Rula Ghani has stepped forward to become a defender of Afghan women in the peace process.
Afghan first lady Rula Ghani is pushing for women’s involvement in the peace process between the United States and the Taliban. By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Amie Ferris-Rotman Moscow reporter for the Washington Post. Email Bio Follow Sayed Salahuddin April 16 at 5:00 AM KABUL — For many women in Afghanistan, peace talks between the United States and the Taliban are evoking the darkest days of their lives, when the group stripped women of their most basic rights.
Her involvement has bolstered grass-roots movements around the country of women who insist, in the words of one popular hashtag, that Afghan women will not go back. The first lady wants women’s voices in the peace process to be heard, pushing the dialogue beyond the unheeded calls by the United States and NATO for women to be at the table.
“We were not seeing any kind of real work being done to understand what women really want,” said Afghan first lady Rula Ghani. And when U.S. envoy for peace Zalmay Khalilzad held a large high-level meeting in Kabul earlier this month with the Afghan president and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Scott Miller, not a single woman was present.
Each meeting was different. In southern Helmand province, women said learning how to read and write was the only way to achieve peace. In central Samangan, participants burst into song, demanding their voices be heard by the international community.
“We wanted more women. We were not content,” said Wazhma Frogh, a member of the Afghanistan High Peace Council, adding that all 40 have received their Qatari visas. “There is no clarity yet if we are going to be at the table, but we want to be physically there,” she said.
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