Pakistan

The 2013 election was of particular note for women as Pakistan ratified the ICCPR in 2010, so this was the first election in which it was subject to its obligations.  Pakistan ratified CEDAW in 1996. The Pakistani constitution also prohibits gender discrimination and places an affirmative obligation on the state to ensure full participation of women in all spheres of national life (article 34). Therefore, there was no question of Pakistan’s legal commitments in this area. 

While Pakistan saw improvement in 2013 as compared to the 2009 election, there was still an enormous gap between the number of men and women registered to vote, and relatively low registration rates generally. The UN estimates Pakistan’s population to comprise 88.5 million women and 91.4 million men (179.9 million in total).[1] Numerous studies, including by Gender Concerns International, found that 

…women represented 43.6% of registered voters for the 2013 General Elections: 37.6 million women were registered to vote nationwide, compared to 48.6 million men. The percentage of women voters was lowest in FATA, with 34.4% female registration (0.59 million women), compared to 1.1 million men. The highest was in Islamabad, with 46% female registration. The percentage of women registered as voters in each province was 42.6% in Balochistan, 42.9% in KP, 43.8% in Punjab and 44.7% in Sindh15.[2]

Women not having the requisite identification card--a major issue identified as a frequent obstacle in this report--is the most significant reason for the disparity. In order to cast a vote, Pakistanis must first register with the National Database and Registration Authority and obtain a computerized national identity card (“CNIC”). A report from IFES states that although major efforts were undertaken by the election commission and civil society to register women to vote, because the voter registration list was compiled using computerized national identity card (CNIC) information, it left out approximately 20 percent of eligible Pakistani women.[4]

Nationally, 90% of men say that they have a CNIC compared to 79% of women. The differential between men and women on CNIC is highest in KPK where nearly all men (97%) say they have a CNIC but only 81% of women say the same. In Punjab 91% of men say they have a CNIC compared to 76% of women.[5] NADRA, the agency responsible for the distribution of the CNIC reported that 92 million CNICs were issued in advance of the election, but only 40 million to women.[6] 

According to IFES, in Pakistan there was a lack of awareness amongst women regarding the election processes including how to register. Illiteracy, discussed at length in this report, has also been identified as a major challenge in women’s ability to register to vote in Pakistan, especially rural women.  These women are simply, in some cases, unable to fill out the forms.[7] Two-thirds of the country’s working age women are reportedly illiterate.[8]

Many other themes identified above are reflected in the experience of Pakistan.  In rural areas of Pakistan, many women do not get their CNICs because they are unable to leave their house without a male.  Their movements outside the house are restricted.  In another example, “registrars say male household heads answering the door to the registrar may have either not reported the existence of their wives, daughters, or sisters, or flatly refused to have the female members of their household registered. The reasons for this vary, and range from the conviction that women should not be involved in politics to the desire to keep the women in their family off government records and sheltered from government interference.” Moreover, “ the practice of employing only male registrars for house calls also likely contributed to low female registration as in many areas women at home without their male relatives were unlikely to even open the door to an unfamiliar male visitor.”[9]  Cultural norms and belief systems hindered women’s ability to register to vote. 

The problem of persistent gendered role definitions also occurs in Pakistan.  The notion of “private woman and public man” is still strong, especially in certain regions. This can be especially true in tribal areas where the gender gap is even more marked. Women are generally left out of public life in places like Fata by their high level of illiteracy, having all of the family responsibilities, cultural barriers and a perception that politics is only a man’s concern. In Fata women’s mobility is strictly controlled.[10]

In another echo of the themes above, it is believed that a significant number of internally displaced people may also have been inadvertently excluded from the electoral roll and as we have seen, women tend to be over-represented in IDP populations. 

To its credit, the government did make significant efforts to ensure that as many eligible Pakistanis as possible could obtain IDs and register in 2013, and tried to facilitate female registration especially – for example, on Fridays 11 centers run by the national registration authority were staffed exclusively by women.  At the same time, no “women serve on the Election Commission, and the officers of the ECP, including its directors and provincial commissioners, are all men. The ECP further reported that less than 2 percent of its staff members and less than 2 percent of DROs, ROs, and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) are women.[11] 

Cameroon

Cameroon provides a useful example of the problems women have in some parts of the world because of religious strictures that prevent their pictures from being taken.

Cameroon, like many countries in Africa and elsewhere is currently instituting a biometric registration system.  There is concern that this may end up disenfranchising women especially “in the country's predominantly Muslim north where cultural practices, including the wearing of a veil, may prevent them from having their photos taken.”[12]

According to press reports, “In order to register to vote in the February 2013 parliamentary and local council elections, citizens were required to have a national identity card, with a photograph. In addition, photographs had to be taken of people registering to vote and people were not allowed to wear caps, lenses, veils or anything that could distort their facial identity. In some parts of the country, women are not allowed to take off their veils in public.”[13]  There is also the problem, as in other places, of the strict control of women’s movements outside the home by men.[14]

The election commission tried to address the problem by going to the homes of the women so that their pictures could be taken without the veil outside the presence of men, but this did not solve the problem of women not having the national identity card which required a photograph as well.  The commission planned an education campaign to sensitize husbands on the need to allow their wives to have a national identity card.[15]

Nepal

Nepal is another country where the problem of women not having the requisite documentation – and being discriminated against quite blatantly in the process for getting such documentation – is at the forefront of the problems.

The Carter Center has done extensive study of Nepal’s voter registration procedures over the last year, including issues related to women.  In February of 2013[16] TCC reported that in Nepal women have distinctly lower rates of registration than men.

The main problem is quite clear: the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines require a married woman to have her husband or father in law support the application for the citizenship certificate. “This can be difficult to obtain in some cases – for example, in cases of divorce, separation, or becoming a widow – or sometimes for cultural reasons. In effect, the guidelines place married women in an unequal position, as married men are permitted to obtain citizenship certificates with the support of their own parents.”[17] Citizenship certificates are required to register to vote.

Another obstacle is one described at length above: the distance to registration centers and the time and resources this requires.  

The Carter Center issued follow up reports on these issues in October of 2013.[18] TCC found that the Ministry of Home Affairs had pursued one of the recommendations TCC had made in earlier reports to ensure more people, especially women, had the requisite citizenship certificates to register to vote.  First was the deployment of 364 mobile teams that, among other government services, provided for citizenship certificate distribution, and deployed them to remote areas (often with voter registration staff).  Also the Ministry and the election commission jointly deployed 472 mobile teams in all 75 districts of Nepal to register voters.[19]   

“The MoHA informed The Carter Center that in total, 603,094 citizenship certificates were issued during the two phases, with women being the primary beneficiaries (365,410 women and 237,684 men).” TCC did critique the program noting that some people had to travel far distances even to get to the mobile centers, and as we have seen this presents an even greater challenge for women. “For example, in Gorkha (Simjung VDC), Carter Center observers noted that some citizens had travelled four hours to reach the registration site.”[20] 

The Carter Center revisited the issue of women being required to have her husband or father support their applications for the citizenship certificate. “Although these guidelines are still in force, the MoHA informed the Center that it had issued an instruction to district administration offices in January 2013 allowing married women to obtain a citizenship certificate using the father’s citizenship certificate as supporting document.”  This was hardly a complete solution.  Among other problems this might continue to cause, “women who choose to use their father’s citizenship certificate as support could forfeit their right to inherit from their husbands (if they do not have a marriage certificate) and that could create difficulties for their children to obtain citizenship certificates. This often makes women reluctant to use this possibility.”[21] 

Nepal is also an example of where highly gendered roles continue to discriminate against women which impacts their ability to register to vote. According to Nepal’s submission to the CEDAW Committee, “Gender relations in Nepal continue to be defined by a patriarchal value system, which perpetuates women’s subordination. Many women do not question it and to a certain degree believe that men have the right to control their lives and bodies.”[22]

Guatemala

There are a very high number of undocumented women in Guatemala, especially among indigenous, poor and rural women.  This has been demonstrated through surveys, including one by Gallup in Guatemala, but there is not precise data.

