Danielle Bonner |
Danielle
Bonner is all for peace: whether through her campaigns of advocacy for cultural
exchange, or in her everyday life. A peace-maker with a grand record of
achievements to her credit, Danielle spoke to REF about her work, her passion
for Afghanistan and her crusade for peace.
Could you
tell us something about your work in Afghanistan?
I
volunteer for PaxPopuli an
organisation which advocates for peace in Afghanistan and runs an online
tutoring programme for Afghan students. In my role as a Social Media
Communications Manager my working objective is to build the organisations advocacy
voice and partnerships. At present Pax is a small organisation run solely by
its volunteers, but its aim is to grow and help more Afghan students develop
their skills and enable both students and tutors to experience and learn about
each other’s cultures through interacting in the program.
Why Afghanistan?
Well, really my interest began after following the new coverage post 9/11 though when I began my Peace and Conflicts Masters in 2009 that my interest grew further. I wrote my thesis paper on the state-building process in Afghanistan post 2001 and it was during my research that I started to see the country’s potential to develop and move away from its violent past given support. This is why I enjoy my work with Pax Populi because it has given me the opportunity to support Afghans and connect with others working to bring stability and development to the country.
Well, really my interest began after following the new coverage post 9/11 though when I began my Peace and Conflicts Masters in 2009 that my interest grew further. I wrote my thesis paper on the state-building process in Afghanistan post 2001 and it was during my research that I started to see the country’s potential to develop and move away from its violent past given support. This is why I enjoy my work with Pax Populi because it has given me the opportunity to support Afghans and connect with others working to bring stability and development to the country.
There is
so much to war that goes unnoticed. But we cannot always offer them up for all
to see. Why is that?
One thing I have come to observed
is that mainstream news is a business as such its news coverage is designed to
sell and to attract audience numbers. For example here for me watching UK new
coverage of conflict, there is often a focus on the politics of a situation and
the possible involvement of the military. Take Afghanistan for example, post
2001 there was much focus on the military intervention to remove the Taliban,
but in 2003 the war became very much the forgotten war due in part to the
military operation into Iraq. It was only once the military started to withdraw
from Iraq that focus went back to Afghanistan and headlines covered military
lose and why the international community was still there. The same can be said
of the conflict in Syria, a conflict which has been going on now for over two years,
and even though everyday within those years there has been ongoing violence and
destruction we have had a wave of varying news coverage. It may also be the
case that because there have been so many different conflicts in recent years,
a situation has been created whereby when the public see news headlines of conflict to them one
war really starts to sound like all those prior, as a result they turn away in
the belief they have heard this all before.
It is this type of situation which then reinforces news media to cover
stories which the public will feel connected with like any national political
involvement or military action in a conflict.
What
are your thoughts about the West's ideas of intervention and war? Are you a
believer in the orthodoxies of international relations, that a state's
sovereignty cannot be messed around with through intervention, or are you the
modern thinker?
I do
believe in the importance of maintaining and respecting International Relations
and Sovereignty, and while I don’t like war, I do understand how wars are
started and how interventions can be justified. What concerns me however is the
failure of the international community to agree a strategy on how to deal with
ongoing conflicts. There is R2P
(Right to Protect), but in practice what does this mean? Take the situation
with Syria, there is an estimated 2 million displaced Syrians with a further 100,000 now
killed. Would this not be a case for intervention? While there is condemnation
of the situation as we see there is no international agreement or even support
for such an intervention? It does not
help that leading powers have competing interests which governs the side they will
take in addressing a conflict. I have mixed feelings about any such
international military action, because as past interventions have shown the
international community are ill prepared to deal with the aftermath of their actions,
which defeats the very intention of stopping further conflict. What I am in favour however of increased humanitarian
support, to ensure that those being impacted by conflict have better access to water,
food, housing and education, and the like.
Wars have
the worst impact on women - be it through sexual violence or through the
systemic destruction of their families. Do you agree?
Yes I
would agree, and while it’s true to say that everyone living through conflict
is a equal victim, there is no escaping that it is women who are the worse
impacted by war and conflict. It is a sad fact that women are seen as easy
targets which is proven by the countless cases of sexual violence against women
in war zones. (See UN Rape:
Weapon of war) Women are left vulnerable in the
environment of war because they have no real to defend themselves from this
weapon of war. The targeting of woman is strategic, because through sexual
violence the aggressor has a way to not only inflect physical and psychological
damage on the victim but also has a way to break up families and divide communities
through the sigma and cultural violations this type of violence brings. And
while there is international law with the UN
Resolution 1820 which aims to protect women in conflict
it is still the case that violence against women in conflict is
widespread.
