Opening Remarks at the UNGA 81 High-Level Side Event on Women, Peace, Justice and National Reconciliation in Afghanistan

Opening Remarks
Naseer Ahmad Faiq
Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations
UNGA 81 High-Level Side Event
“Women, Peace, Justice and National Reconciliation in Afghanistan”
21 September 2026 | 3:00–5:00 PM
Conference Room 11, United Nations Headquarters, New York

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Dear colleagues and friends,

Good afternoon, and welcome.

On behalf of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations, it is my pleasure to welcome you to today’s high-level side event on “Women, Peace, Justice and National Reconciliation in Afghanistan.” I would like to express our sincere appreciation to our co-organizers: the Afghanistan Policy Lab at Princeton University, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the Afghanistan Justice Archive, and the End Gender Apartheid Campaign.

I also warmly welcome H.E. Doris Schmidauer, the First Lady of Austria; H.E. Carlos Arturo Hoyos, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama; our distinguished keynote speaker, former Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir; Ambassador Melanne Verveer; our distinguished Afghan panelists; Professor Udi Ofer; representatives of Member States and civil society; and all of you joining us today.

Excellencies,

Five years after the Taliban’s military return to power, Afghanistan continues to face profound political, humanitarian, economic, social, and human rights challenges. Despite continued diplomatic engagement through various international mechanisms, a durable, just, and inclusive political settlement remains elusive. At the heart of these challenges is the place of Afghan women in the future of their country.

For five years, Afghan women and girls have faced systematic exclusion from education, employment, and public life. Yet they continue to resist exclusion, sustain communities, support education, defend fundamental rights, and advocate for a different future. The question of Afghanistan cannot be reduced solely to humanitarian concerns or even to the reopening of girls’ schools, important as these issues are. The challenge is much deeper and requires a comprehensive and holistic approach.

Current efforts have yet to establish a tangible and accountable pathway through which the people of Afghanistan can exercise their political will and shape their country’s future with dignity. We therefore need to change the way the international community speaks about Afghan women.

They must not be viewed only as victims in need of protection. They are political stakeholders. They are leaders.

And they must participate directly and meaningfully in shaping any future political process concerning Afghanistan. Women’s participation cannot be reduced to symbolic representation or parallel consultations disconnected from the main political process. If Afghanistan is to move toward a legitimate and durable political settlement, women must be at the table where decisions are made.

We already have important international legal and political frameworks, including Security Council resolution 1325 and the broader Women, Peace and Security agenda, CEDAW, and other relevant United Nations resolutions and instruments.

The challenge is not only the absence of commitments. It is the gap between those commitments and their implementation. But inclusion alone is also not enough. Afghanistan needs a comprehensive and sustainable political solution.

That requires a serious discussion about how justice, accountability, acknowledgment of victims, dialogue, and national reconciliation can reinforce one another rather than being treated as competing objectives. That is one of the main reasons we have brought these themes together today:

Women. Peace. Justice. National reconciliation.

Because they are inseparable. There can be no credible reconciliation if half of the population is excluded. There can be no sustainable political settlement without justice and accountability. And there can be no durable peace if the people of Afghanistan themselves do not have a meaningful role in determining the political future of their country.

Today, we hope to focus not only on what has gone wrong, but also on what a credible path forward could look like. How can Afghan women participate as political actors rather than observers?

How can the voices of victims, youth, civil society, and Afghanistan’s diverse political, ethnic, and religious communities be reflected in a future political process?

How can accountability and national reconciliation be pursued together?

And how can the United Nations, Member States, and regional partners help create the conditions for an inclusive, Afghan-owned political process?

These are among the central questions we hope to explore today.

For the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan, one principle remains fundamental:

Afghanistan’s future must ultimately be determined by its people.

The Taliban are not the only Afghan stakeholders, nor can they alone represent the diversity and aspirations of the Afghan people.

No political arrangement can be sustainable if it is imposed through force, exclusion, or fear.

And no international process concerning Afghanistan can be credible if Afghans, particularly women, are excluded from shaping its direction.

Our task today is therefore to consider how we can help create the political space, international support, and conditions necessary for Afghans themselves to build a more peaceful, just, inclusive, and legitimate future.

I hope today’s discussion will help us move in that direction.

Thank you again for being with us, and I look forward to a substantive and constructive conversation.

Thank you.