On 22nd of April 2020, SDSN Afghanistan participated in a 24 hours webinar on happiness and sustainability, and presented a one hour panel discussion of “Afghanistan peace process: Role of women- opportunities and challenges”. Respective speakers each Ms. Jamila Afghani, Ms. Zarqa Yaftali, Ms. Fiona Gall and Dr. Mohammad Musa Jafari highlighted the following topics:
Ms. Jamila Afghani
Ms. Jamila is leading Medica Afghanistan which is a women support organization. At the same time, she is a lead volunteer at Women International League for peace and freedom -Afghanistan section since 2015. She has been actively engaged in the ongoing peace talks. She has participated in Doha Intra-Afghan dialogue held in June 2019.
At the panel discussion Ms. Afghani spoke about “Afghan Government’s Stance on Role of Women in the Peace Process”. She believes that women’s role in peace talk with Taliban is marginalized, while they have been the most vulnerable group to the conflict. Ms. Afghani stated in her speech that women have participated as members of the High Peace Council (HPC) in discussions for a peace agreement, but HPC serves only as a consultative body and aims to raise public awareness rather than a decision-making body.
Ms. Afghani criticizes the small quota of women negotiators (5 women out of 25 negotiators) in intra-Afghan peace talks with Taliban and adds that, the low participation of women in peace talks demonstrates to failure of political correctness and raises doubt on the type of peace that these men dominant talks would bring.
Finally, Ms. Afghani emphasizes that more inclusive peace process and effective gender-related provisions in any future peace agreements are important. She suggests that pushing for the inclusion of women and gender issues in the formal peace process, which is lagging and has been criticized, would be a strategy to harness not only the Taliban’s acceptance of women’s legitimate concerns but also their willingness to sustain the momentum of future intra Afghan negotiations.
Ms. Zarqa Yaftali is the Director of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation.
At the panel discussion, Ms. Zarqa spoke on “Peace Process; Human Rights and Gender Equality”. Towards the beginning of her speech, Ms. Yaftali defined the peace process in Afghanistan by stating that peace process should not mean an end of war between US and the Taliban; rather, the objective of peace process in Afghanistan should strongly consider stability, security and justice and accountable and inclusive government without compromising human rights values and women’s rights.
Ms. Zarqa further elaborates that Afghans do not want to sacrifice their freedom and civic rights for peace. She stated in her speech that any steps taken towards sustainable peace would require that justice and preservation of human rights values are ensured; otherwise, any attempt would result in failure.
In addition, Ms. Yaftali states that Afghan women hold highly of the values, rights and freedom they have achieved over the past two decades; therefore, Taliban’s restrictive views on freedom, employment and education of women must not compromise these achievements.
Finally, Ms. Zarqa suggested in her speech that a mechanism of oversight needs to be established in order to monitor human rights values and women’s rights practices post peace agreement with the Taliban.
Ms. Fiona is the director of ACBAR, one of the most searched jobs seeking websites in the country. She has more than 20 years of experience in humanitarian and development programs in Asia specially Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and more recently in Africa in emergency relief and rehabilitation, health, disability and gender in challenging environments.
Ms. Gall spoke on the role of CSOs in the peace process with special focus on women.
In her presentation, Ms. Fiona began by stating that over 2600 Civil Society Organizations and 2500 NGOs have been registered in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. Out of the 30,000 staff off of 152 member NGOs with ACBAR 25% are women. Out of 80 local NGOs, 22% are led by women. Ms. Gall affirms that women have started to play increasingly strong roles within Afghan societies and the government. Based on her presentation, the most promising thing is that women account for 24% of civil servants, 28% of parliamentarians, 30% of teachers and at least 1 woman works in 74% of the health facilities.
Ms. Fiona appreciated CSOs for having filled the gaps in government services and met the humanitarian needs admitting the slow development. She reasoned that in a conflict situation, efforts made in one year of war are equal to efforts made in 20 years of peace. Ms. Fiona is hopeful that growing understanding of the Afghan population about the world around them will ensure women’s presence and importance in the peace negotiations. Also, Ms. Gall strongly believes that the solution to the future of Afghanistan is Afghan women.
Dr. Jafari is the current Vice Chancellor of Kateb University for Academic Affairs. He is also Chief Editor at Kateb Quarterly Journal and Editorial Board Member at Negah-e-Moaser and Pejuhan Scientific Quarterly Journal.
Dr. Jafari spoke about ‘International Institutions and Afghanistan’s Peace Process’.
Dr. Musa’s main point of discussion revolved around the fact that a comprehensive peace process agenda requires inclusiveness and international community’s support in order to have a strong voice against Taliban in peace negotiations. Dr. Jafari further stated in his speech that the success of the peace process in Afghanistan will be a great achievement for international order; therefore, international actors have a vital role to play.
Rationalizing his stance, he added that the weakness of the Afghanistan government would be dangerous in the peace negotiations with the Taliban. One country and two presidents explain the extreme political crisis. On the other hand, widespread corruption, poverty, unemployment and insecurity have undermined the legitimacy of government. Under this circumstance, Dr. Jafari questions the distinguished achievements of the government in negotiation with the Taliban. How could a failed state persuade the Taliban to accept the current democratic political system? Dr. Jafari strongly believes that we need the support of international institutions to guarantee our pluralistic democratic values in peace negotiations.
As a final note, Dr. Jafari stated in his speech that the peace process must be supported in the context of ensuring the political, social, economic and cultural rights for all Afghans.
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