More empowered women in the public and political space will ensure "less arms and less wars" as they are "natural" peacemakers, participants at the World Sufi Forum said today.
"War, if you see, is 99.9 per cent a man thing. For me, peace has to do with female presence and female empowerment. The more you have women in public roles and politics, (you will have) less arms, less wars," said Canada-based Afra Jalabi, vice-chair of Syrian NGO 'The Day After'.
She said the world wars "destroyed" European countries and a similar crisis was raging in Syria now.
"That was the Europe run by men. Now you can see even defence ministers in the European Union who are women and that's the transition from the era of war to the era of unity," she said.
Indian author Sadia Dehlvi seconded Afra and lauded some of the scholars at the four-day forum for talking about including women "in leadership and other areas".
Pakistan's Sumbal Iftikar said women "naturally" are peacemakers.
"In Pakistan, women are taking up that role. There are doctors, teachers and engineers. We had a woman prime minister. So, I think women can be brilliant if you give them leadership," she said.
Nimah Nawwab, from Saudi Arabia, said although the number of women personnel in the fight against war and terrorism is not discouraging, "they have not been given a platform".
"I am not calling for platform, it's up to us to see how it evolves. If we push matters, there is going to be a backlash, as we have seen it in many Middle-Eastern countries. It has to happen gradually... But the need is to build an environment (to make it happen)," she said.
