Engaging Afghan Religious  Leaders for Women’s Rights

Engaging Afghan Religious Leaders for Women’s Rights

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

Women’s rights programs in Afghanistan need to work with religious leaders who have moral authority among large segments of the Afghan public. Engaging those traditional leaders who have a track record of supporting women’s rights begins with respecting their opinions and showing the patience to build trust through dialogue. It also requires supporting processes of change that are identified locally and ensuring that local partners take the lead role in the delivery of support as much as poss...

Type: Peace Brief

GenderReligion

Libya’s Religious Sector and Peacebuilding Efforts

Libya’s Religious Sector and Peacebuilding Efforts

Thursday, March 16, 2017

By: Palwasha L. Kakar;  Zahra Langhi

Derived from two surveys conducted in Libya in 2014 and 2016, this report strives to heighten understanding of the country’s religious sector and its impact on governance and society. The findings—which are bolstered by the local knowledge of Libyan researchers—map the major religious trends, institutions, and actors in the country to describe how Libyans perceive the contribution of the religious sector to building peace and fostering justice and democracy.

Type: Peaceworks

ReligionDemocracy & GovernanceJustice, Security & Rule of Law

To Help End a War, Call Libya’s Women Negotiators

To Help End a War, Call Libya’s Women Negotiators

Thursday, October 17, 2019

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

As Libya struggles to end an armed conflict that has only widened this year, it should turn to a hidden resource: the traditional peacemaking roles of its women. As in many countries facing warfare, women have long played a key role in negotiating or mediating conflicts within families, clans and local communities—but are overlooked by official institutions and peace processes. Amid Libya’s crisis, one such “hidden” peacemaker is Aisha al-Bakoush, a hospital nursing director who has expanded her healing mission from medical illnesses to armed conflict.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace ProcessesReligion

How to push Taliban for compromise? Ask the women doing it.

How to push Taliban for compromise? Ask the women doing it.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

The halt in the U.S.-Taliban dialogue, plus Afghanistan’s September election, has forced a hiatus in formal peace efforts in the Afghan war—and that creates an opening to strengthen them. A year of preliminary talks has not yet laid a solid foundation for the broad political settlement that can end the bloodshed. While talks so far have mainly excluded Afghan women, youth and civil society, the sudden pause in formal peacemaking offers a chance to forge a more inclusive, and thus reliable, process. Even better, a little-noted encounter in Qatar between women and Taliban leaders signals that a broader process is doable.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace Processes

Women in Conflict: Advancing Women’s Role in Peace and Security

Women in Conflict: Advancing Women’s Role in Peace and Security

Thursday, June 13, 2019

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

Palwasha Kakar, senior program officer for religion and inclusive societies, testified on June 13 at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues' hearing on "Women in Conflict: Advancing Women's Role in Peace and Security.” Her expert testimony as prepared is presented below.

Type: Congressional Testimony

GenderPeace Processes

How can we negotiate with the Taliban? Afghan women know.

How can we negotiate with the Taliban? Afghan women know.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

Afghan political leaders met in Moscow this week with Taliban representatives amid new momentum in diplomatic efforts to end Afghanistan’s war. Like other recent discussions, including those between U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives in Qatar, Afghan women remain almost entirely excluded. Yet mostly unnoticed amid the formal diplomacy, Afghan women at their country’s grass roots already have managed negotiations with local Taliban leaders.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace ProcessesReligion

How can Afghans make peace AND protect women? Meet Ayesha Aziz.

How can Afghans make peace AND protect women? Meet Ayesha Aziz.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

By: Palwasha L. Kakar

After nearly 40 years of war, Afghanistan and the international community are urgently seeking paths for a peace process. But amid the tentative efforts—a three-day ceasefire in June, the peace march across the country by hundreds of Afghans and talks by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad—a somber question hangs for women and human rights advocates. How can Afghanistan make peace with the Taliban while protecting democracy and women’s rights?

Type: Analysis

GenderReligionPeace Processes

Libya’s Religious Sector and Peacebuilding Efforts (Arabic)

Libya’s Religious Sector and Peacebuilding Efforts (Arabic)

Thursday, March 16, 2017

By: Palwasha L. Kakar;  Zahra Langhi

التقرير الماثل هو عصارة استبيانين أُجْرِيا في ليبيا خلال عامي 2014 و2016. والغاية منه سَبْرُ أغوار القطاع الديني في ليبيا ورصد تأثيره في الحكم والمجتمع. وقد استندت عملية استخلاص نتائج هذا التقرير إلى الجهود البحثية التي أجراها فريق من الباحثين المحليين الخبراء بالشأن الليبي. وترسم هذه النتائج خريطة لأهم التوجهات الدينية والمؤسسات الدينية والجهات الدينية الفاعلة في ليبيا، وترصد منظور الليبيين لمساهمة القطاع الديني في بناء السلام وتعزيز العدالة والديمقراطية.

Type: Peaceworks

ReligionDemocracy & GovernanceJustice, Security & Rule of Law

Vice President Harris Helps Focus on Ghana, West Africa

Vice President Harris Helps Focus on Ghana, West Africa

Thursday, March 30, 2023

By: Palwasha L. Kakar;  Katie Todd

Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Ghana this week as the place to launch her show of U.S. commitment to a new partnership with Africa can be no surprise. Ghana is one of Africa’s more established democracies and is at the center of the coastal West Africa region that the United States has targeted for focused efforts to prevent instability and the spread of extremism that is driving insurgencies in the neighboring Sahel region. As Ghana confronts that threat, notably in its vulnerable north, its community and civil society groups form an essential resource that partners should support.

Type: Analysis

Fragility & ResilienceReligion