Briefing Note: Afghan Women’s Perspectives on Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion

Date of dialogue: 25 June 2026
Format: Hybrid convening in Washington, DC and online participation
Audience: UN Member States, diplomatic missions, UN entities, donors, and Afghanistan stakeholders

Overview

On 25 June 2026, Mina’s List and PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® of Enterprising Women Foundation convened Afghan women from inside Afghanistan and across the diaspora in a hybrid dialogue to discuss peacebuilding and social cohesion. The session brought together approximately 50 participants, in person in Washington, DC, and joining virtually from inside and outside Afghanistan. The convening was deliberately held during peacebuilding week at the United Nations, underscoring the importance of integrating Afghan women’s perspectives into multilateral peace and security discussions.

The discussion centered on lessons from the past, women lived realities, and practical pathways for strengthening peace and social cohesion. Participants emphasized that Afghan women have long served as peacebuilders in their homes, communities, and local economies, in periods of conflict, exclusion, and institutional collapse.

Key Messages

While the Taliban continue to claim that there is “peace” in Afghanistan, Afghan women made it clear: there is no peace in any real, holistic sense. Peace cannot be reduced to the absence of open fighting when women, girls, and men—both youth and adults—live under constant fear, deepening poverty, and daily harassment.

Afghan women described peacebuilding not as an abstract political process, but as a daily practice rooted in safety, dignity, education, livelihoods, and community trust. Participants stressed that women’s experiences and priorities must shape any credible definition of social cohesion or sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

Women highlighted that they have consistently helped sustain communities through informal education, mutual support, caregiving, mediation, and local enterprise. In some of the most difficult periods, women educated girls and boys when formal schooling was inaccessible, built home-based businesses, and created small-scale income-generating activities that strengthened solidarity among neighbors and enabled dignified collective survival.

Participants underscored that Afghan women possess the resilience, social legitimacy, and practical commitment needed to contribute meaningfully to peace. At the same time, they noted that women often lack the means, protection, networks, strategic space, and institutional support necessary to translate this commitment into organized peacebuilding action.

Strategic Insights

Participants framed holistic peace through the realities of women’s lives. In this view, peace is not limited to the absence of violence; it also requires the presence of safety, freedom, learning, work, dignity, and opportunity for all to enjoy their fundamental rights. 

Several recurring priorities emerged:

• Meaningful participation of women in peacebuilding, public life, and community decision-making.
• Physical safety and protection for women and girls. Harassment-free public spaces
• Enjoyment of fundamental rights for all. 
• Access to education and learning opportunities for women, girls, and youth.
• Access to livelihoods and decent work that allow families and communities to prosper.
• Conditions in which children, especially girls, can live, learn, and grow without fear.

Participants repeatedly emphasized that women are deeply invested in resolving community problems because they carry the daily consequences of conflict and exclusion. They want their children to be safe, educated, and able to build a better future; they want their families to prosper; and they want communities to thrive.

The dialogue highlighted several practical insights relevant to policy and programming.

Recommendations for Member States and Stakeholders

The discussion points to a set of practical actions for UN Member States, donors, UN agencies, international NGOs, and other Afghanistan stakeholders.

1. Center women in peacebuilding efforts – Ensure Afghan women are directly engaged in peacebuilding, mediation, dialogue, and social cohesion initiatives at local, national, regional, and international levels. Their participation should be meaningful, not tokenistic, and should include women from diverse geographic, professional, and generational backgrounds.
2. Invest in women’s capacities and leadership – Support training and accompaniment for Afghan women in advocacy, leadership, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and strategic analysis. Capacity support should be practical, sustained, and linked to real opportunities for engagement and influence.
3. Strengthen women-led networks – Invest in virtual and in-person networks that connect women inside Afghanistan with those in the diaspora. These networks can serve as platforms for mentoring, peer learning, documentation, solidarity, and collective strategy development.
4. Recognize everyday peacebuilding – Broaden the understanding of who counts as a peacebuilder. Women entrepreneurs, teachers, students, social workers, and grassroots community actors should be recognized and supported as contributors to peace and social cohesion.
5. Provide flexible funding and resources – Make funding and material support available to women’s groups and community-based initiatives. Flexible resources are needed so that women can continue to educate communities, organize locally, document their work, and sustain the social infrastructure that underpins peace.
6. Ground policy in women’s realities – Approaches to peace and social cohesion should be defined in relation to women’s lived realities, including personal safety, family wellbeing, mobility, education, livelihoods, and dignity. Policy frameworks that ignore these realities will remain disconnected from the conditions required for lasting peace.

Implications for Engagement on Afghanistan – For international stakeholders, the dialogue offered a clear message: Afghan women are not only beneficiaries of peace, but active agents in building it. Their contributions are already visible in community education, livelihood creation, mutual support, and social resilience.

Sustainable peace and social cohesion in Afghanistan will require greater investment in women’s leadership, stronger protection of their rights and safety, and consistent support for women-led networks and local initiatives. Engagement strategies that treat women as peripheral to peacebuilding risk overlooking some of the country’s most credible and committed actors.

This dialogue reaffirmed that Afghan women continue to hold practical knowledge, moral authority, and community trust that are indispensable to peacebuilding. The priority for international partners is not to discover whether Afghan women can contribute, but to ensure they have the access, support, safety, and resources required to lead.