Women, Conflict and Conflict Prevention

Defining conflict – conflict prevention:

A wide term such as conflict has varied definitions with numerous dynamic contexts and connotations. Popularly perceived as an incompatibility or a clash between the individuals or groups the term according to one definition involves a definable number of parties usually referred to as disputes, which differ substantially from large scale conflicts that arise between entire population groups, e.g. ethnic or national as its Latin origin conflictus also implies meaning ‘striking together’. However what contradicts the negativity, violence and horror attached to the concept due to the present orientations of globalised language and ideologies is that conflict is inevitable and constructive outcomes from conflict are frequently possible. Therefore when the conflict and more specifically arms conflict brings the notions of weapon proliferation, cross border disputes, communal and ethnic strife, political polarisation and intra state coalitions to mind, the question arises whether the ideas such as peace, prevention, reconciliation and resolution actually provide an exact opposition to these concepts.

The question remains whether the idealised and desired peace is a just peace and not a forced repressive silence signifying the failure of resolutions that serve the interests of both the parties involved in the dispute. One has to guard the tendency to perceive the conflict in black and white terms so as not to undermine the space and capacity to question and argue in ways which can have the possibility of constructive as well as destructive outcomes. This has to be analysed whether the working definitions of the concepts such as conflict and conflict prevention by the peace mechanism and institutions are capable of leading us to a correct and just path towards a peaceful world in our own regional contexts.

Women – a civil society:

Known as a third sector existing alongside and interacting with the state and market according to the working definition of a civil society by UNDP it also has been described as non-profit, organized groups and associations operating idependently from government and the state such as universities, NGOs, environmental, social movements, youth groups, indegenous people’s associations, local communities and trade unions etc. However considering the dynamics of the term that changes from region to region and can have several perspectives there are a large number of socio-political factors that effect its definitions and implications. Considering just one example of Pakistan it can be observed that civil society in Pakistan had never been completely free of constrains. Therefore whether civil society in general and women as civil society in specific can be allocated the desired expected role of conflict prevention considering their political circumstances and global political scenario especially after 9/11 is a complex question. It needs a deep analysis to articulate how women in my country put themselves under the category of a civil society popularly known to have the potential to prevent conflict and built peace – and whether this definition works for them given that there have been moments when they were able to contribute towards peacebuilding, preventing conflict and reconciliation and there were times when they added to the violent conflicts as aptly put by Haroon women are used and abused by power politics, and have been known to play different often conflicting roles regarding peace and conflict resolution.

Women and conflict:

The relationship between the conflict and women has remained one of the ancient and the most challenging ones. Appreciating with a regional/local perspective women have been the ones initiating the conflict by questioning the most rigid patterns of family structure to the intricate implications of globalisation. Studies also show that somewhere the questioning and resistance has also given birth to escalating violence against women and eventually to conflicts along with the gradual positive change in society. While not giving in to a stereotypical gender perspective that women are naturally inclined towards peace and can never be a partner in a conflict one has to acknowledge the truth of the generalization that men start conflicts and women are left to pick up the pieces, it is hardly surprising therefore that women are at the forefront of peace efforts around the world. Women like Uma Bharti, Indra Gandhi and the ones in Abu Ghuraib proved themselves perfect partners in the most violent conflicts negating some of the radical feminist beliefs yet women in Pakistan, India were the first segment of civil and political society which initiated the track two peace initiatives in the most severe circumstances during the India Pakistan cross border conflict.

Why Women:

Women have a much bigger stake in the conflict prevention and peace process along with the other peace partners since they have remained and still are the victims to the most horrendous cruelties of war including rape, sexual slavery, prostitution, displacement, death of children and loved ones, poverty and so on. In our part of the world women have been paying the price of war with their bodies and souls. Their bodies had been the ground for the horrific violence of wars and power politics between nations, religions and communities. The partition of India and the emergence of two sovereign states in 1947 to independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and then the recent Kargil dispute, women from both sides of the border had been faced with extreme violent conflicts with incessant aftermaths. The politics of borders and boundaries snatched their security and violated their rights in the worst manner. However at the same time women’s role and their bigger stake in the peace process cannot be analyzed with a single ‘women’s position’ perspective. Women have always been prominent in questioning and resisting the wars, although there are also those whose vested interests encouraged them to take the narrow nationalistic line and are engaged in hate speech and rhetoric that mirrors that of male power brokers. The women prime minister in Pakistan as well as in India could not proved themselves a perfect peace partners in several conflict situations. Therefore it can be said that their resistance and potential to contribute towards peace process is not only based on gender, though gender informs their actions differentiating them from their male colleagues.

The point cannot be ignored while analysing the role of women in peace and their potential in preventing conflict that they have been used and depicted as equal partners in the peace process and had little to do in the actual political decision making. It remained a difficult task for women to challenge and counter the façade of human rights and peace attached to them not serving their interests by any means. As shown well by an analysis presented by Anees Haroon in her research paper about women in armed conflict of Karachi that women were only called to participate when there was an objective to show the party strength and were put aside when actual decision making and strategy building occurred. However when the prominent leaders and men were arrested it was women who were expected to take over the party control momentarily. How women had been resisting and were in conflict with the war, power forces and state is apparent by several examples all around the world and in Pakistan. Despite of the hitches in the way they still tried to challenge their use and abuse for unchallenging notions of peace and conflict prevention and have added towards a long lasting peace process with full participation in all capacities.

