Let’s stand by our women

Women peacebuilders meeting at the 8th Ican forum last year. Peacebuilding isn’t a gendered vocation, but women have the trump card over men because of their emotional intelligence, says the writer. — Photos: Ican

LAST November, I attended the 8th Annual Women, Peace and Security Forum organised by the Inter-national Civil Society Action Network (Ican) in Oslo. Supported by the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the forum looked at “Sec-uring the gains and strategising the future of the global women-led movement for inclusive peace and security”.

This was my first Ican conference, though we had already met in Manila a few years ago, at a workshop organised by the Philippine Centre on Islam and Democracy (PCID). My exposure to peacebuilding overall was little: I knew of Mercy Malaysia, and I had friends in humanitarian and human rights organisations who worked on peacebuilding in whatever capacity they could. I’ve met our humanitarian stars Datuk Seri Dr Jemilah Mahmood and Deborah Henry at the many events Kuala Lumpur organises, but other than that my knowledge was shallow, to say the least. In the sector I (and Iman Research) are in, it’s about research security-related issues and working with communities and civil society organisations to build resilience.