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A story I find interesting outside the US healthcare, guns, etc
daeandor
Member UncommonPosts: 2,695
I was bebopping around the internet news sites I visit, and came across this interesting article about the elections in Afghanistan from HERE :
Men vote on behalf of their women in Paktika
Obaid Kharotai - Aug 20, 2009 - 22:01
SHARAN (PAN): Men voters in some districts and capital city of the southeastern Paktika province were allowed to cast ballots on behalf of their female family members for lack of separate arrangements, voters said Thursday.
There is only one polling centre in the provincial capital for both male and female voters near the attorney office, but no women were seen on the Election Day.
A man who claimed to have voted for his female family members told Pajhwok Afghan News the Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials allowed him to cast ballots on behalf his female family members. He added the permission was granted in the wake of insecurity and cultural problems for the women.
An IEC spokesman in the province, Dr. Sami, said they didn't allow anyone to vote on behalf of others. However, he did not rule out possibility of men voting on behalf of women.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, a voter, said he cast 35 votes of female members of his family.
Meanwhile, 20 rockets were fired into Urgun district this morning.
District chief, Azizullah Hayati said five rockets were fired at the city and some of them landed in barren areas. He said the rockets caused no casualties.
According to Hayati, people were going to polling centres without any fear.
A resident of the area, Dr. Khattak, said people were nervous about the rocket attacks as many people stayed home.
Governor's spokesman, Hameedullah Zhwok, said security situation was normal and no such incident to prevent people from going to voting centres had been happened.
myn/ma
The highlighted text is what caught my eye particularly. Now, forgive me for sounding insensitive of the area's culture, but allowing one individual to vote on behalf of 35 others seems excessive. Seems like a great way for the Taliban to "legally" gain a foothold back in the politics of Afghanistan.
Oh, and I'm not even getting started on the statement directly above the highlighted part.
Just curious of thoughts on this rather than the typical healthcare / guns at political rally posts.
Comments
I can't stand the middle eastern thought process on the way they treat their women. It infuriates me and I try not to think about it too often. I was doing a job recently with a bunch of muslims and very much wanted to ask them about that but decided it would be a more peaceful time to not.
It does seem like a scheme to rig the voting booths. If they will not let the women vote themselves, the men should only vote once. The whole area over there is too messed up for me.
When a piscating wizard floods every thread I can understand why people leave.
The two colored points are what piss me off the most. So women aren't considered "others"? So what are women exactly?
It's also not okay for them to be brave and send in votes for others, but oh... the men can go off and die. Because they're suppost to protect the weak, scared little females.
Yeah, that's part of the reason I dropped this article in the forums. I find it... strange, I guess.
It is not surprising, women in Afghanistan are just as bad of if not worse then when they were under the Taliban, now they have the warlords to deal with who think even less of women. An Afghanistan male voting for all his immediate female relatives is probably about as normal as her having to ask him for permission to vote.
My opinion of Karzai is as low as it is for the Taliban, especialy with him making back room deals with the warlords .... would not surprise me in the least if these extra votes were bought by him. America needs to stop backing Karzai and start supporting one of the other candidates.
Not to bring in the whole legitimate argument, but that's really where I want to dive with this topic. Can we, as outsiders, actually consider the Afghanistan election any more legitimate than we do Iran's or Venezuela's in terms of "democracy?"
Just because that is in no way legal here in the US or the rest of the Western World doesn't mean the same thing doesn't happen. Here in Oklahoma you'd be suprised by how many women vote only how their husband or father tells them to vote. Not to say they wouldn't vote the same way if they had too, but more likely than not these are the kind of people that just plain wouldn't vote because they don't hold an opinion one way or another. My mother works with a lady who is in her 40s and votes in every major election or minor election based on what her father tells her. Her sisters and mother all do the very same thing. She has no problem declaring this to everyone either.
My mother also attended this woman's daughter's marriage and they played Chopin's Funeral March while some of the people in the ceremony were walking down the aisle prior to the bride. No BS, they actually thought it was pretty and decided to include it without any idea what it was. The funniest thing about this was that they played the piece when the grandparents and family elders were entering heh. Again, this was absolutely not a joke and none of them even realized a mistake had been made at all.
Oh, I'm not going to deny that people vote what their friends and family tell them. But at least they personally cast the vote. While voting by proxy (if you can call it that) in a major political election seems... well, pretty weak. Yes, I realize many of us do this several times a year and might not even know it (stocks, mutual funds, etc), but regardless of whether you like it, it is still different.
I absolutely agree.
why let women vote at all?
You guys do know that when the US first started you had to be at least middle class and a land owning male in order to vote right?
They thought it would be an incenitive to help the poorer class to work their way up and that the pandering to the poorer class would work against the economy.
I am sure most here are aware that women's suffrage didn't happen in the US until 1920. But, officially Afghanistan allows women to vote. But when push comes to shove, it appears, they go back to their tribal ways of only allowing men to vote AND have actually given men more power by allowing to vote for any women in their family via proxy.
And it was ok to own slaves, so maybe that would be fine since it was legal in the USA until 1865. .
It's now 2009, soon to be 2010. I don't think in the 21st Century you can exuse this behavior because in the past things were just as bad, or even worse.