PESHAWAR:The PAIMAN Trust organized a provincial convention on ‘Women Building Peaceful Communities’ here on Wednesday.
Mossarat Qadeem, Executive Director of PAIMAN Trust, in her welcome address, highlighted that the aim of the convention was to discuss the importance of women’s role in building social cohesion in Pakistan, the opportunities and challenges and share best practices regarding women’s role in peacebuilding in the country.
She elucidated that PAIMAN localized women’s peace and security agenda in the context of “our culture and religion” and added, “We expect that it will make its footprint on policy-making in Pakistan as well since it is now an essential pillar in global affairs.”
Qadeem said that PAIMAN Trust, under its ‘Let’s Live in Peace’ initiative, had been empowering women socio-economically to play a leading role in building social cohesion in their communities since 2007 through Women TOLANA, a community peace group.
“This flagship intervention has contributed to the development of hundreds and thousands of women leaders at various levels who have established their agency as effective peacemakers by introducing concepts of tolerance, interfaith, intra-faith harmony, and pluralism, bringing communities together,” she added.
A former female MPA said that after attending PAIMAN’s session, only then she realized the importance of women’s role in peacebuilding.
Zara, a social entrepreneur and peacebuilder, shed light on her experience of sensitizing women in her community about their role as mediators and peacebuilders, after she underwent PAIMAN’s training.
She gave examples of how she brought women of different ethnicity and socio-economic background together, mediated feuds within some women groups, who now enjoy a friendly relationship.
Bushra Hyder, an expert on peace education and a peace builder, explained that as mothers and teachers, women play a predominant role in raising and instilling values in younger generations. Because of their role both within the family and civil society, they were strategically placed to serve as a voice of reason, bridge the social divides and build social cohesion.
“They are also more often attuned to the needs of their communities and have a large stake in promoting peace for their personal and family well-being,” she highlighted.
Shaheen, a peace poet and writer said that women were custodians of culture and nurturers of families and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they had played an important role in bringing communities together, but today, though women were contributing to peace and protection of their communities, they were “not given due recognition”.
“We need concrete structures to ensure the real participation of women at appropriate levels so that their contribution to the stability of their communities is recognized and appreciated,” Shaheen emphasised.