Understanding the Role of Women in Post-Conflict & Transitional Countries

In 2003, I led a delegation of women from the United States to Afghanistan to celebrate International Women’s Day in Kabul. There was a remarkable air of excitement and discussion about the potential advancements Afghanistan could make towards gender equality. At that time, women were steadily increasing their political participation; they had also secured legislation that protected women’s rights, such as the Elimination of Violence Against Women law. A few months later I traveled to Baghdad and was met with the same level of excitement by women in Iraq. There was a strong belief that women would be able to reclaim their foremothers’ legacy as one of the leading countries in the region on women’s rights.

Fast forward to over ten years later. The conversation is dramatically different. I continue to travel and meet with women leaders in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The excitement has dissipated. Instead, it has been replaced by frustration and confusion. How did we get here? How did we move from a climate of ways to leap forward to desperation to secure the rights we already have? The reality is the window of opportunity was replaced by a struggle to maintain the most basic rights for women in both countries.

My life’s work continues to focus on conflict, and in the past three years I have spent time in the squares in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, and beyond. My heart remains convinced that women are the missing ingredient to a successful transition. It is not simply a matter of securing rights, it’s the missing piece to establishing security and stability.

As I watch the stagnation of women’s rights in many countries I cannot but wonder what are the key lessons learned moving forward. In Iraq women face fewer education and economic opportunities than they did a decade ago. Iraqi women are losing their voice in the political arena, which is demonstrated as Iraq’s Article 41, a personal status law, remains unrevised. Without a conscious effort to advance the progression towards equality, women in transitioning countries face the risk of losing recently acquired rights and political capacity.

In 2011, along with my colleagues at the United States Institute of Peace, a series of round table discussions to explore lessons learned from conflict and post-conflict programs of support for women’s rights was held. With the understanding that empowering women is critical to obtaining peace and security, six key points were developed:

Islam has a critical role in the progress of the women’s rights movement. As post-conflict and Arab Spring countries make efforts to incorporate Islamic theory into new constitutions, important questions regarding the rights of women remain unanswered. With Islam being open to various interpretations, it is necessary that Islamic laws, such as laws addressing personal status, be well defined and not confused with cultural customs. With many of the laws directly affecting the daily lives of women, women should participate in the shaping of their country’s Islamic constitution. Furthermore, to successfully advance women’s rights, the movement must have the support and advocacy of religious leaders. These leaders are considered the voice of the law, and are often able to maintain respect and influence that political activists lack.

The women’s rights agenda must be reinvigorated and prioritized. After a decade of costly occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, alongside the global economic crisis, many development programs are seeing donor fatigue. Women’s empowerment has been proven critical to peace building, national security, economic and social development. Leaders must see the unique value in these programs and reinvest sufficient funding. I often emphasize that this is not a nice thing for the international community to invest in. It is necessary for any success to secure our past investments.

In order to become empowered, disenfranchised women must receive holistic training. Women in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown a desire for training programs that provide political empowerment, negotiation, advocacy, leadership, technical, and vocational training. By providing a suite of skills, women are better prepared to actively participate in leadership roles within their communities.

Men must be activists for women’s rights. Women’s training programs are more likely to be successful with the support of male community leaders. Male participation in the women’s rights movement is particularly needed in more conservative communities, where women tend to be excluded from leadership roles and political engagement.

Women from varied communities, religions, and cultures, must unite in the pursuit of women’s rights. Demanding women’s rights as a collective unit reduces the ability for political parties or other entities to manipulate and discredit the discussion through ethnic/sectarian differences. By engaging women from various communities, peer to peer learning, understanding, and collaboration between conflicted sectarian communities is fostered. Women’s empowerment programs must also be strategically distributed to ensure training is equally accessible across social classes and geographies.

Women’s rights must be a mainstreamed discussion. Women and men across the globe in local, national, and international leadership positions must continue to discuss and prioritize women’s rights. Media outlets should be used to highlight women’s rights and participation in peacebuilding. By using media to host an ongoing dialogue (radio, television, and print) women’s rights and leadership initiatives will become a mainstream discussion. Media outlets should also be used to distribute trainings and peacebuilding tools in order to reach a wider and more varied audience.