September 2004 Women and Politics in Afghanistan: How to use the chance of the 25% quota for women? Friederike Böge, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Kabul • The 25% women’s quota for the future Afghan parliament is an enormous chance for women to participate in politics, a quota even more progressive than in most other Asian countries. • The quota does not guarantee by itself a strong participation because the practice of using women merely for window-dressing is widespread in Afghanistan. • Lack of security is the main obstacle to more participation of women in Afghan politics. • Politics and parties have a bad name in Afghanistan and are considered as male domains. • Women so far lack the leadership skills needed to build up an effective network. The parliamentary elections in Afghanistan scheduled for spring 2005 offer enormous chances for women to participate in politics. According to the new constitution, at least 25% of the delegates in the parliament have to be women. This is more than in most other Asian countries. However, the mere presence of women in the parliament will not automatically give them their share of influence on decision making processes. The experiences with the Emergency and the Constitutional Loya Jirga (national councils in June 2002 and December 2003) have raised concerns that many of the female delegates will serve mainly symbolic purposes in order to comply with the expecta­tions of the international community. Many of them will be sent and instructed by men with no women’s rights on the agenda. In fact, very few women in Afghanistan are politically active today. Those who want to become active, face a number of serious limi­tations. Former warlords limit women’s participa­tion in politics Lack of security is mentioned by most women as the first and foremost limitation in exercis­ing their political rights. In large parts of the country, warlords and their private militias are still exercising their arbitrary rule. The central government has not managed so far to ex­tend its authority to all provinces. The DDR program designed to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate former militia fighters has moved much slower than hoped for and many wa r­lords have boycotted the program. These mili­tias have direct links to political parties that are actively taking part in the government as well as in the elections. Their presence in poli­tics is seriously hindering women’s participa­tion in politics, as most of these parties have a record of gross human rights abuses, particu­larly against women, and some of them fol­low radical Islamist ideologies. Apart from that, in the Southern and Southeastern part of the country, members of the radical Islamist Taliban have frequently attacked civil­ians in order to disrupt the preparations for the elections.