INDIA: Kashmiri Women Repose Faith in Electoral Politics

SRINAGAR, Dec 26, 2008 (IPS) - With voting for the provincial elections in Indian Kashmir safely over, observers say that what was remarkable about the process - apart from its relative peacefulness - was the active participation of women in a Muslim-majority state.

Of the 1,354 contestants, 67 were women. This was despite widespread fears that tensions over the Nov. 26 -29 terrorist attacks in Mumbai could disturb the staggered elections, which began on Nov. 17 and ended Wednesday. The results are due be announced on Sunday.

Suspicion for the Mumbai attacks, that left nearly 200 people dead, quickly fell on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which has been fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir.

The fears of violence were valid also because the elections were conducted in the aftermath of communal and regional tensions over the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine which led to months of mass protests and demonstrations in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley. More than 50 demonstrators died in clashes with the police.

With troops deployed in strength through the seven phases of the elections, more than 50 percent of voters turned up to cast their ballots, and women could be seen queuing up in long, separate lines in what observers said was a significant departure from earlier elections.

"The number of female voters was far greater than the number of male voters. The overall percentage of female voters was 60 percent during this year's elections,’’ Nazir Ahmad Parray, assistant chief electoral officer, told IPS.

"Women in this part of the globe have been least attracted towards the electoral politics. This is because of the fact that women were always regarded as less competitive or capable of representing the masses in a conservative society like ours,’’ says Bashir Ahmad Dabla, a well-known sociologist.

Senior political leader Mehboob Beig traces the poor participation of women in Kashmir politics to religious and conventional bindings: "It has been a convention in our society that we don't allow our women to take part in activities which require public exposure; it is more so done in the light of teachings of religion."

According to the Election Commission of India, which conducts elections in Kashmir, in the elections held in 1983 only seven of the 505 candidates were women, but this improved slightly in 1987 to 13 women among 528 candidates.

The 1996 elections were conducted after nine years of direct federal rule in the state imposed to counter an armed struggle against Indian rule that began in 1989. Consequently, the percentage of women contestants dropped (1.46 percent).

The 2002 elections saw better participation - there were 30 women out of a total of 709 candidates.

Significantly, the 2002 elections saw the emergence of a vocal and vibrant female voice in Kashmir politics - Mehbooba Mufti, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, a prominent politician who has served terms as home minister of India and as chief minister of Kashmir.

Mehbooba showed political acumen by forging a coalition government of her People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the nationally-ruling Congress party, capable of taking on the formidable National Conference party which has traditionally dominated politics in Kashmir.

While campaigning in Kashmir on behalf of his Congress party, India’s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee termed the PDP-Congress coalition as one which changed the course of Indo-Pakistan relations.

"Apart from contributing to the overall development of Kashmir, the coalition also contributed greatly to improving Indo-Pak relations and people-to-people contacts between the divided parts of Kashmir,’’ observed Mukherjee.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety. But for more than 60 years now, two-thirds of the territory has been under Indian control and the rest with Pakistan with the two parts separated by a fortified Line of Control.

Many believe that the greater participation of women in the current elections owes much to Mehbooba’s success in politics and also because women now feel they can play a bigger role in bringing peace to strife-torn Kashmir.

Among the 67 female contestants is Shabnum Gani Lone, daughter of Abdul Gani Lone, a popular leader who was assassinated by unknown gunmen before the 2002 elections. Shabnum says that she is contesting the elections to get the voices of the many victims of the freedom movement heard.

"Elections are not a solution to the Kashmir issue. Kashmir issue needs a political solution and that has to come through dialogue as per the wishes of all the three parties to the dispute - India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris,'' says Shabnum.

"People have been denied their rights. There is poverty and unemployment, especially in the rural areas. People who have lost their loved ones are not being taken care of properly. I would like to work and see that their voices are heard,’’ Shabnum said.

Shabnum’s brothers, Sajad Gani Lone and Bilal Gani Lone, are part of the pro-freedom camp which advocates a boycott of elections until the Kashmir issue is resolved.

Kashmiri separatist leaders and militant groups, believe that the holding of elections strengthen India’s hold over Kashmir had, as before, called for a boycott of the present polls. Many of them were detained by the government.

"I won't say anything about boycotting the elections; my assertion is that the Kashmir issue has to be resolved politically, but let people not suffer meanwhile,’’ said Shabnum.

Many women candidates had a similar attitude. ‘’We are just contesting elections to highlight the problems which are being faced by the people, especially the women,’’ says Sabiya Qadri, an independent candidate.

"Though no survey has been done so far to find out the number of widows and orphans, an estimated 35,000 women have become widows and some 80,000 children orphaned,’’ says Rouf Mohi-u-Din who runs ‘Koshish,’ a non-government organisation (NGO) that works with conflict-affected women and children.

"Since the affected women are yet to be registered by the government agencies and NGOs, only two to three thousand women receive some kind of assistance from government schemes for the affected people," he told IPS.

In 2000, the state government constituted a commission to enable women to highlight their problems. However, the commission has been headless for the last three-and-a-half years. "Such is the level of non-seriousness towards the plight of women,’’ commented Roheela Akhtar, a research scholar in Kashmir University.

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