Is there
a possibility for Afghanistan to rise above this turmoil? What do you believe
would be the remedy to the trauma the country has been put through?
Those
who may not know the history of Afghanistan may view the conflict as a 12 year
war but the reality is conflict has played a destructive role in the lives of
Afghans since the era of Empires. Notably the cold war and the invasion of the
Soviet Union have all played their part in the country’s history of conflict. While
it is also Afghanistan’s misfortune to be a land locked nation sandwiched
within what has been described as a tough neighbourhood. The geopolitics within
the region plays its part in the destabilization of Afghanistan with various
actors taking advantage of the periods of conflict. Through these histories and
existing structures I have come to view the conflict within Afghanistan as “a
story within a story” there are many layers which affect the ongoing conflict,
some of which have come to overlap each other and then creating new conflicts.
It is a pool of challenges which need to equally be addressed, there is no one
dose of medication which will fix all problems. But that does not mean we can’t
start somewhere. And while Afghanistan can’t escape its history it can learn from
its past to create a better future. Ensuring all Afghans receive an education
is therefore vital in ensuring that the country has the capacity and skills
required to develop the country. While a reconciliation process needs to take
place not just with the Taliban but also between the different ethnic groups
within the country where there are hostilities caused from past conflicts.
As a
peacebuilder in Afghanistan, does anything threaten you? What worries you most
about your works?
I
worry about the safety of those Afghans I interact with; it is difficult to
imagine that because you want peace for your country and are outspoken to the
fact that some within your society are preventing this peace or as a female the
desire to have an education could threaten your life, but in Afghanistan this
is a reality. I’m therefore always conscious that when I’m asking people in
Afghanistan to do something on behalf of Pax Populi, like take part in one of
our campaigns I am not adversely placing
a threat to their life. Having been involved in peace work for the last few
years I also recognise that the development of peace or what we call
peacebuilding is a long process which requires both the investment of time and
resources. However in practice this is something I feel gets forgotten in the
rush to bring stability to a society, as a result what we have seen is that many
societies in fact laps back into conflict.
I’ve written a blog piece about this very issue entitled “The
internal battle for Peace”, which looks at the meaning of
Peacebuilding, the conceptual, technical and political factors surrounding the
idea and practice.
Tell us
about your many different initiatives for Afghanistan.
Pax
Populi operates an English tutoring service, and we do a lot of peace advocacy
through social media and develop initiative campaigns. For example for
International Women’s Day in March we developed the “Be Inspired”
project, which included a collection of profiles and portrait moments
highlighting the roles Afghan women are playing in society and
their experiences as women in Afghanistan. We also sought the views of
Afghan men, women, community organisations and Politian’s through conducting
over 30 interviews all of which are profiled on the website. Currently we are
getting ready to celebrate International Peace Day on Sept 21 with our
initiative ”Voices for Peace”,
which will highlight the work being done in Afghanistan to build peace, while
also creating international community of support through showcasing the views
of people around the world on what peace means and how we can build peace. We
also like to give Afghans the opportunity to share their voice through writing
and we have many insightful blog pieces written by students and supporters in
Afghanistan on issues concerning their lives and educational pieces which gives
the reader into life in Afghanistan. I am really proud of the work done by Pax
Populi, because everything one involved is a volunteer and we are very
resourceful at finding ways to connect with Afghans and others around the world
promoting peace in our unique way.
There is
a lot of talk about how the status of women in the aftermath of the troop
drawdown could find itself in a position that's worse than what it is now. What
are your thoughts on this?
There
is much concern over the rights of women in Afghanistan because while they have
achieved much over the last 12 years many challenges still remain. There are still attitudes within Afghan
society which do not respect the rights of women especially the right to an
education, these challenges are social issue within Afghanistan which need to be
addressed not just by the enforcement of law in relation to women’s rights but
also through educating those who do not believe in these rights. The schedule
drawdown of international troops has placed further pressure not only on the
Afghan government but the international community to enter into negotiations
with the Taliban in order to bring an end to violence within the country; this
has led some to be concern that women’s rights will become scarified in return
for a political settlement with the Taliban. It is therefore important that
both the Afghan government and the international community do not support any
such move that restrict the rights of women and they enforce human rights into
any future political agreement. One thing that gives me confidence in the
future of women in Afghanistan is the new generation of Afghans, those who have
experience life without the restrictions of the past and who want to work to ensure their country
is not drawn back into its days of suppression.
If you want to get the views of Afghans
themselves on women’s rights in Afghanistan please check out the Pax Populi women’s day project
which features the views of over 30 Afghan men, women and community
organisations.