Hundreds of Afghan women support opposition candidate at a rally in Kabul

Kabul, 12 Aug 2009. - Touched with celestial burqas, hijabs or veils of colors, hundreds of Afghan women joined today the campaign of presidential elections in Afghanistan on August 20 in an act of support for opposition candidate Ashraf Ghani and claim their own.
"We deserve good government at last. We will vote for safety and to bring peace Afghanistan. We're tired of fighting and war, "said Efe between the student shy smiles Baseri Farishta, shortly before the start of the ceremony in the capital.
With women in the front seats and some men stationed behind less-Ghani girded his electoral slogan, "New Beginning" and pledged to invest in the "daughters of the country", to be said, the "coming entrepreneurs."
"The regime (of President Hamid Karzai) has had no police or judges or women. Yes I will, and also give them property and health care, "Ghani said to applause from his fans and occasional shouts of" Allah is great ".
The candidate, former finance minister in Karzai's government, came walking walk by the side of a large pink tent installed in the garden of his home, accessible in the center of Kabul but, like many other buildings, or walls.
Intellectual training and experience over a decade at the World Bank, Ghani was considered one of the candidates most likely to embarrass the candidate Karzai, but the latest survey gives only 3 percent of the vote.
However, both Karzai and Ghani among Pashtuns have their main quarry of followers, so that the result of the former can influence the career for re-election of current president, which aims to prevail without runoff.
Karzai's opponents cite the ineffectiveness of government, widespread corruption and tolerance towards the "warlords" as major spots in its work managing these years, a message Ghani, 60, stressed in his speech.
"My goal is to provide an honest government. The Afghan vote an honest person, "remained, after asking the female support and promising new job opportunities for Afghan women, who experience discrimination secular.
After years of strict seclusion under the Taliban regime, Afghan women still face a devastating challenges: literacy rate is only around 21 percent, and in this election there are only two women among 41 candidates.
"Women's participation will be low. In some provinces, there have been few women. And in others, the tribal leader came to collect the voting card for all of them, so the process can be adulterated, "said Efe a spokesman for the Afghan Foundation for a Free and Fair Elections (FEFA), Jandar Spinghar.
The two women candidates, said Spinghar, could not move to campaign to rural areas due the security situation which has deteriorated in recent years, with an increase in Taliban activity in large parts of south and east.
At campaign events, however, candidates present their ideas for development and reconstruction and promise jobs and opportunities like those claims Madadi Nargis, a young student coming Wardak to Kabul from (this) you want to be a doctor.
"We live better than the Taliban, but I think that elections change things. I want to study medicine, but the current situation makes me the way, "says Efe during the act of Ghani.
His desire, she said to applause, depends largely on Afghanistan return to the path of peace after decades of destruction and armed conflict that poisons the future.