In a blatant violation of Pakistan’s election law, women in the village of Adina in the NA-20 constituency of Swabi district were barred from casting their votes in the general election held on Thursday.
According to local sources, the decision to ban women from voting was taken unanimously by the male residents of the area, who claimed that it was against their culture and tradition to allow women to participate in the electoral process.
The polling station in Adina had staff and security personnel present, but no female voters showed up. Out of the 6,000 registered women voters in the area, none exercised their constitutional right to vote.
This is not an isolated incident in Pakistan, where women face various obstacles and challenges to access their voting rights. In many conservative and rural areas, women are discouraged or prevented from voting by social norms, patriarchal structures, and sometimes even threats and violence.
Pakistan’s election law requires at least 10 percent of voters to be women in each constituency for an election to be valid. In 2017, Pakistan enacted the Elections Act to end disenfranchisement of women. However, the implementation and enforcement of these laws remain weak and ineffective.
Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates governments to ensure women’s equal participation in political and public life. However, Pakistan ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of women’s representation in parliament, with only 20 percent of the seats reserved for women.