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| India-Pakistan |
| Two women elected despite opposition from jirga, clerics |
| 2006-09-23 |
| GILGIT: For the first time in the history of the tribal district of Diamer in the Northern Areas, two women were elected to the Diamer District Council on Friday, despite strong opposition from the clerics and the tribal jirga, official sources said. Diamer Deputy Commissioner Abul Hameed said that there was stiff opposition from the jirga and the clerics but Rahila from Chilas and Saeeda from Tangeer tehsil had been declared members of the Diamer District Council. Hameed said that the single seat reserved for women in the Northern Areas Legislative Council was filled in February this year but the womens' seats in the municipal councils and the union council still stood vacant. Sources said that the elections for womens' seats in Diamer were supposed to take place two years ago but were delayed after fierce opposition from clerics and the tribal jirga. Once the new date for elections was announced, at least five women filed their candidature, and the nomination papers of two of them were rejected by the returning officer. Sources added that earlier a group of jirga members and clerics had warned the contesting women of social boycott if they did not withdraw their candidatures and they also approached the families of the contestants to dissuade them from participating in the elections. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Thirty years ago Afhani women didn't wear veils if they didn't want. They were doctors and lawyers. Hard to imagine isn't it. Societies don't always evolve, sometimes they devolve. We should be aware of this, it could be happening here. So many things seem not to work as well as they used to. Once we put a man on the moon: we'd have trouble doing it today. We may be hitting an evolutionary wall. Kind of like the Star Trek conundrum. In the Star Trek version of the future, everyone would be in the holodeck having the time of their lives, nobody would want to do anything else, so they would devolve in a couple of generations. We have too many technological helpers: we use calculators, we don't bother exercising the brain to add up. Our brains are getting mushy I think. We are getting stupider than our parents and grandparents' generations. |
| Posted by: anon1 2006-09-23 22:44 |
| #2 Start gathering stones. Some small act will soon merit the stoning of the both of them. |
| Posted by: SOP35/Rat 2006-09-23 01:51 |
| #1 Brave they are. Bless them. |
| Posted by: newc 2006-09-23 00:50 |