State Reforms, Electoral Campaigns, and Challenges for Women Candidates in the Newly Merged Tribal Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Women candidates in the newly merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan continue to face structural (socio-cultural and political) barriers based on gender when contesting general elections, despite state reforms. This article examines the campaign of Naheed Afridi, ANP candidate in PK-106 (Khyber-II) in the first post-merger elections of 2019, as an embedded case study contextualized through seven interviews with other women candidates and political activists in 2023–2024. Drawing on Feminist Institutionalism and incorporating constructivist insight into the analysis of informal institutions, the article explores five dimensions of women’s campaigning. These include post-nomination party support, access to gendered political spaces, financial and mobility constraints, the risks of public and online visibility, and women agency adaptive strategies to sustain campaigns. The article distinguishes formal political entry from substantive campaign capacity and reads women’s persistence as constrained agency rather than evidence that individual resilience can offset institutional inequality. The case demonstrates that formal electoral opening following the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Elections Act 2017 has not translated into substantive campaign equality for women candidates. Thus, socially sustainable and inclusive electoral participation in the tribal districts and the broader region depends not only on legal reform but also on sustainable party commitment, socio-culturally recognized political legitimacy for women, and institutional support that extends beyond formal nomination for elections.