Women candidates defy election ban call in Pakistan

"Around 320 women filed their nomination papers in three districts where clerics had imposed a ban on their democratic and constitutional rights," said women's rights activist Aimal Khan.

"The figures are encouraging and give a new lease of life to the struggle for women's rights in this province," she told AFP.

"We want women to be in mainstream politics. Democracy is incomplete without their participation in the democratic exercise."

Islamic fundamentalist parties, joined by some secular groups, have opposed women's participation in next month's local government elections in the districts of Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Batagram.

They said allowing women to contest seats would violate local cultural norms in the deeply religious North West Frontier Province, a remote and mountainous region on the Afghan border.