8000 Towers Crescent Dr. Suite 1350 Vienna, Virginia 22182 USA Ph.703.255.0884 Fx.703.255.6465 www.D3systems.com 1 Living Female in Afghanistan by Karl Feld, Veronica Gardner, D3 Systems & Sweeta Hashimi, ACSOR-Surveys Survey research has a role to play in providing Muslim women with a public voice where custom and culture do not permit them their own. It can be used to inform and shape empowerment policies from the perspective of each population. The Women In Muslim Countries (WIMC) study 1 is designed to measure women’s empowerment in actual daily practice, providing a deep look into the oft-perceived gap between current public policy and empowerment initiatives and actual practice on the personal and local level. The answers are intended to yield a metric for promoting excellence in public policy by informing policymakers on women’s attitudes about the affects of policy initiatives, as well as a measure of the degree of effectiveness of those policies. Afghanistan is perhaps one of the most extreme cases of a country where custom and culture do not permit women a public voice, beginning with interviewing for the survey itself. Interviewing women in Afghanistan is limited to other women accompanied by a male escort. In some places it is restricted to daylight hours in proper attire. Though burdensome, the advantage to this approach is that it eliminates hesitation on the part of the interviewee to share her thoughts. 1 WIMC is sponsored and managed by D3 Systems (www.d3systems.com) and is conducted in 22 Muslim majority countries of the world. Data for Afghanistan was collected from March 7 to 14, 2007 from n=1175 women sampled nationwide on a stratified, random basis. Interviewing was conducted face-to- face by native Afghan women. Q. Did you vote in the last national election or referendum? (Base n =1175) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Central/Kabul Eastern South Central South Western Western Northern Central/Hazarjat Region Percentage Yes No Not Applicable Refused Don’t Know