Women as Peace-Builders - Building Gender Balanced Business

Dr. Hargey brought with him a printout of Qur’anic verses to demonstrate that it was “charter for equality”. For example: “O Humanity, We have created you from a male and a female; And We have made you into peoples and tribes that you may know and recognise one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of God, is he who is the most righteous among you.” (49:13). His list provides 31 different verses. One he describes as “beautiful” in capturing the desire to created an equal partnership between men and women: “They are a garment for you as you are a garment for them”. (2:187).”

Women United Together Can Make Peace
The other major theme of the day was around women as peace-builders. This was, for me, the most emotionally compelling part of the day. As a man, it was quite simply uncomfortable to be confronted with the utter horror that men have and continue to inflict on humanity, in the pursuit of power and riches. In particular, this was brought home by the showing of an immensely powerful documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. This was a gut-wrenching 62 minute account of the second Liberian civil war (1999-2003), in which a group of warlords and Charles Taylor’s regime of the time fought each other. The story was told from the perspective of an almost unbelievably courageous group of Liberian women who had created an effective peace movement that crossed religious and cultural boundaries. The women expressed how the relentless atrocities committed against innocent people over and over, perpetuated by young men and boys with guns, often high on drugs, and led them to one conclusion: only they, the women, could end it.

They stuck with it right through to a peace conference that was quickly turning into a farce as the warlords and Taylor jockeyed for position and favours in any future settlement. The women protesters forced the delegates to stay in the conference hall until they had made an agreement. Eventually, the women disbanded their peaceful movement, once things seemed to have settled back into a kind of normality. But, they said they would be back if violence every broke out again. The story displayed how much of a difference women, united together, can make. It also showed that they had to resort to passive means to be effective. For example, to ensure that they maintained support from the men they went on a “sex strike” with their husbands until such time as peace was achieved.

Sisters Against Violent Extremism
There were a range of speakers at the event who are working to promote peace through women across borders, such as Dr Edit Schlaffer, founder of Women Without Borders and also of a more recent organisation called SAVE (Sisters Against Violent Extremism). Somewhat chillingly, this debate took place on the day that Islamic extremists attacked police cadets in Lahore, resulting in 11 killed and 95 police injured. The Pakistani authorities captured one of the terrorists, who they claimed was a 19-year-old from Afghanistan. They said that one of Afghanistan’s Taliban warlords, Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack. While women cannot be exonerated entirely from the evil of violent extremism (they are sometimes suicide bombers, they are also the mothers, the sisters and wives of the male extremists), it is undeniable that it is mainly men who are causing violence and mayhem in the name of religion.

One of the panellists at the discussion on women as peace-builders was Hadiya Masieh, who was listed in the event’s programme as a former high-ranking member of the “controversial extremist group” Hizbut Tahrir, “which seemed [to her] to provide answers to challenging some of the injustices of the world”. The party calls for all Muslim countries to be united into a caliphate state, ruled by Islamic law. Its critics claim that it causes dissension by preaching hatred, by calling suicide bombers, “martyrs”, and is also strongly anti-Zionist, calling for the dismantling of the “illegal entity” of Israel. A fellow panellist, Baroness Haleh Afshar, was at pains to tell the audience that Hizbut Tahrir was not a violent organisation. Ms. Masieh said she had never subscribed to violence as a means to the end of “protecting and preserving Muslims subject to war and suffering”. She said she knew one of the Glasgow bombers and this seems to have shocked her into seeking a different path to achieve her goals. She was at the launch of SAVE (Dr. Edit Schlaffer’s project, Sisters Against Violent Extremism) and from there took up the offer to run its UK chapter. Ms. Masieh seemed to be honestly portraying her journey and appears to be genuinely pursuing understanding across the divides. For example, her biography claims that she worked as a PR officer for MUJU (a Muslim-Jewish arts collaboration). If true, this is a powerful example, of how women can build a greater understanding across terrible conflicts and divisions.

Islam: Liberator of Women
Dr Taj Hargey, Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for British Islam and the Chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, gave a talk in the morning on “Islam: Liberator of Women”. His argument was that the Koran’s attitude towards women was that they were equal partners to men, and that they were to be seen as equal but different. He claimed that people should refer to the Koran’s teachings on gender, rather than rely on religious leaders, who interpret and use the Hadith (prophetic sayings) to draw their own conclusions. If you look to the Koran, he said, women would not be stoned for adultery, for example. The Koran’s punishment was 100 lashes against both parties, intended as a humiliation, he said. Men and women would be treated as equal partners in all areas of life. Dr. Hargey brought with him a printout of Qur’anic verses to demonstrate that the tome was “charter for equality.” For example: “O Humanity, We have created you from a male and a female; And We have made you into peoples and tribes that you may know and recognise one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of God, is he who is the most righteous among you.” (49:13). His list provides 31 different verses. One he describes as “beautiful” in capturing the desire to created an equal partnership between men and women: “They are a garment for you as you are a garment for them”. (2:187).

At the end of the conference, Jobeda Ali asked the audience if they wanted to have this event repeated next year. The answer was affirmative, and she said they would do it, probably in the North of England. At the event’s close, the singer Hiba Al-Kawas (described as the creator of Arabic Opera) sang and played the piano for the audience. This was a unique and moving end to a truly unusual and original event. Perhaps, its fragmented programme reduced its ability to provide focused debate. But, on the other hand, I could not stop thinking about some of the issues raised for a day and a night afterwards.

If this kind of energy is to take root for sustainable peace and for an equal treatment of women all over the globe, then men have to be involved as well. The day after the conference, The Guardian reported that Hamid Karzai was accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan’s presidential election “by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands’ permission”. This shows the extent of the challenge for anyone who wants to see all societies’ value women as equals and give them the same freedom as men.