Afghan Women Candidates Rise 22% for September Parliamentary Vote, UN Says

The number of Afghan women candidates for September’s parliamentary elections has risen 22 percent over the tally for the vote five years ago, according to a United Nations Security Council report released today.

The number of women pursuing legislative seats increased to 400 out of 2,635 candidates. That compares with 328 women out of 2,707 candidates in the 2005 elections, the UN said.

“This number ensures that, at a minimum, women candidates will fill all of the 68 allocated seats and are likely to get additional ones,” the world body said in the study. There are 249 seats in the Afghan National Assembly’s Wolesi Jirga or House of People, according to the parliament’s website.

While women account for roughly half of the population in Afghanistan, they are struggling to assert themselves in Afghan society after years of repression. Women represent only 18 percent of the country’s students in higher education institutions and 16 percent of those holding government positions, according to the Afghan statistics agency.

Turkish Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, who led a Security Council visit to Afghanistan last week, told the council he welcomed the rising participation of women candidates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fabiola Moura at the United Nations at fdemoura@bloomberg.net

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