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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Swanee Hunt, Rina Amiri, Terry Greenblatt
Aired November 10, 2001 - 11:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: As the War on Terrorism goes on in Afghanistan, a conference is underway in Boston, Massachusetts to study the role of women in peacemaking around the globe.
Ambassador Swanee Hunt is the ambassador chairwoman of Waging -- Women Waging Peace, excuse me. And she is joined by Rina Amiri and Terry Greenblatt, the director of Bhat Shalom.
Good morning to all three of you this morning. Thank you for being with us.
SWANEE HUNT, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRIA: Good morning.
RINA AMIRI, WOMEN WAGING PEACE: Good morning.
TERRY GREENBLATT, BHAT SHALOM DIRECTOR: Good morning.
SAVIDGE: Ambassador, tell us a little bit about what this conference is about, and is it a pacifist movement, or is that incorrect?
HUNT: No, that's not correct. This is a collection of women from 20 conflict areas who are using various strategies to try to avert war, to stop war once it's going on, or to stabilize a very fragile post-conflict situation. So we have Supreme Court justices, military officers, grassroots organizers -- a whole range -- investigative journalists. Some are pacifists; some believe that military intervention may be sometimes the, unfortunately, the less- violent option.
SAVIDGE: Not to put too fine a point on it, and certainly not to put a chauvinist spin on it, but is it implying that if you had more women in more prominent roles, we wouldn't be in the difficulties we're in?
HUNT: Well, we know that there's a lot of difference between what women bring to a negotiating table and what men bring. It's important, first of all, to just draw from 100 percent of the talent pool. But in addition to that, women tend to be very closely connected to the community, and they're used to working outside of the formal processes, partly because they have been shut out of formal power so often -- they're second class citizens.
And so they tend to have alternative ways of operating. And Lord know that when we get stuck in a situation like we are right now with Afghanistan, but in other conflicts all around the world, we need as many different ways of thinking as possible.
SAVIDGE: Ms. Greenblatt, as I understand it, you have had a role in this process; specifically, you've had personal experience. Give us an idea of how women can help in, say, violent situations.
GREENBLATT: Well, I would like to even go farther downstream to the beginning of the problem, and say that, when we sit Israeli women and Palestinian women at a negotiating table, the standard that we're setting for ourselves is, both of us are sitting on the same side of a negotiating table, and together we are looking at our conflicts and the complex and complicated and painful history that we share, and we commit to each other that we are not going to get up from that table until we can get up together in respect and reciprocity and both feel that we're walking away as winners.
SAVIDGE: Is there also, I guess, a biological process involved here? I mean, you don't has as much testosterone at the table. Is it something so simple at that -- that women seem to have a better way of coming up with compromise and dealing with emotional subjects?
GREENBLATT: You know something, as a feminist, I am going to take the risk and say that I believe that when we have children, and have to learn how to read body language, understand what needs are and how we can best meet those needs, I think we're able to bring a certain sense of empathy to a table.
And I'll say something else; I think we are willing to stay longer at a table and try and non-violently resolve issues before deciding that we have exhausted all of the other options, and standing up and picking up a gun and shooting. Yes, I do.
SAVIDGE: I want to bring in Rina Amiri, because she obviously has a very personal connection to the difficulties we face today, Afghanistan specifically. What is the role that the Afghan women themselves can play in resolving this crisis and helping to foster a new leadership, which eventually we hope will come?
AMIRI: Afghan women have a tremendous role in the current situation. I think what you don't see, apart from the fact that women are wearing a veil, is that under that veil, there's a tremendous perseverance and strength with Afghan women. Afghan women are survivors, and therefore they've had to become very resourceful. And it hasn't been a choice; you have to get food on the table.
Right now, even with the current situation, you have a network of 3,000 Afghan women who are working together to change the situation. Those networks are invisible because they've had to go underground. But there's a history in Afghanistan of women playing very strong roles. When I was in Afghanistan as a child, my mother, my aunt, my -- all the women in my family had very strong leadership roles in the economic sector and the education sector. That is the Afghanistan that I know, and that is the women of Afghanistan that I know.
SAVIDGE: The women obviously have been portrayed -- the plight that they suffer in Afghanistan. There must be a tremendous strength that they have as a result of what they have been through.
AMIRI: That's right. Afghan women have been the ones who have had to stay back in the community as men have been fighting the war. And there are over 500,000 Afghan widow refugees, and these women have an average of five to seven children. If you're in that type of situation, there isn't really a choice. Afghan women have had to be -- to put themselves in the situation of taking great risks.
I think you've heard of the home schools that Afghan women have been running in order to bring education to their children. Education means food on the table, and that's what it's really about. It's a pragmatism.
And I think if Afghan women continue to be supported, you can not only see an increase in standard of living, but you can create a moderate center in Afghanistan, and that's critical to addressing the situation. You have to create a grassroots civil society and a moderate center in order to change the situation.
There has been a power vacuum for the last 20 years, and that's what has to be corrected, and women are the solution to that.
SAVIDGE: Well, it is a fascinating topic. And the conference that is underway in Boston, Massachusetts is to study the role of women in peacemaking around the globe. And our thanks this morning to Terry Greenblatt, to Ambassador Swanee Hunt and to Rina Amiri. Thank you, all three.
AMIRI: Thank you
GREENBLATT: Thank you.
HUNT: Thank you, Martin.
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