Creating A Women's Vote

A Campaign for Putting Women on the Political Agenda

This campaign that we had for putting women on the political agenda of Pakistan was a very challenging experience, and I am very happy, that today, I am able to share that experience with you.
I will share the process, so that you are able to go through with me and experience what we did. I'd like to outline some of the achievements, the lessons we learned (because this was a new experience for us), and also the gaps and things that remained to be done.
Rationale
Basically, the RATIONALE for this campaign was that the empowerment of women in society is only possible: (1) if their concerns are adequately reflected in the laws, policies and development priorities of the country; and (2) if they begin to play a greater role in the political and economic decision-making processes at both the macro and micro levels.
Goals
This being the premise for launching that campaign, the OVERALL GOALS thereby became: (1) to make political parties recognize women as a constituency, and pressurize them towards a commitment to address themselves to women's problems, interests and claims; and (2) to make women play a more active role in this process.
Objectives
The SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES were: (1) to bring women's issues on the manifestoes and agendas of political parties; (2) to make election candidates address themselves to women's issues and state their future programmes for women; (3) to make women in political parties aware of the issues concerning women; (4) to make women aware of the importance of their vote and the issues of concern to them; and (5) to get women to express their concerns to political party leadership through their candidates.
Activities
What were the activities specifically undertaken?
1. Sending suggestions for manifestoes to the different political parties on the following issues: legal rights, violence, political participation/representation, education, water, health, population, employment, control and ownership of resources, agriculture, forestry, housing and physical planning, media.
This campaign may have been our organization's brainchild, but it was not just our effort because it could not have worked if we didn't link up and network with other organizations.
The manifestoes were drafted with the help of concerned individuals and experts in women's development. These were, then, sent to 30 political parties.
Then we held dialogues with the main political parties for the incorporation of these suggestions.
The two main political parties of Pakistan also approached us when they were drafting their manifestoes.
2. Setting up steering committees: as I said earlier, it was not possible for our organization to accomplish this by itself, so we set up Steering Committees in five (5) major cities. These Steering Committees were comprised of representatives of NGOs Women's Rights and Human Rights groups, development organizations, trade unions, media, activists, academics, concerned individuals, outreach organizations, etc. Their functions were to help in developing the agenda and devising strategies for carrying out the programmes.
3. Interaction with NGOs. We involved other NGOs/groups, individuals in all activities undertaken by Aurat Foundation, as well as participated in meetings/seminars activities of other organizations e.g. the Women's Action Forum's political seminars, Bedari's awareness-raising meeting, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's election monitoring, etc.
4. Preparation and Distribution of Materials. Barely two months before the elections, we prepared the following: pamphlets on the reason for the Campaign and the importance of women's vote; pamphlets on issues such as legal rights, violence, political participation, health, education, and water; posters on the importance of women's vote and women's issues; cassettes containing songs (with popular tunes) and messages on the importance of women's vote and issues.
We distributed the materials through organizations (NOGs, CBOs, Labour Unions); given to political parties, at political meetings, political party booths, through community development workers. Songs were played at political party booths, in public transport vehicles, busy market places; and posters displayed at busy public places, meetings, t.v., etc.
5. Awareness-raising through Media. In the print media, the articles were contributed by Aurat Foundation and some input by steering committee members. Media picked up the Campaign, but were mainly interested in events, which involved the political party candidates. Conversely, we also participated in Newspapers Forums.
On radio, we participated in the interviews and discussions on the issues of women's vote. They played our songs; they relayed our messages and these were tremendous.
On T.V., we had these very bold programmes on women's issues. Bold, because some of the issues discussed had never before been discussed in television. Discriminatory legislation is a very big issue for us in Pakistan. Friends, colleagues and experts in their own field spoke on that.
We participated in interviews, our posters were flashed from time to time. We gave inputs into other programmes such as puppet shows.
During interviews of political party candidates, we sent in questions on women's issues and some of these were picked up.
6. Dialogue with Women from Political Parties. This was not a confrontation, but rather it was talking to them about the issues that women need to vote on. It was talking to them and asking them about what they can do. So basically, it was sensitizing them on main issues relating to women and also pressurizing them for raising their voices within the party.
7. Face-to-face with Political Party Candidates. We had, for example, politicians in the Women's Court, where we had candidates responding on what they plan to do with regard women's issues. In Islamabad, we had the Citizen's Voice for Women's Issues, where there were panel discussions and panels of interviewers asking party candidates about these issues.
This was really the setting of a tradition, having political party candidates reply to specific questions on women's issues and we'll see to it that this continues.
Then, we had meetings in constituencies – a corner meeting, for example, where a certain political party candidate is interested in meeting groups.
A Lot of times, political party candidates were just names; people did not really come face-to-face with them and so, they can get away with the whole lot. They usually addressed big gatherings in which no one was really interested.
But when you get them into this kind of forum, their strengths and weaknesses are highlighted.
8. Community Level Meetings with Women. We used drama and use of cassette tapes with messages. And then, we had discussions on issues and the importance of voting.
Achievements

source:www.capwip.org