Women running for their lives in Afghanistan elections
This is a big theme in Blueprint for Action. No women, no connectivity.
Afghan Women Put Lives on Line To Run for OfficeBy N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A01CHARKH, Afghanistan -- The note slipped under Mahmoud Shah's front gate was written in a tidy, graceful hand. But the message brimmed with venom: "If you don't stop campaigning for Noorzia Charkhi, your life will be in danger. Also tell Noorzia Charkhi that she should give up her candidacy. Aren't you ashamed to put up posters of your family's women in the bazaar?"
Charkhi, 36, is a journalist based in the capital, Kabul, who is campaigning for a seat in Afghanistan's new parliament. But in this mud-walled village in Logar, the home province she hopes to represent, Charkhi's candidacy is such a challenge to tradition that she and her relatives, including her cousin Shah, have faced repeated threats . . .