We continue to work with Aware Girls, a women-led organization working for the empowerment of young women, gender equality, democracy, and peace. They come face to face with the government crackdown when speaking out against injustices like forced marriage and gang rape. In May 2019, we saw the crux of government anger against these activities, when Aware Girls co-founder, Gulalai Ismail, came under direct attack and was forced to go into hiding, eventually fleeing the country.
Since 2020, we have been working with two further local organizations as part of our Local Action Fund; supporting them on training, research, and youth empowerment activities.
Aware Girls continue to champion women’s participation in politics and elections, making impressive strides in their advocacy and community awareness work. They identified officials working for the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) they could best work with for policy change in favor of female representation, and in response to sustained pressure from Aware Girls and other women’s rights activists, the ECP deployed female staff in polling stations, and the Electoral Law was implemented. This is a major step in women’s participation and inclusion – made possible by our partner’s sustained efforts in a challenging environment. Now, for an election to be considered valid, at least 10% of voters, and 5% of electoral seats must be women.
