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Joint Statement of
Afghanistan Women’s 50% Campaign and Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Committee to Bonn 2 Conference
We, women of Afghanistan, have not forgotten the dark era of the Taleban!
Conscientious souls must not allow Afghanistan women’s fate to become a plaything once again
in the name of national interests
This may be the last time you hear the collective voice of women of Afghanistan
19 September 2011
The people of Afghanistan are experiencing highly sensitive and fateful days in the period leading to the "traditional" Loya Jirga and the Bonn 2 Conference. There are very important issues at stake that cannot be ignored, i.e. issues that would impact the destiny of every man and woman in Afghanistan. The question at the centre of attention is peace with the Taleban or, in other words, peace between the government of Afghanistan and the armed insurgents. The significant aspect in this process is that unconditional concessions are being made to the Taleban. That means the rights of the majority of the people are bestowed upon a small number of human rights violators. There will be a just and lasting peace if it brings justice for the people, otherwise it may be a temporary and transient ceasefire. Experience of the international community in countries such as South Africa is a proof of this. Peace must originate from within the people and take deep roots in the society. Therefore, if the people of Afghanistan wish to forgive and pardon the insurgents and gun-wielders, it is their natural right. However, no amount of pressure and coercion by the government and the international forces can force the people of Afghanistan to forgive and pardon them. Afghanistan is a society with capacity and capability for peace, but this peace must not come through forgiveness for murderers of the people of Afghanistan and opponents of peace.
The central issue that should have been the principal focus of the international community and the Afghanistan government is Transitional Justice, which the Bonn 1 Conference emphasised. However, that essential and vital national program has been intentionally sent to oblivion. The women of Afghanistan know too well that without justice and rehabilitation of victims of three decades of war, this reconciliation indeed is a division of power with armed insurgents. It is neither a peace of the just nor will it provide a favourable ground for reconciliation nationwide. The government of Afghanistan has a duty to shoulder the responsibility for all the harms that the society has incurred. Violators of human rights may not become guardians of this country. Afghanistan has experienced all forms of gross violation of human rights, from genocide to injustice, discrimination against women and ethnic communities, lack of freedom of expression and daily violence... The international community has a duty to stop this dangerous trend in the name of universality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A unilateral peace, if underlined in Bonn 2 Conference, shall only display the fatigue and failure of the international community in the war in Afghanistan. The result will be a failed experience and fire under the ash, which will erupt into flames again in subsequent years and engulf Afghanistan and stir the whole world.
We women of Afghanistan have not forgotten the dark era of the Taleban
In that era, women of Afghanistan had been eradicated from its geography. We women know well the misogynous ideology of the Taleban. We know that without it, the Taleban will lose their identity and they cannot compromise over their principle.
In any coalition with the Taleban, the women of Afghanistan will evidently be the first group to be sacrificed in deals. We have not forgotten that the abhorrence expressed by the informed men and women – i.e. the public opinion worldwide, especially in democratic countries –at the fate imposed by the Taleban, opened the way for the arrival of democratic countries in Afghanistan. Women of Afghanistan, and improvement of their conditions, constituted one of the most important issues that mobilised the international public opinion and the whole world. We women of Afghanistan have not forgotten the dark era of the Taleban.
This may be the last time you hear the collective voice of women of Afghanistan
We, the women of Afghanistan, highly value the emergence of progressive movements and the creation of a safe environment for women’s participation in the society despite the shortcomings as well as the relative, albeit symbolic, achievements during the past decade. Examples of this include the establishment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the extensive participation of women in cultural, social, political and economic activities. We ask ourselves in total astonishment: what prescriptions will the international community and democratic countries, in particular Germany as the facilitator of this conciliation, offer for a lasting and enduring peace in this country to prevent the women of Afghanistan from re-experiencing the bitter and harsh events of the previous decades?
How could the international community and conscientious people accept petrifying conditions similar to the Taleban era to be imposed on women who constitute 50% of the population? If this “armed peace” were to be established, this may be the last time you hear the collective voice of women of Afghanistan. We the women of Afghanistan have been prisoners of our homes for several generations. Our awakened girls and boys have aspirations similar to your children. They wish to go to school and university. They wish to have access to quality media. Our young people wish to be able to choose their future spouses when they reach the legal age. They wish to have access to healthy entertainment and sports and to build their country without fear of their identity, be it their race, language, beliefs or ideas, and without scars on their body.
We, the awakened women, together with the progressive men of our country, have set our hope on you. We believe in the international public opinion and hope that conscientious souls will never allow the fate of women to become a plaything once again in the name of national interests.
Afghanistan Women’s 50% Campaign and Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Committee
Contact: womenspoliticalparticipation.c@gmail.com
Campaign50darsad@gmail.com
Blog: www.Campaign50darsad.blogfa.com
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