A big reason for this is that these women are very likely to be illiterate. 36% of Guatemalans are illiterate, but 51% of indigenous women cannot read or write. “Only 17 of every 100 girls complete primary school, and in rural areas 66 per cent of them drop out of school before completing the third grade.”[23]

Moreover, “Patriarchy and exclusion persist as the bases of societal arrangements, in which values are gauged through macho and racist socio-cultural standards that discriminate against women’s participation.” [24]

An NDI report on barriers to participation in Guatemala revealed a number of the obstacles women confront in that country particularly.[25] First the study confirmed that there is a wide gap in participation between men and women, among both the indigenous and the ladino populations,[26] although it was even more extreme in indigenous communities.[27]

Not surprisingly, the report found that lack of proper identification “is clearly the most frequent reason for not voting amongst both ladino and indigenous respondents alike.”[28] A problem more particular to women is that they are not involved in civic life in general, which has a clear correlation to their failure to be registered to vote.[29]

Beyond conducting a statistical survey, NDI also employed focus groups. These workshops found the following: 

Participation gap between men and women

Main problems detected:

1. Difficulties to obtain identity card (cedula)
2. Lack of money
3. Cultural problems
4. Discrimination
5. Education
6. Language

Main causes of problems:

• The cost of getting an identity card is a barrier especially for women, as they are often economically dependent on their male family members or husbands.
• Lack of instruction and education is even more pressing amongst women.
• Lack of documents among women for various institutional, idiomatic and cultural reasons.
• Male chauvinism is a cultural factor. Men don’t deem it necessary to register their daughters in the Civil Registry when they are born, and in due time they are not allowed to get their identity card nor to participate in civic or communal activities. It is a patriarchal and racist system.
• Language barriers are higher in indigenous women as many of them do not speak Spanish. This was exemplified as follows: “Women only need to use their native language because they’re always at home taking care of the children.”
• Participants expressed that therefore indigenous women are not informed and are not aware of their rights and obligations.
• Scarce institutional attention towards women. The government is the reflection of a chauvinist society. Ongoing policies and approaches are insufficient.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has supported these findings. It found that, “while long-entrenched stereotypes and discrimination have been obstacles for women’s participation other more pragmatic barriers have also conspired to prevent women from voting, such as the lack of official identification papers…Of the registered voters, approximately 57% are men and 43% women. Reports indicate that around 30% of the women who are eligible to vote are not registered especially in indigenous and rural communities.” [30] 

Bolivia

As in Guatemala, there are a very high number of undocumented women in Bolivia, especially among indigenous, poor and rural women.  As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has reported, there is a “kind of dual discrimination against indigenous and peasant women who have been unable to obtain identity documents and have thereby been prevented de facto from forming or joining political parties and participating individually in elections.” The IAHCR further reports “that a high number of women, in particular indigenous women in rural areas, older women, and women with disabilities, do not have identity documents and cannot, therefore, exercise their political  rights.[31] 

In addition, as in so many other countries, the issues of illiteracy and lack of education come into play.  “In Bolivia, the illiteracy rate for women is 19.35 per cent, while the rate for men is 6.94 per cent. In the rural area feminine illiteracy is 37.91 per cent, while the masculine rate is 14.42 per cent.”[32]

The typical cultural barriers also exist in Bolivia, where despite progress an ethos of gender discrimination persists. According to UNICEF, In Bolivia, a traditional misogynist culture persists where women are assigned a subordinate, traditional and dependent role, mainly the roles of reproduction and care of the family.[33] This may be particularly so in indigenous communities.  One example is “Aymara democracy—the Aymara being one of the most populous indigenous peoples in Bolivia—in which only males can participate in public debate: the Communal Assembly—parlakipawi—as the highest authority and centre of community life, bars female participation. Being elected the main authority (jilakata or kuraka) is a privilege that is enjoyed only by men who are married, own land, and are heads of family.”[34]

Afghanistan