The Elections Act 2017 passed by Pakistani parliament in 2017 encouraged transgender people to vote and also to contest in elections. Five transgender candidates took up the challenge, running successful, albeit losing, political campaigns.

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“This is a man’s, man’s, man’s world,” James Brown crooned in 1966. And though Beyonce in 2011 announced in a song that “girls” run the world, this is not the case at all. James Brown’s statement holds true over 50 years later. Worldwide, the number of women in government and other positions of power remains low. How can “girls” run the world when generally men are at the steering wheel?

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Why were some of Pakistan’s women disenfranchised in this year’s elections?  This was the question on my mind as reports surfaced the day after the election that all the major political parties – PPP, PML-N, JUI, PTI – had signed agreements stating that women would not be allowed to vote in certain districts of Pakistan. 

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Women make up almost half of the almost 200 million people inhabiting Pakistan. That is indeed a huge number, but come election time, and the percentages we see the statisticians throwing at us present a pretty dismal picture.

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