India-Pakistan – Women’s Dialogue for Peace – Across Boundaries
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 22, 2005
WUNRN
Women Without Borders
Women’s
Dialogue: India-Pakistan, New Ideas for a New Way Forward – Across Political
& Religious Boundaries – For Peace
On Tuesday, January 18, 2011, four
representatives from India and Pakistan came together to present the results of
a courageous dialogue that cut across political and religious boundaries.
Although politicians on both sides
regularly engage in high-level negotiations, grassroots representatives—and
especially women—are only rarely included. It is obvious, however, that
diplomatic efforts can only be translated into concrete, effective strategies
if people on the ground feel personally addressed. Women can be key in this
process—to facilitate these new efforts, the Austrian Federal Ministry of
Labour, Social Affairs, and Consumer Protection supported the Women without
Borders / SAVE Dialogue Project “Political Conflict Resolution Starts at
Home!”
Shabana Fayyaz, Edit Schlaffer, Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer, Mossarat
Qadeem, Archana Kapoor and Anita Pratap, participants on the Women’s Dialogue:
India-Pakistan, New Ideas for a New Way Forward – 18.01.2011
After holding a productive dialogue session
in Mumbai in November 2010, SAVE Pakistan representatives Mossarat Qadeem,
Executive Director of the PAIMAN Trust, and Shabana Fayyaz, a Professor in the
Defense and Strategic Studies Department of Quaid-I-Azam University, as well as
SAVE India representatives Archana Kapoor, Founder of SMART NGO, and Anita
Pratap, a leading journalist and best-selling author, traveled to Vienna to
speak about the outcomes of the dialogue sessions. Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer
welcomed over 80 guests to the event, held in the Vienna Insurance Group’s
(Wiener Städtische) Ringturm.
“63 years of independence, and still we
haven’t come to any kind of conclusion. The unique point about the SAVE women’s
dialogue is that it is impacting the people whose lives have been turned around
by some act of violent extremism. Then, it is not about the “other” anymore, it
is about us. This dialogue was a starting point between women, between mothers,
between families. Here are real people living this reality day in, day out, who
needed the strength of this dialogue. We need to break the idea that every
Pakistani is a terrorist, every Indian a victim. It is not true.” -Archana
Kapoor, India
“Pakistanis and Indians have been living
with an image of ‘the other’ as an enemy for 64 years. We have had a series of
dialogues and meetings, addressing animosity on both sides, but since 1947 we
have never achieved success that allows us to be good neighbors. 64 years is
long enough to live in animosity. We have to reach towards a solution. In the
dialogue in Mumbai, we came up with recommendations that are doable, and
grounded in reality. If these are taken up by women with our skills, we can
share the destiny of our two countries.” -Mossarat Qadeem, Pakistan
“A strategic move toward a
sustainable India-Pakistan dialogue is to expand and deepen civil society
linkages. The time has come for women in both countries to take a dynamic role
in building peace through dialogue. The skills and efforts of women, visible
today in every arena from business to politics, must be harnessed for dialogue
and peace-building. One new way forward is to create a network of women in
India and Pakistan as a pressure group to urge establishments on both sides to
keep dialogue open, continuous and focused on trans-border collaborations that
bring tangible cultural, economic and peace dividends to both peoples.”-Anita
Pratap, Japan/India
“When the West looks at Pakistan, they
think Talibanization is a homogenous phenomenon. It is not. Nor is the nature
of extremism in Pakistan. There is a gray area between white and black, and
that has to be explored. The picture of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan
cuts across national boundaries. The good news is that the time of denial by
political stalwarts and policy-shapers is over. The SAVE action-driven dialogue
is therefore very timely. We welcome international attention—we have a strong
civil society and women’s movement on the ground, ready to stand up against the
extremist minority that unfortunately exists not only in tribal areas, but also
in many other parts of our country.” -Shabana Fayyaz, Pakistan
Through this dialogue process, the
panelists, who represent the women who are involved on the ground, were
determined to address the reality of what is happening on both sides and to
openly speak about extremism and terrorism. SAVE will continue to foster these
dialogue efforts to provide tangible alternatives to the ongoing hostilities.
We are not only talking about regional hostilities—nuclear and terrorist
threats resonate around the world.
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