WUNRN
The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
AFGHANISTAN - WOMEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN PEACE NEGOTIATIONS & RIGHTS
Afghan women, clad in burqas, walk past a tree in Bagram, north of
(Ahmad Masood/REUTERS)
Women have taken on an increasingly active role in Afghan society in recent years – holding elected offices, working outside the house, and sometimes running their own organizations. But many Afghan women see a potential peace deal with the Taliban as representing anything but a ray of hope.
Current negotiation efforts have
mostly excluded women, and without a voice at the table many women worry how
well the Afghan government can protect women’s rights if the Taliban is
reincorporated into the political system.
As the US and NATO continue to work toward talks, a number of activists argue that if the West was serious about promoting women’s rights here, they’d help ensure women a seat at the peace negotiation table.
“The sad part is that the international
community’s actions do not reflect what they say. It talks about women’s
rights, but then they don’t include them [in peace talks]. Women’s involvement
should be one of the conditions,” says Sima Samar, chairperson for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. “The
problem here is that it’s not only the Afghans, it’s the international
community that also sees that women are not capable or useful in the
negotiations.”
What
is a loya jirga? Afghanistan's most pivotal meetings since 2002.
Of the nearly 70-member Afghan High Peace
Council created to liaise with the Taliban and other insurgent groups, only
nine are women. Given the Taliban's history with women's rights, women here say
their inclusion is the peace process is critical to ensure history does not
repeat itself or concessions are not made at their expense.
Aside from women's involvement, just who
negotiates with the Taliban has consistently been an issue. When the High Peace
Council was formed, many people criticized it for consisting almost exclusively
of Taliban adversaries who hold little clout with the group. So far it has
been largely sidelined, especially after its chairman, Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated in September.
The most serious negotiations have taken
place behind closed doors between NATO and Taliban representatives. Afghan President Hamid Karzai complained that he and other
Afghan government officials had been left out of the process. While NATO has
taken steps to address Mr. Karzai’s concerns, Afghan women’s activists say
that the council has done little to ensure the inclusion of women in the
peace process.
Without meaningful representation in talks,
many women say they worry negotiations with the Taliban could compromise their
rights. A number of women's activists here have also pointed to a UN security council resolution that requires women's
participation in peace negotiations, saying their exclusion violates
international law.
Women argue it wouldn't be impossible to make
an agreement with the Taliban. During a Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, meeting
to discuss strategic relations with the
And Taliban officials and supporters,
meanwhile, now say that they’re more open to women’s rights than they were in
the past. For example, with regard to women’s education, Taliban supporters say
that during their reign in the late 1990s, they would have supported girls’ schools, but there were not enough female
teachers at the time. Now that this has changed, Taliban officials say they’re
open to the idea.
Still, many Afghans say they doubt the
Taliban’s political and social mindset is capable of evolving to match many of
the changes that have taken place in big cities like Kabul
since their ouster in 2001.
Massouda Jalal, a former Afghan presidential
candidate, doubts that any negotiations with the Taliban would be successful.
She says she's sure that the group will not support women’s rights and will
likely work to remove many of the freedoms they’ve gained over the past decade
such as opportunities to work outside the home, better access to education, and
the option to participate in the political process all of which opened up after
the fall of the Taliban.
Ms. Jalal points to the past: Why, she asks,
if they were good, were the Taliban removed 10 years ago? "If they are
bad, why are you bringing them back?" No one seems to have an answer to
this question, she says. "Once the Taliban gets power and they are assured
that they will stay in power then they will introduce their own values and
there won’t be any space for women."
Sami Yusufzai, an independent analyst in Islamabad says, “the problem is we cannot change the
Taliban. The Taliban is a really religious force. They don’t believe they can
adjust with society.”