AFGHANISTAN: Horia Mosadiq: Afghan Peace Talks Should Have Women at Their Heart

With politicians in the US and Afghanistan wrangling over who will take the lead in peace talks with the Taliban, women are increasingly concerned that they will be betrayed by the international community that once claimed to be acting in their interests, says Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher for Amnesty International.

“Any peace or reconciliation talks should have human rights, women's rights and the Afghanistan constitution at their heart,” says Mosadiq.

“But the international community is after a quick solution so that it can stick to the 2014 deadline and get out of Afghanistan.”
By holding peace talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia, the Afghan president Hamid Karzai is thought to be trying to ensure Afghan involvement.

Karzai is concerned that Washington will try to impose a peace deal on his government after it emerged recently that the Taliban had opened an office in Qatar to facilitate talks with the US.

The US denies this and the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan Jan Kubis said recently that any peace talks with the Taliban must be Afghan-led in order to be successful.

But as preparations for withdrawal of US troops in 2014 get underway Mosadiq says a regional approach is vital and that regional actors such as Pakistan, India, Russia and Iran should be included in the talks.

“Right now the whole reconciliation is focused on how to protect the interest of USA and Karzai's administration and it barely considers the interest of Afghan people particularly women in the reconciliation talks.”

Talks should be aimed at creating a meaningful and lasting peace where the rights of all Afghans, including women, are protected, she says.

“Women from civil society should be included because there is a fear that we could lose a great deal if the Taliban regain power,” says Mosadiq who says that despite advances they have made in recent years, women are being excluded at national and international level.

From the first Bonn Conference of 2001, the concerns and interests of women have been largely ignored says Mosadiq, who points to the “frustrating” lack of representation of women and other civil society groups at conferences in Paris 2008, London 2010 and in Bonn last year.

In Afghanistan, when President Karzai's peace council was established last year, it only allocated nine of the 70 seats to women, despite the fact that according to the Afghan constitution 25 per cent of seats have to be allocated to women.

Although she is aware that many of the women who have held positions in Karzai's government often held allegiance to him rather than to a women's agenda, Mosadiq says that such constitutional advances should still be safeguarded:

“During the reconciliation not only the concerns of the USA and Karzai's government should be discussed but the concerns of ordinary Afghan people should be addressed adequately,” says Mosadiq.

“All the talks are happening behind closed doors and no one really knows what is happening, but definitely women's rights are not being considered.”

This is in spite of the fact that the need to liberate women from the oppression of the Taliban was frequently used as justification of the US led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

“Many women feel they have been betrayed by the international community,” she said.

“In 2001 the liberation of women gave legitimacy to the operation in Afghanistan. Ten years on we are simply seeing that the rights of women are being traded off in negotiations with the Taliban.”