Women in India Pakistan conflict prevention:

Most of the peace initiatives were initiated by feminists who were politically active with Women Action Forum (WAF) that started in 1981 and had also been active in building bridges that contributed to a great understanding and push for peace. Women appeared to have a more holistic view of peace and many women right activists were at the helm of the environmental and human rights movements, while gender specific agendas were apparent in their work against common issues of violence and conflict.

Simorgh women’s resource and publication centre collaborated with likeminded Indian women organizations and publication centres such as Kali for Women and Sakshi over several human rights and peace issues in late nineties. A conference ‘Colonial/post colonial roots and identities’ was also organized with the Indian participants addressing the most crucial issues related to their common past and identities. Contacts over the projects related to gender, judiciary, violence against women and peace were also established by Simorgh which brought a great realization of commonality and common bondages between the women of India and Pakistan working for the same cause.

Women environmentalists from Pakistan initiated links when a women organization sent a delegation to study the Chipko movement in 1988, followed by the first joint India Pakistan Conference on the Environment in Pakistan. Indian and Pakistani NGOs, and the media participated in this first such exchange, which aimed to lead to regular exchanges and collaboration given the commonality on environmental issues – which tensions between Pakistan and India did not allow. Some follow-ups did take place though, like a month-long video training regional workshop in Bangalore in August 1989, for women in development organisations working on community issues. The Indian trainers later conducted a similar workshop in Lahore.

Along with several efforts to diffuse the tension between India Pakistan a ‘women’s peace bus having participants from women groups of India came to Pakistan spearheaded by Nirmala Desh Pandey and was greeted by Asma Jahangir a human rights/peace activist where they exchanged the doppattas and garlands to defy them as symbols of weakness and putting them as bondage of love and friendship.

PIPFPD:

In 1990s Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy brought a real momentum in the peace initiatives by making these conflict prevention efforts into a political movement engaging different segments of civil society including women. As the former economic minister and peace activist Dr Mubashir Hassan comments, “ The last decade of the twentieth century saw the tide decisively turn in favour of open campaigns for peace against war”. Women in their own individual as well as professional capacity had been contributing towards it and were part of it though not necessarily in a gendered ‘women position’.

The same efforts went on in the field of art, culture, music, literature and theater where the delegations were exchanged between India and Pakistan and women were a major part of it.


Women’s role – the lessons learnt/challenges:

The peace movement and the conflict prevention initiatives between India Pakistan are at a stage where it would be difficult for any government to roll back and women has played a vital role in bringing this process to its present stage along with exceptions of those following the narrow nationalistic line and the hate language.

The lessons learnt through these women to women connections in context of India Pakistan peace process comprises of discoveries and possibilities of developing the peace process further on. The experience on the part of women organizations proved to be a great opportunity in order to discover the commonalities and facilitate the contacts to carry on further collaborations in this regard. Such peace building efforts include a Muslim women conference in 1986 discussing the issues of violence, fundamentalism and its deep political roots which also brought the women together on one table from different regions. This not only helped in defying the misconception about each other promoted by state owned media and curriculum but also discussed the issues that concern all of them to bring peace and harmony in the region. Simultaneously ensuring women’s place on the peace negotiation table would strengthen the arguments for peace as it would introduce and emphasize the missing dimension of women’s experience of war and conflict situations to these debates. Participation of the victims of war such as Kashmiri women would give immediacy to the issues that tend to remain academic. There is also need to include violence against women in peace agendas. Other ways to facilitate the peace process would be to sensitize cultural practitioners regarding issues of violence against women, training media, improving textbooks and curricula, expansion and use of internet and organizational capacity building. These are just some of the important choices we need to make in order to utilize the lessons learnt from the peace efforts.

There is a great need to redefine, interrogate and explore the concepts of conflict, conflict prevention and civil society in our own regional, local as well as global context so that we can analyze and rectify our roles as women and as civil society actor in the language which has the potential to connect the grass root peace initiatives to the international conflict prevention dialogue. To fill the gap between the rhetoric and reality of peace there is a great need for women to challenge the notions of conflict prevention, resolution, development and human rights in order to insure a peace which is not forced, unjust and repressing. Women should be able to initiate the conflict when they need to break the silence forced on them by state, flawed legal and judicial system, globalization and power politics and should be able to prevent it when it comprises of violence, terror and discrimination. They also need to clarify the ambiguities of all the concepts related to war and peace out of the forced language of violence that gives us one provided definition and refuses the rest of it by restricting the space to question and argue the ideas that shape and effect our lives. We as women also need to redefine the notion of war such as ‘war on terrorism’ to see whether it is actually a ‘war of terrorism’. The challenges in the conflict prevention and peace process that we are faced with generally and specifically in India Pakistan scenario can be met if we get more introspective of the ideologies we follow in relation to peace and war. We need to collaborate, interact, communicate, discover and explore to prevent conflict and develop the peace process. This cannot not only help us to follow the correct and just path towards peace and conflict prevention but can enable us to better our contribution in the global peace process and conflict prevention dialogue.

Acknowledgement:
This paper would have not been possible without unending encouragement by Neelam Hussain and continuous help by Mariam Abrar, Dr Rubina Saigol, Hina Azfar, Shahina Hanif and the Simorgh staff.