More women than ever before won seats in Pakistan’s recent local elections. Muddassir Rizvi and Hadia Nusrat examine how they were elected.

“Things are going to change,” predicts Fatima, confidently. She was recently elected unopposed to a local council near the central Punjab town of Sargodha, 250 km from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Fatima is among 4,689 women elected in 18 of the least developed districts of Pakistan in the first phase of local elections held at the end of last year. As part of the military government’s pledge to devolve power and introduce democracy to this country of 135 million people, these local elections also raised hopes of an era of female empowerment in a country that has frequently been accused of rights abuses and discrimination against women.

International and domestic human rights groups have long been demanding an end to discriminatory interpretations of Islamic laws, honour killings and gender-biased decision-making. In its bid to gain more acceptability in the international community and give conservative Pakistan a more moderate and progressive image, the military government has laid major emphasis on improving the rights situation in the country, especially with regard to women and ethnic minorities.

But granting women a share of 33 % representation in the traditionally male-dominated local level institutions was not easy to achieve, even for the powerful military rulers. The announcement of special women’s seats last March evoked a sharp response from religious parties and Islamic extremist groups, who believe that representation by women would fan obscenity and break up the traditional family system. Street protests and mass agitation were threatened, forcing the government to reduce the proposed number of reserved seats from 50% to 33%.

But that did not satisfy the religious right. In many parts of the country, religious parties ran concerted campaigns to discourage women from participating in local elections, using family and social pressure. Aside from the religious pressures, often men in the families – especially in influential families – would see women going out of their house as a matter of prestige. As a result, almost 20% of the seats reserved for women remained vacant.

Although the Imam of the mosque in Fatima’s village did not try to influence the women’s participation, he fully subscribed to the extremists’ views. “Islam restricts women from intermingling with men. Women should stay at home and shouldn’t be politicking,” said Maulvi Allah Bakhsh, the mosque leader.

But Fatima is lucky that her husband, a retired army man, fully supports her political endeavours. Undeterred by opposition from forces backing the status quo, this 39-year-old mother of six is ready to raise issues as diverse as high rates of female illiteracy, poor maternal health facilities and lack of clean water. “We have no fear… we’ll fight for our rights,” she said, amidst approving nods of the women of the village gathered around her at the office of Pattan Development Foundation. An organisation that has been working on voter education, Pattan field staff played a key role in motivating Fatima and other women in 12 villages of the area.

“The process was painstaking,” said volunteer Fida Hussain, camped in a mud house near the banks of the Chenab River. “We involved the men and elders of the family in allowing their women to take on the role of participation in decision-making. As women’s participation is a sensitive issue, we tried to make our intervention culturally acceptable and closer to the people’s value systems.”

Pattan is not the only organisation that has actively worked to counter the rightist influences that were equally geared up to dissuade women from contesting local elections. Aurat Foundation, a Lahore-based women’s rights group, formed district level committees to ensure maximum participation. “Unless women get involved in the decision-making processes, their problems will not be addressed,” says the Foundation’s spokesperson Sajid Mansoor Qaiserani.

According to the report of the renowned Dr Mahboob ul Haq Centre for Human Development, Pakistani women and girls are more deprived than their male counterparts by all measures. At least 29% of females are deprived of health opportunities, whereas an alarming 72% – as against 47% of males – are missing out on education opportunities. More than half the women in Pakistan are suffering poverty of opportunities compared to just over a third of men.

The situation in Bharat village reflects the national picture. The only girls’ primary school in the area does not have a teacher, leaving families with the choice of religious education at the neighbourhood mosque. “Despite several requests the provincial authorities never appointed a female teacher at the school,” complains one of the village women.

Women in Bharat are also without adequate facilities to address their maternal health needs. Although a government-funded female health worker caters to the community, she does not enjoy the confidence of the local population, as she is young and inexperienced. “The nearest basic health unit is more than 20 km away. Many women, especially those with complications, lose their lives as the only transport available is a horse-pulled cart,” says another of the villagers.

But these marginalised women now see a ray of hope with the election of Fatima and the other women councillors. Although they may get a better deal at grassroots level, they are still a long way from real empowerment – yet they are optimistic. “Change is a slow process, but at least the ball has been set rolling,” says Fida Hussain.

A lot will depend on the government, however. It will have to honour its promise of devolving powers to these local representatives as the only way to introduce good governance in a country that has been blighted by corruption, red tape and bureaucratic inefficiencies. According to Dr Zafar Mirza of the Islamabad-based Network for Consumer Protection: “The government has to let the local councils work and give them powers to implement what they decide. Hollow promises of devolution of power will only exacerbate people’s disillusionment with the democratic process.”

Muddassir Rizvi is a development journalist, and Hadia Nusrat is assistant editor of a health magazine. Both work in Islamabad.