Their first-hand accounts of Afgan peace activists showcase the importance of women’s representation and leadership in peace and security processes—and what their absence from these processes can mean for a country.
The Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021 erased years of hard-won progress towards national peace and security. In the year since, the regime has systematically erased women from Afghan society, too: mandating face coverings in public, excluding women from most jobs, banning girls from high school and dismantling all institutions that protected and promoted the rights of women and girls. And yet, in the face of these innumerable human rights violations, Afghan women continue to resist and to work towards lasting peace and security for their country.
Fawzia Koofi, Habiba Sarabi and Maryam Rayed have devoted their careers to building peace in their home country. Fawzia and Habiba represented the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan during peace talks with the Taliban in 2020—two of four women to take part in the breakthrough negotiations. Maryam headed a department in the State Ministry of Peace. All three are now in exile.
Their first-hand accounts showcase the importance of women’s representation and leadership in peace and security processes—and what their absence from these processes can mean for a country.
Fawzia Koofi: Women will never give up
The first girl in her family to go to school, Fawzia Koofi went on to become the first woman Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Afghanistan, as well as one of the four women negotiators sitting face-to-face with the Taliban to negotiate the country’s future in 2020. A life-long fighter for democracy and the rights of Afghan women and girls, Fawzia is now in exile.
“As most wars are led by men, it is men who believe they are the only ones who can talk about peace. Seeing a woman in the negotiations room—and sometimes I was the only woman in the room—was something neither of the sides of the table were used to seeing. Every day, my presence was a form of resistance, emphasizing that women have a rightful place in all decisions impacting their country.
But it was not enough that I was in the room; it is not enough that we are at the table. We also need to be included in all conversations affecting our country, and our views must be meaningfully considered. As a woman, I saw first-hand how women can bring diverse views to the peace table, how women can enrich discussions. As somebody who grew up politically in the last 20 years, who has access to information, who knew what happened to our country, I had more knowledge about the economy, security, institutions, and democracy. The gap between the women negotiators and the Taliban was not only a generation gap, but it was also an information gap. And this makes women’s participation in peace processes even more important.
The world can learn from Afghanistan’s experience on Women, Peace, and Security. Women must be involved from the beginning in any peace negotiation, and they must be involved in a meaningful way. And women will never give up. They will continue to resist, to ask for their demands, to ask for their liberty. The international community must continue to use their leverage to advocate for the return of the women’s right to political participation, for the return of the rule of law, for the return of the democracy we lost. People around the world should continue to stand in solidarity with us, to use their platforms to raise our voices, to push their government to do more for the people of Afghanistan.”
Habiba Sarabi: I believe we can get our country back
Habiba Sarabi is a pharmacist by profession and a politician by choice. After serving as Afghanistan’s Minister of Women’s Affairs, she became the country’s first woman governor. During peace negotiations with the Taliban, Habiba was appointed Deputy Chair for the High Peace Council—alongside four other women negotiators. Now in exile, she is focused on motivating the younger generation to finish the fight.
“When the National Action Plan 1325 was launched, civil society in Afghanistan was very active. Their advocacy for women, peace and security, and especially for having more women in the peace process, resulted in thirteen women members of the High-Peace Council—and I was the Deputy Chair. It also resulted in four women appointed as negotiators on behalf of the Republic in the intra-Afghan talks with the Taliban—and I was one of these four women. Our role as peace negotiators was to both advocate for women’s rights and to represent the whole population of women in Afghanistan. Our role was also to be present in every part of the negotiations, from the economy to security. In our advocacy, we were using the constitution a lot—women’s rights are granted in the Constitution—and we wanted the Taliban to accept the Constitution as it is. They never did.
Talking to the Taliban was not easy, but we were tolerant. As women, we were often ignored: sometimes the doors would be shut for us, sometimes we were left out. But the four of us had a rule—to make sure we represented women in every single part of the negotiations, in every single meeting. We also had another rule—to engage with civil society inside Afghanistan. Every time we had a break from the negotiations, we would go back to Kabul and consult with civil society, consult with women. It was our responsibility to take their views from inside the country to the negotiations table.
I experienced the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan twice. But last year it was different. Before, we did not know what the Taliban could do, what their ideology was. But this time we did. And this time we had everything we so hard worked for: institutions, hundreds of women-led NGOs. Our government was far from perfect, but we had a system in place—a system we could fix and work within. This time, we lost everything. It felt like our work for decades was in vain; it felt like the time, the energy, the hard work, everything just vanished. For weeks, I could not work, eat, think—above all, I could not go back home. As for millions of Afghans who are suffering right now, the impact of the takeover was huge on me.”
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