What NATO, Afghan peace talks, Artificial Intelligence, UNDP, economic development, Suffragettes and American Constitution have in common? Women’s rights, gender equality, women, peace and security, and weak representation of women in decision-making roles. In the era of Artificial Intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology, the Afghan women are facing unimaginable challenges under the Taliban. Creating conditions for peace, NATO becomes an unlikely catalyst for women’s inclusion in the Afghan peace talks. As the intra-Afghan peace negotiation first term draws to a rejuvenation, Afghan women should take stock of the post-war aftermath and apply lessons learned from the Suffragettes one hundred years ago. Many of these necessary decisions have been translated into unconventional policies that gradually changed the world. Looking into the future, is gender equality feasible in the Era of Artificial Intelligence from American Constitution to Afghan Peace Talks?
NATO Creating Conditions for Peace and Peace Talks
"We have not forgotten you!" is what our global leaders advocate constantly for Afghan women, reiterated recently in a Georgetown Panel Discussion on Standing with Afghan Women: Ensuring Meaningful Inclusion in Peace Talks. Where we are today on women's issues versus Afghanistan in the 1990s under the Taliban? According to Secretary Madeleine Albright, a Czech-born American diplomat, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the first woman U.S. secretary of state, 20 years of progress means three and a half million girls in schools, women in police, teachers, public officials, mayors and entrepreneurs. 20 percent of seats in the Parliament are for women. With the parties closer than ever to the start of the intra-Afghan peace negotiations to end Afghanistan’s 40 year-long war, there are hopes in a lasting peace settlement. Certainly, there are major concerns about the price of peace if women, who represent 60 percent of the country, are excluded from peace negotiations and final settlement. If these women are a majority of the Afghan population, why they are not included at the negotiation table with the Taliban?
Male politicians are representing their political interests. They are also representing the Afghan women in the national peace negotiations for women's rights. The government power-sharing is consolidated into the High Council for National Reconciliation led by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the Ministry of Peace Affairs under Abdul Salam Rahimi, the High Peace Council managed by Mohammad Karim Khalili, and the peace negotiation team headed by Batur Dostum.
There is no change in the behavior and ideology of the Taliban on women's rights at local level, and overall. But the young Taliban want power. This is why women must fully participate in the peace process. In today's modern world, Afghan women must be a party to the peace negotiations, in equal number, involved in every step of the process. Like the Suffragettes one hundred years ago, they must be a robust and sizable negotiating power too big to be contained. It's not equitable without meaningful inclusion, so the perspective of Afghan women must be reflected in every agreement with the Taliban, balancing thusly between those with ideology of conflict, ideology of development, and ideology of peace. Afghan women want to be recognized as equal citizens under the Constitutional framework, because peace cannot be achieved without justice.
Along, the International Community must monitor the peace process in solidarity and strong commitment. Since there is no national strategy for the peace structure, the peacemaking becomes a long process. The Afghan women must be prepared for building domestic consensus and trust, while in search for justice and grievances. Next generation, universal human rights, women’s rights, minorities' rights, liberty, freedom, the republic and democracy in Afghanistan, all depend on how these women stand united and strong in front of a slow consolidation of religious stronghold powers in the region to rule beyond Afghanistan.
Photo: The Conference on “Women Lead Peace in Afghanistan” at Georgetown University, 2019.
Unlimited efforts were attempted to establish peace in Afghanistan, revival of socio-economic structure and integration into regional economic processes. Numerous international and regional conferences dedicated to the resolution of the Afghan conflict took place successively, including the expanded meeting in Moscow, the Kabul Process, the Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation on Afghanistan in Ashgabat, the Istanbul process “The heart of Asia” in Baku, and the meeting of the International Contact Group in Oslo.
A significant progress emerged when the Afghans assumed full responsibility for security of their country. In January 2015, a non-combat NATO Resolute Support Mission or Operation Resolute Support was established, when the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation ended. NATO launched the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and defense and security institutions. Currently consisting of approximately 15,900 troops in Afghanistan, the Resolute Support Mission is led by United States Army General Austin Scott Miller. Just recently, Italian Brigadier General Enrico Barduani, who leads the Train, Advice and Assist Command in the western part of Afghanistan (TAAC West), reaffirmed commitment to establish a peaceful country, stating “NATO will remain committed to our Afghan counterparts – to our Afghan friends.”
