Following years of Islamist advances in and out of the ballot box, the tide has turned. Just note the last elections in Indonesia where the three top vote getters are all secularists. Moreover, women's right are tied to the democratization. Read the Afghanis response to the elections as described by a Pakistani paper!

Afghan monitors say Afghanistan can learn from Indonesian elections - Pakistan Tribune. Some pertinent quotes -"We see Indonesia as a Muslim country that is applying democracy in a peaceful way," said Sanjar Sohaii, a 24-year-old official."I think Indonesia's elections will help change some people's minds in Afghanistan." Sohaii and the other monitors said they were impressed with the orderly polling stations across Jakarta and the fact that women can vote and even run for office.

In Afghanistan, women have been discouraged from voting and non government groups have been attacked for attempting to register them. In June, suspected Taliban followers bombed a bus carrying female election workers in Jalabad in eastern Afghanistan, killing two of them and wounding 13 others.

"When we got back to Afghanistan, I will tell people that Indonesian is a big country of Muslims and it allows women to vote," he said.

The Afghan delegation _ sponsored by the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute _ spent Monday touring polling stations, meeting elections officials and talking to local observers. They will be part of an election monitoring network when they return to Afghanistan.

It will not be easy, but we are making progress.