Afghanistan

Afghan women want peace, but not at the cost of losing all they have gained in the last 10 years. Yes, they believe in peace, but their rights are non-negotiable. During this transition process, Afghan Women want to emphasize security issues for the military and police but, primarily, for civil society.

Kabul - Afghanistan's government can't hold peace talks with its Taliban insurgents until the Islamic militia identifies a representative with the authority to negotiate, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview that aired Sunday.
Karzai told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" in an exclusive interview that Afghanistan also needs the help of neighboring Pakistan for any talks to succeed.

Many Afghan women find themselves suffering from violence and abuse, with virtually no legal protection. Recently, authorities sentenced Gulnaz, a 21 year old rape victim, to 12 years in prison for adultery.

Coverage on Afghan women who have traveled the distance to be part of the Bonn Conference in Germany this week did show up short as global media placed more attention on international politics instead of participation for the women who wanted to discuss on-the-ground security needs.

The Afghan Conference that begins today in Bonn could prove to be crucial for the future of women in Afghanistan.

Yet there are very few women among the 900 delegates taking part in the talks that mark the anniversary of the 2001 Bonn Conference, when Hamid Karzai was appointed president of Afghanistan and expectations were high about women's futures.

The Taliban came once for Fawzia Koofi, and she knows they could come again. This prominent member of parliament - and mother of two - survived a hail of bullets last year.

"It was the Taliban. They kept shooting at my car for half an hour," she said. "But luckily I survived that. For me the threats are more, because I don't like to keep silent".

On December 5, the international community will gather with Afghan leaders in Bonn, Germany's picturesque Cold War-era capital, for the latest stock-taking of Afghanistan. While some are tempering expectations for the second major conference in Bonn in ten years, Afghan women leaders see an opportunity -- and they're doing everything they can to seize it.

Leaders attending the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan must make an explicit declaration that women's rights will not be negotiated away in any peace deal with insurgent groups, ActionAid said today.

Afghanistan still has a long way to go before women in the country are fully protected under the two-year-old Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law, a report concludes.

IMPORTANT talks are coming up where discussions about the peace of Afghanistan will take place.

Whilst much news on Afghanistan centres on the potential withdrawal of military troops, I would like to draw readers' attention to another aspect of the Afghan conflict - women's forgotten role in building peace.

Afghanistan is still one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman.