Tribal elders in a deeply conservative district in Pakistan’s northwestern frontier warned women not to get involved in upcoming elections, threatening on Sunday to burn down the homes of any family that allows its women to vote.
Elders in the tribal region of Khyber Agency, near the border city of Peshawar, said it was un-Islamic and against their traditions for women to vote. They said families that disobeyed the order would be fined about $16 650 and have their homes destroyed, and warned candidates that if they attempted to court women voters, they would be fined double that amount.
”We will not allow women under any circumstances to vote,” said Syed Pir Badshah, a Pashtun tribal elder who presided over Sunday’s council, or jirga, in the town of Bara. ”This is against our traditions.” Badshah warned that armed volunteers would be at polling stations in the district for Thursday’s election to make sure women don’t vote. He said just two percent of the women in the area have registered anyway.
A local government official, Syed Jamaluddin Shah, said the elders’ ruling had no legal merit, and that the government would take action against anyone trying to tamper with a free vote. ”Nobody has the right to stop women from voting,” said Shah, who is also an elections’ supervisor. He added that the government would provide security to voters.
Badshah and other council members said candidates in the region had agreed not to allow women to go to polling stations. ”All candidates have decided that women’s votes would not be polled,” said Mohammad Saeed Afridi, who is running on a Pashtun nationalist party ticket.
The tribal regions, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, enjoy semi-autonomy, with law enforced by councils of tribal elders. While the councils are given wide latitude, they must also adhere to the laws of the federal government.
Thursday’s vote to select a national parliament and four regional legislatures will be the second general election in the tribal areas that have had direct balloting. Previously, tribal councils chose an elder to represent each region. Some councils made similar threats in 1997, when the first direct vote was held, but no houses were ever burned down. – Sapa-AP