Women, Peace and Security in the Middle East

Jan 26, 2023 | Centre for Geopolitics
Audit Room, King's College, Cambridge
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The promotion of the inclusion of women in peace processes has become more salient in international politics since the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 1325 in 2000 and its various successors in the last two decades, leading to the establishment of the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program. At the same time, successive international studies have demonstrated that the absence and participation of women in peace processes following civil or intrastate conflicts do not lead to the establishment of durable peace. This roundtable explores the importance of the involvement of women in peace processes in the Middle East. By drawing upon their academic expertise and professional involvement in peace-making processes in the Middle East (e.g., Iraq and Afghanistan) and beyond, Dr Zeynep Kaya, Quhramaana Kakar and Rebecca Turkington discuss the concepts of peace, security and (transitional) justice from a feminist perspective and how these feminist understandings positively affect inclusion of women in peace processes and the durability of peace itself. Furthermore, they explore how the WPS agenda of the UN and UN Women has fared so far in the Middle East, what steps in the realm of gender politics and gender equality need to be taken to further advance the participation of women in peace processes in the region, and what lessons women-inclusive peace processes and good practices elsewhere can provide for peace Middle East.