MOHRI PUR, PAKISTAN: Men banned women from voting in the village of Mohri Pur sometime around 1947, and they have obeyed ever since -- until this year, when changes to Pakistan's election laws and women's attitudes could shift the dynamic.
At least, that is the hope of many women meeting beneath a Jambolan tree in the village some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the central Pakistan city of Multan, its shade protecting them from the blazing sun.
Whether the men watching angrily as the women speak to AFP reporters will allow them to follow through when the nation goes to the polls on July 25 is another question.
"They perhaps think that women are stupid... or there is an issue of honour for them," says 31-year-old Nazia Tabbasum.
Village elders banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling station would "dishonour" them.
So-called "honour" describes a patriarchal code across South Asia that often seeks to justify the murder and oppression of women who defy conservative traditions by acts such as choosing their own husband, or working outside the home.
"I don't know where their honour goes to sleep while they lie down at home... as their women work in the fields," Tabbasum adds, scathingly.
But the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared that at least 10 percent of voters in each constituency must be women, otherwise its results will be voided.
Nearly 20 million new voters have been registered in the rapidly growing country, including 9.13 million women, the commission says.
It is another step in women's long battle for rights in Pakistan, a deeply patriarchal country of some 207 million people -- though it does little to address the gender imbalance of the 2013 elections, in which male registered voters outnumbered female by some 11 million.
The shift also sets the stage for a stand-off in conservative rural areas, like Mohri Pur.
"The main reason is that these are the areas where women are not allowed to even come out of the house," says Farzana Bari, a gender expert and rights activist.
The ECP's rule change should improve things -- though Bari warned that within each constituency there could yet be pockets where women are prevented from voting.
There is plenty of precedent: in 2015 men stopped women from voting in a local poll in Lower Dir, in the northwest. The ECP promptly cancelled the result.
In 2013 a court ordered the arrest of male elders in two other northwestern districts over banning female votes in the previous general elections.
In Mohri Pur, located in Punjab province, women do work outside the home and some receive education, yet the vote ban holds.
Many of the younger women under the Jambolan tree are eager to exercise their rights -- but not all.
Widow Nazeeran Mai, 60, says it is not "custom" for women to vote. "(T)here is no one to stop me, but still I don't vote because nobody else does," she says.
Others fear violent reprisals.
"If they go to vote alone, there will be violence and unrest, the men will abuse and beat them, so it's better not to go," explains 22-year-old Shumaila Majeed -- though she remained determined to get as many women to the polls "as possible".
Even Mohri Pur's lone female councillor Irshad Bibi -- elected under laws stipulating at least one woman on every village council -- has never voted.
When asked why, she calls on her husband to speak for her.
"Our elders had set up this custom... We stand by this today," the husband, Zafar Iqbal, tells AFP.
"In any civilised democracy, half the population ought not be disenfranchised," says newspaper columnist Hajrah Mumtaz.
But local politicians say they are helpless.
"I can't break their tradition... the people of this village have to decide when they will allow women to vote," says Raza Hayat Hiraj from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Bismillah Noor, a member of the district council who arranged the meeting under the Jambolan tree, says the men are stubborn.
"I've been trying since 2001 but nobody listens to me," she says. "In 2005, men told me their women don't want to vote so I should not force them."
Another attempt in 2013 also failed.
The determination Noor hears from the village women now gives her a glimmer of hope -- but progress is fragile.
In 2015, one woman, Fouzia Talib, became the only one in Mohri Pur to vote in local elections. She was ostracised.
Now, she is unsure if voting on July 25 for politicians she believes will do little for the area is worth the backlash.
"I will see," she tells AFP.
Women vow to defy men who banned their vote in Pakistan village
Women vow to defy men who banned their vote in Pakistan village
- Nearly 20 million new voters have been registered in the rapidly growing country, including 9.13 million women, the commission says
- In Mohri Pur, located in Punjab province, women do work outside the home and some receive education, yet the vote ban holds
Small plane crashes near Philadelphia mall, multiple casualties on ground, reports say
The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, citing police, said the crash took place shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern near the Roosevelt Mall in northeast Philadelphia.
At least one house and multiple cars are on fire, the newspaper reported.
The Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management confirmed on social media that there was a “major incident” in the area of the reported crash, but provided no other details.
The Philadelphia CBS affiliate showed images of a large fire and several fire trucks at the scene of the crash, and that the status of victims was not immediately known.
Neither the Philadelphia police department nor the fire department immediately responded to requests for comment.
Trump says he will speak with Russia’s Putin
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he thinks they will perhaps do something he described as significant.
Trump did not elaborate. He made the comments to reports in the White House’s Oval Office. He also said that Washington was having serious discussions with Moscow.
Russian missile attack hits Odesa, wounding three
The Black Sea city known for its picturesque streets of 19th-century buildings is regularly targeted by Russian strikes, often on its port area.
“We already know about three victims of an enemy rocket attack on the center of Odesa,” the regional governor Oleg Kiper wrote on social media.
“Two women were injured” and “hospitalized in a moderate condition,” Kiper said after the attack, adding that three ballistic missiles were fired at intervals of a few minutes.
The governor later posted that a teenage boy born in 2006 “sustained a head wound” and was also hospitalized.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned what he called an “absolutely deliberate attack by Russian terrorists,” saying it was fortunate that it caused no deaths.
Kiper posted photos showing rescuers wheeling a woman on a stretcher outside the city’s historic Hotel Bristol. The photos also show damage to the 19th-century hotel’s ornate facade and interior, including a grand staircase.
Ukraine’s emergency service posted video showing debris littering the street outside the Bristol and a woman with dust on her clothes being helped by rescuers.
