KHAZANA, Pakistan — Posters of the Muslim world’s first female prime minister, the late Benazir Bhutto, fluttered in the wind. But ballot boxes in the women’s polling station in this northwestern village were empty.
The elders of the village in the Islamic nation’s conservative northwest had decided women would not have a say in selecting the constituency’s national and provincial lawmakers Monday.
No one defied the order, said Farida Begum, an election official at the largest segregated polling station in Khazana.
“Everything is available for women to vote. We are here, but no one is coming so we are just sitting and gossiping.”
It was the same in Sheikh Mohammedi, a village not far from recent violent clashes between Pakistan’s military and pro-Taliban insurgents.
“It is difficult for Muslim women because they cannot leave their home,” said local tribesman Anwar Khan. “They should stay in their home unless they go out with a man. Women have never voted here, and now the situation with the bomb blasts is dangerous.”
Over the past year or two, pro-Taliban militants have gained sway in Khazana. They have attacked girls’ schools, warned women against working for charities, beheaded women they accused of adultery and stoned others. They have also warned women against casting ballots or working at the election.
Partial unofficial returns Monday showed either very few or no women winning parliamentary seats in the northwest.
