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Women of Afghanistan Push Equality on the Eve of Runoff Presidential Election

Afghan women’s groups Thursday held a press conference announcing that both of the presidential front-runners had signed a six-point petition for women’s rights. The news comes on the eve of the nation’s runoff elections for the presidency, which are being held tomorrow. Initiated by 117 women-led organizations, the petition calls for women’s empowerment with the goals of equality in education and leadership and an end to violence against women.

via Afghan Youth Voices Festival
via Afghan Youth Voices Festival

A runoff election for the presidency will take place tomorrow in Afghanistan after the first election on April 5 failed to earn any candidate running over 50% of the vote. Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s former Foreign Minister, and Ashraf Ghani, former Finance Minister and World Bank economist, will compete.

Afghanistan’s April elections were a tremendous success. Over 7 million Afghans came out to vote in the elections across the nation despite inclement weather, and at least one-third were women. Turnout was so high that the Afghan Independent Commission (IEC) extended voting hours at voting centers to accommodate crowds. The electoral commission has added 3,500 more polling sites for the runoff election.

For the women of Afghanistan, the elections represent an opportunity for their burgeoning women’s rights movement to elect a leader who supports their equality.

“Despite desperate efforts of anti-government elements to thwart the 2014 electoral process,” former Minister of Women’s Affairs Massouda Jalal wrote on the FMF blog in May, “the will of the Afghan people prevailed. We made it. We were able to show the world that our security forces are robust enough to protect our infant democracy and our people remain worthy of international support.”

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 6/5/14, 5/13/14, 4/28/14, 4/7/14; NPR 5/29/14, The Guardian 6/13/14; EuroNews 6/13/14

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