It said firefighters had rescued a woman trapped in her room on the second floor and extinguished a fire on the roof.
“Among the people who were at the epicenter of the attack were Norwegian diplomatic representatives,” Zelensky said.
“There is a lot of damage and destruction in the UNESCO-protected area,” Odesa’s mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said.
Odesa’s historic center is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Its Transfiguration Cathedral — destroyed by the Soviets and rebuilt in the 2000s — was badly damaged by a Russian strike in July 2023.
“As a result of the explosions, a number of historical monuments, including the Literary, Historical and Local Lore, Archaeological Museums, Museum of Western and Eastern Art, and the Philharmonic, have had their windows smashed and their facades damaged,” Kiper said.
Ukrainian media posted photos showing what appeared to be a large crater near the hotel, and fallen masonry, blown-out windows and debris littering the floor inside.
Russian military bloggers alleged that foreign military specialists were staying in the hotel.
The Taliban take over Afghanistan’s only luxury hotel, more than a decade after attacking it
The Serena Hotel said Friday it was closing its operations in the Afghan capital on Feb. 1, with the Hotel State Owned Corporation taking over. The corporation is overseen by the finance ministry.
The finance ministry wasn’t immediately available for comment. Neither the Serena nor the government clarified the terms under which the hotel was changing hands.
The Taliban first targeted the Serena in 2008 and again in 2014. Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani acknowledged planning the 2008 attack, which killed eight, including US citizen Thor David Hesla.
A statement from the Serena, a brand owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, said it had trained thousands of Afghan nationals, hosted large numbers of foreign guests and delegations, and set high international benchmarks in hospitality standards.
It asked people to direct their queries to the Hotel State Owned Corporation. Kabul no longer appears as a destination on the Serena website.
According to information on the finance ministry website, the corporation’s mission is to revive and develop Afghanistan’s hotel industry. It operates three other hotels in Afghanistan, two in Kabul and one in the eastern city of Nangarhar.
Tourism official Mohammad Saeed told The Associated Press last year that he wanted Afghanistan to become a tourism powerhouse.
At that time, in a sign the country was preparing for more overseas visitors, the Serena reopened its women’s spa and salon for foreign females after a monthslong closure, only to shut them again under pressure from authorities.
The Taliban have barred women from gyms, public spaces including parks, and education. Last year, they ordered the closure of beauty salons, allegedly because they offered services forbidden by Islam.
White House says Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will come Saturday
- “Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday
- The tariffs carry both political and economic risks for Trump
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will put in place 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China effective on Saturday, the White House said, but it provided no word on whether there would be any exemptions to the measures that could result in swift price increases to US consumers.
Trump had been threatening the tariffs to ensure greater cooperation from the countries on stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of chemicals used for fentanyl, but he has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing and raise revenues for the federal government.
“Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday. “These are promises made and promises kept by the president.”
The tariffs carry both political and economic risks for Trump, who is just two weeks into his second term. Many voters backed the Republican on the promise that he could tamp down inflation, but the possibility of tariffs could trigger higher prices and potentially disrupt the energy, auto, lumber and agricultural sectors.
Trump had said he was weighing issuing an exemption for Canadian and Mexican oil imports, but Leavitt said she had no information to share on the president’s decision on any potential carveouts.
The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of oil daily from Canada in October and 563,000 barrels from Mexico, according to the Energy Information Administration. US daily production during that month averaged nearly 13.5 million barrels a day.
Trump has previously stated a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports would be on top of other import taxes charged on products from the country.
Shortly after Leavitt spoke, the S&P 500 stock index sold off and largely erased its gains on the day.
“We should expect all three countries to retaliate,’’ said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator. China responded aggressively to tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods during his first term, targeting the president’s supporters in rural America with retaliatory taxes on US farm exports.
Both Canada and Mexico have said they’ve prepared the option of retaliatory tariffs to be used if necessary, which in turn could trigger a wider trade conflict that economic analyzes say could hurt growth and further accelerate inflation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is ready is a respond if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs, but he did not give details.
“We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response,” he said. “It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act.”
Trudeau said tariffs would have “disastrous consequences” for the U.S, putting American jobs at risk and causing prices to rise. Trudeau reiterated that less than 1 percent of the fentanyl and illegal crossings into the US come from Canada.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico has maintained a dialogue with Trump’s team since before he returned to the White House, but she emphasized that Mexico has a “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides.”
“Now it is very important that the Mexican people know that we are always going to defend the dignity of our people, we are always going to defend the respect of our sovereignty and a dialogue between equals, as we have always said, without subordination,” Sheinbaum said.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the two countries should resolve their differences through dialogue and consultation. “There is no winner in a trade war or tariff war, which serves the interests of neither side nor the world,” Liu said in a statement. “Despite the differences, our two countries share huge common interests and space for cooperation.”
A study this month by Warwick McKibbin and Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics concluded that the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on China “would damage all the economies involved, including the US’’
“For Mexico,’’ the study said, “a 25 percent tariff would be catastrophic. Moreover, the economic decline caused by the tariff could increase the incentives for Mexican immigrants to cross the border illegally into the US — directly contradicting another Trump administration priority.’’
Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the extent of the economic damage will depend on how long the tariffs are in effect.
If it’s just a few days, “that’s one thing. If they are in place for weeks onto months, we’re going to see supply chain disruptions, higher costs for US manufacturers, leading to higher prices for US consumers,’’ she said. “It could have macroeconomic impacts. It could affect the stock market. Then internationally it could lead to more tension with our trading partners and make it harder for us to work with them.”