Afghan Women Share Recommendations with International Donors

After several weeks of work on three continents, Inclusive Security and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) succeeded in late January in having the voices of Afghan women heard by senior policymakers from countries around the world as they determined their commitments to Afghanistan's future.

On January 27, the day before the London Conference opened, several Afghan women leaders delivered specific recommendations for security and governance to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Holbrooke of the United States, the Foreign Ministers of India, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Norway, Afghanistan, Belgium, France, and Great Britain, and several senior NATO officials. The women also presented their recommendations at a hearing held at the British House of Commons. Arzo Qinah of Afghanistan was the sole Afghan woman on the agenda of formal speakers to address the Conference plenary. Read Arzo Qinah's statement. Read the recommendations.

These recommendations provide the only concrete input from Afghan women into the key decisions considered in London by international actors and were informed by broad consultations with Afghan women civil society leaders earlier in January at the Dubai Women’s Dialogue and London Dialogue, involving the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) and also supported by UNIFEM.

Coverage of Inclusive Security’s work around the London Donor Conference included The New York Times, Associated Press of Pakistan, BBC Radio’s Today, BBC News Hour, CBC Radio’s The Current, Reuters, and Time magazine.

Before the recommendations were delivered, Women Waging Peace Network member Wazhma Frogh noted that, "As the global community knows, nowhere are women's human rights more at stake than in Afghanistan. Therefore it is of grave concern that women‘s voices and perspectives are largely missing from this London conference on Afghanistan’s future. The international community should stand behind the women of Afghanistan and elevate their voices, not barter away their rights in the name of short-term peace and stabilization."

With the rights of Afghan women a primary focus of the conflict, sustainable solutions for security in Afghanistan need their participation especially. As Anne Marie Goetz, chief advisor of Governance, Peace, and Security for UNIFEM pointed out, women human rights defenders and women in prominent public roles in Afghanistan have faced a high rate of deadly attacks. "This makes the determination of the women who have travelled to London to share their concerns and proposals all the more inspiring, and the international community needs to hear what they have to say," she said.

The status of Afghan women continues to be among the worst in the world with 87 percent facing domestic abuse every day. Afghan women are also systematically neglected as key partners for conflict resolution, peacebuilding and recovery.

"Afghan women have the most to gain from peace and the most to lose from any form of reconciliation compromising women’s human rights," says Women Waging Peace Network member Mary Akrami, director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Centre. "There cannot be national security without women's security, there can be no peace when women’s lives are fraught with violence, when our children can’t go to schools, when we cannot step on the streets for fear of acid attacks." 

Pointedly reminding international donors and the national government that women’s participation is critical for sustainable peace, and that women can spearhead efforts to moderate extremism, the advocates demanded that women be included in all security and development processes, including any negotiations and reconciliation programmes involving warlords, the Taliban, and other insurgents.

"Women are the single greatest underutilized resource in efforts to return stability and prosperity to Afghanistan," said Carla Koppell, director of The Institute for Inclusive Security. "Peacebuilding efforts cannot be fully effective when they ignore the expertise, insights, and ideas of half the population."

Women Waging Peace Network member Orzala Ashraf, independent women’s rights activist, adds that "Short term deals with insurgents will not deliver long-term stability if there aren’t guarantees of women’s rights. In the end women's well-being is the test of real security and stabilization."

Building on the London Conference, these advocates hope to see a clear plan that will provide greater clarity of direction and priorities for the new Afghan administration as well as the inclusion of gender concerns, and a renewed commitment to implement existing commitments to Afghan women.

Inclusive Security continues to work with AWN, UNIFEM, the US State Department, US National Security Council, US Agency for International Development and others to ensure that the voices of Afghan women leaders women are actively represented in the follow-up Kabul Conference conference to be held in Kabul later this spring.

The specific recommendations include:

• Ensuring women’s representation in peace processes. Consistent with constitutional guarantees for women’s representation, women must comprise at least 25% of any peace process including any proposed upcoming peace jirgas. They must be represented in any national and local security policy making forums, such as the Afghan President’s National Security Council.
• Guaranteeing that reconciliation protects women’s rights. The government and international community must secure and monitor women’s rights in all reconciliation initiatives so that the status of women is not bargained away in any short-term effort to achieve stability.
• Implementing gender-responsive security policy. All efforts to enhance security in Afghanistan must better serve women.

The women peace builders in London included:

• Wazhma Frogh, Gender and Development Specialist and Recipient of the US Department of State International Woman of Courage Award, 2009
• Orzala Ashraf, Founder and Senior Adviser, Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and
  Children of Afghanistan
• Mary Akrami, Director, Afghan Women Skills Development Center
• Selay Gaffar, Director, Humanitarian Assistance for the Women
• Homa Sabri, National Officer-in-Charge, UNIFEM Afghanistan

Read the press release at http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1017.

For more information on Inclusive Security's work in Afghanistan, please contact Michelle Barsa.