As the long-awaited London Conference on Afghanistan lies just a day away, female Afghan human rights defenders, deeply troubled with the exclusion of Afghan women’s perspectives in the peace-building process, released a statement of detailed recommendations regarding their country’s security, development, and governance. UNIFEM reports that, to date, this is the “only concrete input from consultation with Afghan women” in the lead up to this conference. This is especially surprising considering the fact that officials will be making some of the most crucial decisions for Afghanistan’s future at this event. In this rare outreach of Afghan women, one is reminded how, as Carla Koppells of the Institute for Inclusive Security describes it, women remain the “‘single, greatest under-utilized resource’” in efforts to achieve stability and prosperity in Afghanistan.
The women drafted these recommendations after a week of intensive dialogue among Afghan women civil leaders and members of the Afghan Women’s Network in Dubai and London. In essence, the statement urges that as officials clarify the direction and priorities of the country, they also include gender concerns by renewing their dedication to already existing commitments to Afghan women. For instance, to ensure women’s representation in the peace process, they explain, women must comprise of at least 25% of any peace process, and this includes upcoming peace jirgas and any local or national policy-making forums. To guarantee that the reconciliation protects women’s rights, they recommend that the government and international community secure and monitor women’s rights in every reconciliation initiative. Otherwise, they fear that women’s rights will be bargained away in a short-term effort to reach stability. Also, for an effective security policy, they demand that all efforts to improve security in the country be designed to better serve and protect women.
Repeatedly facing the denial of their most basic rights and freedoms, Afghan women are one of the most important stakeholders in the peace-building process. As Mary Akrami of Afghan Women Skills Development Center explained, the women have the most to gain from peace, but also to the most to lose from any reconciliation which compromises their rights. Until now, the status of Afghan women remains one of the worst in the world, as women and girls continue to experience unimaginably high levels of violence. In fact, UNIFEM reports that 87% of women suffer from domestic abuse. In addition to this, women advocating for human rights or occupying prominent public roles are facing a high rate of deadly attacks.
By presenting their recommendations, these Afghan women leaders hope to bring the officials’ attentions to a whole half of the Afghan population that, although neglected, holds valuable expertise, insight, and ideas that is necessary to achieve peace. Hopefully, this will remind officials of a fact that is widely-known but too often put aside for the sake of a quick resolution: as independent women’s rights activist Orala Ashraf so eloquently phrases it, “women’s well-being is the test of real-security and stabilization” in Afghanistan.
Article on UNIFEM website: http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1017
Link to the original women’s statement: http://www.unifem.org/attachments/stories/20100127_AfghanWomenActivistsAtLondonConference_Statement_en.pdf