According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. national security objective is reconstructing the Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) to secure Afghanistan from internal and external threats and prevent the re-establishment of terrorist safe havens. After the U.S. government spent more than $70 billion in security sector assistance to design, train, advise, assist, and equip the ANDSF since 2002, only the Afghan Special Forces became the “best-of-the-best” in the Afghan military. Some challenges to ANDSF development are the lack of women’s inclusion in national armed forces and decision-making roles in military leadership, including civil service, chronic corruption, illiteracy, the lack of provisions of weapons and equipment.
What is NATO’s role in Afghanistan? NATO prioritizes security sector governance and defense institution building concerted with improving the National Defense and Security Forces fighting capabilities. To combat corruption and support defense institution building, rule of law and capacity building, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Operations Dr. John Manza leads the Building Integrity Policy and Action Plan, integrity, transparency, accountability and good governance efforts to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan, essentially “Regarding Afghanistan and the Resolute Support Mission, Building Integrity is recognized as an important aspect of our work. We seek to support and, if required, assist in the coordination of BI activities inside and outside of Afghanistan. The Government of Afghanistan’s willing participation in BI is essential to maintaining financial support by Allies and Partners for the Afghan Security Institutions. As someone who has been working on Afghan issues for a decade now, I recognize the progress that the Government of Afghanistan has made in the areas of transparency and accountability. BI has played a strong role in realizing this progress.”
The Trump administration’s decision to reduce NATO-American military forces from 12,000 troops to 8,500 was based on a key provision of the February 29 Agreement between the Taliban and the United States, stipulating a U.S. commitment to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan to 8,500 by mid-July and to zero by May 2021. In July, the Pentagon declared that "U.S. forces in Afghanistan remain in the mid-8,000s and five bases formerly occupied by U.S. forces have been transferred to our Afghan partners." However, by election day in November 2020, the number will decrease to 5,000. If NATO forces withdraw without a clear roadmap for supporting Afghan peace negotiations, are women’s rights at stake?
Photo: On March 26-27, 2018 Tashkent hosted International Conference on Afghanistan “Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity” leading to the Declaration of the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan: Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity.
Based on “carrot and stick” policy, international funding and technical assistance must be conditional. Strong political will and ownership of fundamental reforms leading to realization and enforcement of women’s rights is necessary before, during and after the intra-Afghan peace talks and beyond any final agreement. Without hesitation, the peace talks should not focus on the Taliban for a quick fix, but on women’s rights. Women should be included in the peace talks at all stages as decision-makers. Their equal participation such as 50/50 gender representation is necessary to outstrip the Taliban ideology and transcend archaic customs. Left out, the future of women in Afghanistan is at stake. If included, it leads to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
Unlikely Policies on Women’s Empowerment That Changed the World, Applicable Today, Including the Afghan Peace Talks
Lessons from Suffragettes and Voting Rights (1900s)
One hundred and one years ago, in 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote as the law of the land. After the decisive vote was cast by a young male representative who stunned the world by voting “Yes” for women voting, a climactic battle in the Tennessee House of Representatives led finally to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution on August 18, 1920. Declaring the right of women to educational and employment opportunities, the suffragettes believed that “it is the duty of women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.” It was an unconventional vision for a new beginning in institutional and legal reform in the United States leading to a global policy change and institution building that made cultural and social attitudes accommodate women’s rights.
Photo: Suffragettes, 1919.
Ending a century of protest and violence in 1920, the fundamental right to vote for women or women’s suffrage showed a deliberate political will to correct gender inequality. President Theodore Roosevelt was a champion for Equal Women’s Rights in his thesis at Harvard. President Woodrow Wilson declared before the Congress that "We have made partners of the women in this war… Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right? This is the time to support Women's Suffrage." Yet, this dream became a reality only when the National Woman’s Party converted into a robust and sizable voting power too big to be contained.
Today, the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, recognizing gender equality as a foundational principle in the United States, is finally ratified in 2020 by the required three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states. What could become one day the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced to Congress in 1923, about 97 years ago, after American women were granted the right to vote. With political will, gender equality could be adopted someday this century, changing the perpetuation of a state of economic dependence of women by correcting laws on pay equity, determining child support and job opportunities and designing them for the individual rather than for one sex. If implemented in the United States, this unconventional gender equality vision will change again the rest of the world forever.
Lessons from Engendering Economic Development Formalizing the Informal (1990s)
In our global modern society, the statement in the United Nations Development Program UNDPs Human Development Report 1995 argues that “unless development is engendered, it is fatally endangered” because unless correcting gender inequality is considered an urgent priority, the poverty and subordinate status of women will derail economic development.
It was only twenty-five years ago when the Beijing Gender Equality Platform for Action emphasized that “empowerment of women is a critical factor in the eradication of poverty.” In September 1995, 189 governments firmly pledged themselves to gender equality responsibilities that were unprecedented and unique in scope. Equality between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice. Most importantly, this is a prerequisite for equality, development, and peace. Thus, governments, the international community, civil society, non-governmental organizations and the private sector are called for ownership and strategic action in twelve critical areas of concern for women globally:
In fact, achieving gender equality is one of the most important intermediate inputs that will correct the high cost of inefficiencies and resource misallocation. The Human Development Report 1995 estimated the value of unremunerated work at about $16 billion, from which “$11 billion represents the invisible contribution of women,” so formalizing the recording of informal work and ensuring that women farmers gain titles to cultivate land for food production along with micro-lending would lead to real economic empowerment for women. Furthermore, if women are empowered, all members of a family benefit.
Although the victimization of women lies in the social structures, institutions, values and beliefs which create and perpetuate women’s subordination, when women are empowered with skills, credit and resources, they become agents of change by increasing their status within the family, making them independent producers and providers of a valuable cash resource to the household economy. Furthermore, with their economic clout they move from positions of stratified marginalization within household decision-making process and exclusion within the community to one of greater centrality, inclusion and voice. These empowering means support a process of institutional and legal change that may make cultural attitudes fully accommodate women’s rights. It is for all these reasons that if the empowerment of women is not an essential component of development that economic, human, and political development suffers.
Where do we stand today in 2020? Is the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action a benchmark for gender equality? What are some measurable metrics? The shift away from the image of women as victims in the “women’s component” approach and women in development to women as agents of change in gender and development was revolutionary for the development community. Withal, it's the right time that governments and multinational organizations show strong political will and assume ownership, internalizing and implementing the Sustainable Development Goal #5, Gender Equality through a transparent, accountable, and efficient Action Plan.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres had this to say in support of gender equality, “It is time to stop trying to change women and start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential. Our power structures have evolved gradually over thousands of years. One further evolution is long overdue. The 21st century must be the century of women’s equality.”
Photo: International Community, OSCE, European Union Monitoring Mission, SFOR NATO and National Armed Forces leadership in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Roxana Allen was the Head of Field Office Trebinje with OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia to stop the Kosovo War. As the only woman at the table in a leadership position in Eastern Herzegovina, she negotiated and mediated the 2001 “Municipal Assembly Decision on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation, Human Rights and Religious Freedom” in the aftermath of a violent extremist attack on minorities and International Community, resulting in substantial reduction in ethnic and political tensions.
Lessons from NATO Policy on Women’s Inclusion in Security Institutions (2010s)
A few emerging efforts to implement a global gender framework championed by men in power are gradually evolving. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and UN Secretary General António Guterres are a few champions for gender equality.
Photo: Global education at Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies SAIS in Washington DC - a graduate school with a proven reputation for producing influential, innovative, and accomplished graduates, nationally and internationally.
In a paradigm shift, Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and former Deputy Secretary General of NATO Rose Gottemoeller - who became the first female Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on October 17, 2016 - placed women’s empowerment at the center of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda by recognizing the impact conflict has on women and girls. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized that “Gender equality is an integral part of all NATO policies, programmes and projects, and gender should be at the center of planning, doctrine and training.”
Photo: OSCE and SFOR NATO representatives in Brcko District - one of the most difficult politico-military environments under international arbitration in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996.
The Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security was created in 2012 and endorsed by the Wales Summit in September 2014 as the NATO mechanism to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). The UN Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122 and 2422 recognize the disproportionate impact that conflict has on women and girls. These Resolutions call for full and equal participation of women at all levels of conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction and protection of women and girls from sexual violence in conflict.
In January 2018, in continuing NATO’s support for equal participation of women at all levels of conflict prevention to post-war reconstruction, Mr. Stoltenberg appointed Clare Hutchinson as the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative. The third woman appointed in this position, after Marriët Schuurman and Mari Skåre, Clare Hutchinson is the high-level focal point of the NATO Women, Peace and Security Agenda. She represents the gender adviser in NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives promoting gender mainstreaming in the design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs and military operations, including operational planning and execution. Responsible for a Women, Peace and Security Task Force, Ms. Hutchinson stated that “Women and men have different perceptions of security, so it is important to ensure women’s active and meaningful participation in decision-making and security institutions.”
In unison, former OSCE Secretary General Ambassador Thomas Greminger declared also, “The OSCE recognizes gender equality as an indispensable prerequisite for inclusive peace, sustainable economic development and democratic governance. I commit to taking a leadership role to integrate the UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security agenda into our activities and to break down gender barriers within the Organization.”
Photo: US Senate.
What Is Next? Is Artificial Intelligence a Gender Equalizer?
50/50 gender parity is feasible now. Not only artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber security, robotics, blockchain are already democratizing the gender issues, but also next generation technologies will provide access to formal jobs and paid employment for women, thus correcting men-made long-standing abiding traditional inequalities. To bridge the skill gap and gender employment inequalities, supranational organizations, governments and businesses must be AI innovators and demonstrate a deliberate political will to correct gender inequalities by confronting gender data issues in every policymaking decision. What cannot be implemented by humans it can be achieved faster through Artificial Intelligence and new technology implementation.
As the lessons from past reforms validated, there is a need for an unconventional vision and a political will for gender equality. It is an adjustment in good faith and a win-win situation since those leading through change and achieving gender equality with AI at scale will be overly outperformers, building and enabling a culture of data-driven decisions and solutions. Artificial Intelligence is the great gender equalizer to formalize the informal. Correcting gender inequality in a new era of Artificial Intelligence should not take another century. It is all about reaching a balance of power, because all men and women are equal.
After all, "We have not forgotten you!" since correcting gender inequality from American Constitution to Afghan Peace Talks is a work-in-progress and a step closer to victory. Keep Fight Like a Girl for your equal rights!
Photo: Global education at Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies SAIS in Washington DC - a graduate school with a proven reputation for producing influential, innovative, and accomplished graduates, nationally and internationally.
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Roxana Allen is an International Law and Cybersecurity Advisor, a SAIS’05 Johns Hopkins Alumna, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Johns Hopkins University. She was the Head of Field Office Trebinje with OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia to stop the Kosovo War. As the only woman in a leadership position in Eastern Herzegovina, she negotiated and mediated the 2001 “Municipal Assembly Decision on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation, Human Rights and Religious Freedom” in the aftermath of a violent extremist attack on minorities and International Community, resulting in substantial reduction in ethnic and political tensions.
With SheLeadsTech in Washington DC, she advocated with policymakers at the U.S. Congress, both at the House of Representatives and the Senate, on educational opportunities and career pathways for women in tech and adoption of three laws on Building Blocks of STEM Act, 21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act, and Cyber Ready Workforce Act. She delivered advocacy in Women, Peace and Security with Women in International Security WIIS Global at 2019 NATO Engages. With the World Bank Group, she advocated and fundraised to stop FGM. She advocated with policymakers for paid employment and ending discriminatory employment practices for military spouses. She lobbied for Girls in Science and Technology at the 2019 United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Photo: With SheLeadsTech Initiative in Washington DC in 2019, Roxana Allen advocated with policymakers at the U.S. Congress, both at the House of Representatives and the Senate, on educational opportunities and career pathways for women in tech and adoption of three laws on Building Blocks of STEM Act, 21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act, and Cyber Ready Workforce Act.
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