men did not let the women leave home and voted for them," said Sabrina Saghib, a member of a parliamentary committee on women's rights.