Undermining Dichotomies: Women and the Peace Process in Afghanistan

Abstract

This paper interrogates the equation of women and peace through the prism of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP). The Programme was initiated in 2010 and is scheduled to continue through 2018. It is designed to create the conditions for inclusion of the insurgency within the democratic system and provide a roadmap for peace. The APRP builds on one of the central justifications of the war: the liberation of Afghan women. It requires gender mainstreaming in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and subsequent Resolutions, so as to include women in all stages of the process. The APRP underscores inevitable tensions between international and local standards that purport to ensure women’s interests are protected in peacebuilding. The effort to impose gender mainstreaming on the peace process is emblematic of this tension. I argue that this effort has yielded partial gains for women who have internalized international perspectives on women’s rights, but it signifies the exclusion of those who do not. UNSCRs 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, and 2122 assume symmetry in the positions of men and women: but fail to address the complex ways in which gender is perceived by power relations within particular societies. Considering men and women as though they confront similar obstacles reifies disparities between them. Formal numerical inclusion in the APRP, as in other political processes, has not and cannot ensure changed practices.