VZCZCXRO7426
PP RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #3122 3381313
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031313Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6309
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS KABUL 003122 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, S/CRS 
NSC FOR JWOOD 
OSD FOR MCGRAW 
CG CJTF-82, POLAD, JICCENT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV AF
SUBJECT: IEC ENGAGES WOMEN MPS 
 
¶1. With the Embassy and international NGOs as brokers, the 
Independent Election Commission held a consultative session 
this week with women MPs to discuss how to increase 
participation of women in the voter registration process. 
Although more than 2.5 million Afghans have registered under 
the current process, with registration in many provinces yet 
to begin, many female politicians have questioned the IEC's 
outreach strategy for women.  The three-hour Dec. 2 
discussion, attended by more than 10 MPs, IEC Chairman Dr. 
Azizullah Ludin, other IEC commissioners and staff, and 
several journalists, offered women leaders a chance to 
directly engage the IEC's leadership on election issues. 
 
¶2. MPs Hawa Alam Nooristani (Nuristan, Pashtun) and Rida 
Azimi (Parwan, Tajik) asked the IEC to investigate 
allegations of women not feeling safe to travel to voter 
registration centers.  Other MPs expressed concerns that male 
family members either prevent women from registering or 
register for them.  Qadria Yasdanparast (Kabul, Tajik), a 
member of the Lower House's women's affairs committee, told 
us separately she believes more needs to be done to advertise 
a recent decree by mullahs endorsing women's voting rights. 
MPs Shukria Barakzai (Kabul, Pashtun) and Fatima Nazari 
(Kabul, Hazara) criticized the IEC for delaying its 
announcement of an election date, tying the confusion over 
the election's timing to possible voter disillusionment. 
 
¶3. Despite IEC outreach efforts, barriers to full voting 
rights for women remain an important issue.  Until now, women 
leaders have been slow to bring their concerns to the IEC 
through proper and effective channels.  Strained relations 
between the IEC and Parliament have contributed to the poor 
communications.  However, this week's gathering brought the 
IEC closer to the elected representatives of the Afghan 
people and provided a proper forum for legislators and 
commissioners to share concerns and propose solutions for 
making the registration and election processes a success. 
IEC Deputy Chief Technical Officer Zekria Barakzai said the 
commission would continue its dialogue with women legislators 
to address their concerns. 
DELL