President Hamid Karzai may have won the presidential elections in Afghanistan, but a disturbing campaign of terror and keeping women from the polls has plagued this election.

A minister in the Afghan Government claimed last night that Karzai won about 68 percent of the vote in last week’s presidential election, although many are claiming voter fraud in the south. Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said that Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main opponent, had received more than one million votes – about 22 percent of votes counted so far. Partial preliminary results could come today, but national results aren’t expected until at least September 3. But women voters have had a tough time trying to get to the polls, to say the least, particularly in the southern part of Afghanistan. Some have been threatened with death or admonished by relatives for trying to vote. Who’s behind much of this intimidation? The Taliban.

"We were very willing to vote but then Taliban provocation started. We heard that they would kill people, cut off people’s fingers and cut off their heads," Naseema Naseri, who works for an aid group in the southern city of Kandahar, told AFP. "The Taliban stuck up (fliers) making these threats. We were too scared to come out of our houses to vote."

In the Pashtun belt of southeastern Afghanistan, women running for office were forced to campaign in public wearing burkas — full body and face coverings. Despite the restrictions and the threats, the National Organization for Women Foundation credits women for making their foray into Afghanistan politics.

"While hazardous conditions likely suppressed at least part of the women’s vote, the good news is that two women ran for president, five sought the vice presidency and some 300 women ran for election to provincial councils," the organization says. "Women’s presence is a hopeful sign that a stronger democracy can emerge from this war-torn country; but at the same time, there is plenty of evidence that women in general are not gaining ground."

Al Jazeera reported that the Taliban released video footage of its fighters stopping Afghans to see if they have voted. The telling black ink spot on the fingers is a giveaway. If they have voted, many are abducted. The Afghan people who braved such threats to make their voices heard at the polls deserve a round of applause. Hopefully one day they can exercise their democratic rights without intimidation.

Watch the Al Jazeera video below: