Kabul, Tripoli and Tunis... An Islamic Renaissance?
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OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
9 NOVEMBER 2011
17th November 2011, starting at 12:15 at the Peace Palace, The Hague
Women at the Flashpoint II: Preparation for the Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn
Kabul, Tripoli and Tunis… An Islamic Renaissance?
Speakers and debaters: Minister of Foreign Affairs Rosenthal (requested), Afghan Deputy Minister Mostafavi, Afghan parliamentarians from Kabul and Kunduz, Afghan ambassador Nabiel, and parliament member Brinkman (PVV). (Mariko Peters (Groenlinks), Wassila Hachchi (D66) and Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (VVD) tba).
The safeguarding of women's rights and their full participation in the new democratic processes is becoming more important by the day, according to Dr. Massouda Jalal, an Afghan women's activist. She calls for the international community to dismiss the Taliban as a legitimate participant in the negotiations during the up-coming Bonn Conference on Afghanistan.
During the conference Women at the Flashpoint II, 17 November in the Peace Palace, Den Haag, speakers, debaters and the public are urged to make suggestions and proposals, which Gender Concerns International will offer on the 5th December 2011 to the participants of the second Bonn Conference on Afghanistan.
The conference on the 17th of November, however, has a broader approach than just Afghanistan. What do the recent developments in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia mean for the women? The international community is supporting the new democratic processes, but is reserved in helping the safeguarding of women’s rights. Characterizing the civil uprisings as an Islamic Renaissance and hoping that women’s rights will simply be protected or improved, is insufficient.
Gender Concerns International, stationed in The Hague, is advocating, therefore, for the international recognition as women as "agents of change", and an active support for the improvement of women’s rights during new democratic processes. The organization is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Sudan and the MENA region (Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya).
You can access the full programme for the Conference on 17th November on our website; www.genderconcerns.org. To sign up, please send a mail to: conference@genderconcerns.org, or call 070 444 50 82. For more information, please contact Harmke Kruithof, Management and PR, email harmke@genderconcerns.org.