On 13 July, the Gender Unit hosted a discussion with the Political Parties Consultative Forum (PPCF) on women and the elections. The PPCF began in July 2004 with the participation of 12 political parties. Now approximately 72 political parties meet twice a month to discuss various issues regarding the electoral process with the JEMB. Five parties from the provinces and 67 parties in Kabul participate.

The Gender Unit presented an introduction to their work and a brief outline of gender issues that are relevant to the elections. The Gender team explained that they view issues of gender and the elections holistically, meaning that they address both men's and women's concerns regarding women's participation as candidates and voters. In this regard, presenting to an audience largely comprised of men was relevant, and the discussion was lively.

The unit also explained why gender is relevant to the elections, and to political parties in particular. Women are currently approximately 40% of registered voters. Naturally, political parties are concerned with their presence in the parliament. They need to ensure adequate political power by securing maximum votes. And female votes are votes. Not including women could result in less seats for particular parties. Inclusive parties have twice the number of votes because they include one half of the population – women.

The open discussion began with questions surrounding the 25% quota for women. The quota was disputed slightly, some thought it should be more, and some less. It was clarified that women are not limited to their 25% quota, but can also compete for and win other seats too. Many men agreed that the quota was a worthy effort, and that without it women would have great difficulty in being represented (one man suggested that women would win less than 1% of the vote without quotas). Participants said that whilst Afghanistan is still in a process of social and political development, quotas are necessary. However, concern was expressed that women might not have the necessary capacity to perform in the parliament. It was generally agreed that both women and men do not have sufficient education and experience to perform as expected. Further understanding of their role and of political processes is necessary.

The audience was concerned with seats for women that might remain vacant. In fact a seat will not remain vacant unless there were insufficient candidates, and this only happened in relation to a few provincial council seats. There was a concern expressed that some women candidates would get a low number of votes. A female member of the audience explained that the empty seat will motivate more women to fill it next time.

Most of the audience believed that equal rights were in place for women. They noted that urban women have rights, but rural women do not. And if there was no quota, women would get less than 1% of the votes. There was an awareness of the many difficulties that women face, and that although equal rights are in place in the Constitution and the laws, they are not yet in practice. They must just take these rights and use them, many argued. One suggested that the allocation of seats should be according to the population (where, incidently, women slightly outnumber men). In a country were most men do not understand their rights, we must give time for women to understand their rights, one man explained.

The audience expressed concern about Kuchi women and how they were being reached and engaged in the electoral process. How are we reaching out to women at the village level? They asked. The audience also wanted to know how we were reaching out to women whose restricted mobility might impede them from accessing information on candidates and on registering and voting. Women should encourage men to give them permission to be educated, many men agreed.

The PPCF advised that we spend time understanding the community and working to earn their trust better. Doing so will help us craft better messages that will be more relevant to the people. The use of religious leaders is instrumental in this regard.

The parties were concerned that women were under-represented in their parties. 109 women candidates have declared themselves to be affiliated to political parties, but the participants thought that probably more were in fact affiliated, but afraid to express this. A comment was made about the voting system here, which reduces the role of political parties, and in effect puts candidates in the position of running as independents. This was said to impact more on women, since women usually have less resources and organizational structure supporting them, and so are therefore in greater need of party structures and support.

A brief discussion about ethnicity ensued. Are we reaching different ethnicities? People asked. Will others vote along ethnic lines? It was decided that votes should be on competence – not on sex or ethnicity. Yet, on the other hand, many in the audience were in favor of the quota. The discussion was lively and informative.