Institutional Barriers to Women’s Political Participation in Baluchistan Region

Achieving political development requires the political participation of social groups in society and women's political participation really matters. In any society the fulfillment of proper participation of women in polities is hindered by specific obstacles.Accordingly, in the present study, attempts have been made to examine the barriers of political participation in women in the Baluchistan region by means of institutionalization and qualitative techniques;qualitative interviews with elitists in Baluchistan provided themes for researchers to specify condition of political participation of women among the Baluch. Findings in the present study state that barriers of political participation of women can be considered from two aspects. First, the way official institution look at women, second, the culture of Baluchistan people. The results suggest that the main obstacles are informal or intangible institutions, such as fathers or patriarchal culture, and some religious beliefs, which, on the one hand, is the cause of women's lack of selflsteem in political activities. On the other hand, legal and formal institutions appear to reflect the less formal institutions that have undergone some kind of institutional process, Nevertheless, participatory institutions such as Islamic councils of the city and village have been able to effectively reduce the influence of informal institutions on political participation of Baluch women gradually.