Afghanistan: "Peace is not just silencing the guns", Afghan women leaders on women and girls

Informal comments to the media by Fawzia Koofi - former Republic Peace Negotiator and first woman Deputy Speaker of Parliament; Naheed Fareed, former Afghan Parliamentarian and Chairperson of House Standing Committee for Human Rights, Civil Society and Women Affairs; Asila Wardak, former Diplomat; and Anisa Shaheed, Journalist on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Former Afghan women politicians asked the international community on Thursday to pressure the Taliban “to put their words in action” and fulfill their promises made in 2019 in Qatar including girls’ education and women’s rights.

Supported by the UK Mission to the UN and UN Women, in the context of the Security Council’s Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security, the former Afghan women leaders address the reporters at the Security Council stakeout in New York.

“The reason we are here today is to meet with different member states and ask them to regard women and human rights in Afghanistan as a matter of national security of their own countries, because it's not just a political or social issue but it's a matter of security,” said Fawzia Koofi, former Peace Negotiator and first woman Deputy Speaker of Afghan Parliament, adding that “at this stage, there is no reliable government in Afghanistan to “accommodate diversity and inclusion of everyone, including women, that can be a trustable partner to the world.”

Koofi also said the world could have avoided “the catastrophic situation that we face now,” if it had better managed the Afghan peace process or the withdrawal of US forces.
“Afghanistan, we all failed it. Moving forward if we abandon it and if we abandon the people of Afghanistan, the consequences are going to be huge not only on the people of Afghanistan but on the rest of the world,” Koofi said.

Asked by reporters should the Taliban get the seat at the United Nations,a former Afghan Parliamentarian and Chairperson of House Standing Committee for Human Rights, Civil Society and Women Affairs Naheed Fareed said “I don't know if world want to register in the history that they want to give seat to such kind of government” that from her point of view does not represents “Afghan people, Afghan women their dignity, their desires.”

To the same point, Asila Wardak, aformer Afghan Diplomat said “I just would like to ask United Nations and also all member states to engage with Taliban. They are now there; they are in power; they have to work with them.”

However, Wardak said that if the UN is “going to give them seat at least there should be conditions,” including girls’ education and women’s rights.

“This is the time for the international community, if they really think that they are our allies and they are our strategic partners, they have to pressurize the Taliban to put their words in action,” Wardak said.