{"id":6035,"date":"2015-05-06T10:06:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T08:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=6035"},"modified":"2015-05-06T10:13:28","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T08:13:28","slug":"a-seat-at-the-table-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2015\/05\/a-seat-at-the-table-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"A seat at the table in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Source: Washington Post<\/a><\/div>\n
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\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/div>\n
By Heather Barr<\/span>\u00a0May 1<\/span><\/div>\n
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Heather Barr is senior researcher on women\u2019s rights with Human Rights Watch.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As rumors swirl about a\u00a0new round of peace talks<\/a>\u00a0with the Afghan Taliban, the first under Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, women are fighting for a place at the table. The view from the front lines of that fight is maddening.<\/p>\n

Ghani has made negotiating peace with the Taliban a top priority \u2014 understandably, given that Afghan security forces, already stretched, depend on foreign donors heading for the exits. Less understandable is that Ghani has offered no indication that there will be a role for women in the talks.<\/p>\n

For years, Afghan women have advocated for their rightful place in talks about the future of Afghanistan. They\u2019ve been shut out, put off, ignored, given token roles and patronized with promises that they don\u2019t need to be there themselves \u2014 the men in the room will look after them.<\/p>\n

These dismissive, destructive and \u2014 yes \u2014 sexist attitudes come not just from old-school misogynists in the Afghan government. Donor governments have for 14 years touted their support for Afghan women while excluding them from peace talks. A\u00a02014 study by Oxfam<\/a>\u00a0found that, in 23 known rounds of talks between international negotiators and the Taliban since 2005, not one woman was included. In discussions between the Afghan government and the Taliban, women have been present during two rounds of talks. The offenders include the United States, which has played a major role in engaging the Taliban but failed to insist on the inclusion of women.<\/p>\n

The Taliban government toppled in 2001 was notorious for harsh restrictions on women; the United States and other countries rallied popular support for sending troops by highlighting the suffering of Afghan women.<\/div>\n

Women are\u00a0half<\/a>\u00a0the population of Afghanistan. Some fight as soldiers and police, and all have suffered from years of war. It should be obvious that any peace deal will have an enormous effect on women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan is a crucial test of the world\u2019s commitment to\u00a0U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325<\/a>, adopted in 2000, which\u00a0requires all countries to<\/a>\u201censure increased representation of women\u201d in all decision-making regarding conflict resolution and insists on women\u2019s \u201cequal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.\u201d Afghanistan\u2019s government remains overwhelmingly dependent on foreign aid, so there is no argument that donors lack influence. In few, if any, recent conflicts has the issue of women\u2019s rights been more vital.<\/p>\n

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Afghan women have warned for years that their rights may be the first thing bargained away in Taliban-government talks. They have reason to be fearful. The Taliban is well known for its\u00a0abhorrence of women\u2019s rights<\/a>, and the post-Taliban government has undermined many of the gains women achieved after the fall of the Taliban. Will a men-only discussion of women\u2019s rights between the two be a discussion between a party that loathes women\u2019s rights and one that demonstrates little enthusiasm for protecting them?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s why Afghan women need to be in the room to negotiate for themselves. That\u2019s where Resolution 1325 says they should be. Ghani should provide them with genuine seats at that table, and Afghanistan\u2019s donors should stop substituting photo ops and funding of projects for support for Afghan women when it counts most.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As rumors swirl about a new round of peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, the first under Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, women are fighting for a place at the table. The view from the front lines of that fight is maddening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,90,85,88,17],"tags":[377],"class_list":["post-6035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-editor-selection","category-human-rights","category-slider","category-women","tag-women-and-peace","country-afghanistan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6041,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035\/revisions\/6041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}