Elections

Ever since women’s reserved seats have been introduced in the legislative houses, women occupying these seats have become a thorn in many eyes. Not a day has passed when in the corridors of the parliament sarcastic remarks aren’t heard. Men from across the parties are routinely heard sneering at women on reserved seats for being ‘non-representative’ and many a times for being ‘non-productive’. Men and women who come to the legislative houses after winning general elections often belittle women on reserved seats on public forum.

Afghan women represented a third of the vote and a historic number of provincial candidates at the weekend's elections. Aid workers say that women are defiant in the progress of democracy and rights, and won't be deterred by violent insurgency.

We invite our users to read the complete article published April 7 2014 

The women form the majority of the electorate in Arunachal Pradesh but when it comes to contesting elections the numbers are at the odds with their population, with only 6 of them joining the fray for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections. 

The state has 3,77,272 women electorate against 3,75,898 males, with several assembly constituencies having more women voters than males. 

The are in fray in only six Assembly seats in the state and in none of the two Lok Sabha seats.

On International Women's Day last month, Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani held a rally in Kabul attended by several thousand women. While they were all wearing headscarves, there was not a full-length burqa to be seen in the crowd. And did something highly unusual in Afghanistan: He let his wife, Rula, a Lebanese-American Christian, address the crowd.

We invite you to read the full article published April 3, 2014

The campaign for Saturday's presidential election in Afghanistan is featuring women in a more prominent role than ever before. One front-runner has a female running mate, and another has let his wife address campaign rallies—major departures from established practice in a conservative, Islamic country where women have long been kept out of politics.

Activists say the relative prominence of women in the election campaign underlines the progress Afghan women have made since the U.S. ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

Mariam Wardak is one of those young Afghans with her feet in two worlds: At 28, she has spent much of her adult life in Afghanistan, but she grew up in the United States after her family fled there. She vividly remembers the culture shock of visits back to her family’s village in rural Wardak Province a decade ago.

We invite you to read the full article published April 1, 2014

Husbands of the women contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Bihar are going all out to support their wives.Take the case of Sailesh Kumar, husband of Misa Bharti and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. An IIM Lucknow alumnus, Kumar is managing his wife's poll campaign – besides taking care of the couple's two daughters.

When it comes to women in the White House, Sarah Palin takes the cake in Americans’ eyes, a new poll found.

The Economist/YouGov poll asked participants which female candidate — other than Hillary Clinton — they’d like to see run for the high office.

Mrs. Palin won 9 percent of the vote, Breitbart reported.

We invite you to read the full article published March 31, 2014

Camellia Lubis, a 28-year-old dangdut singer popularly known as Camel Petir (Thunder), is one of 2,467 women legislative candidates vying for a seat in the House of Representatives.

The legislative candidate from the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), who will be standing for the second Jakarta electoral district, says she has been greatly underestimated due to her background as a singer with no political experience.