International Muslim Police Women Conference

The final day of the conference started with an open discussion facilitated by Najia Zewari of UNIFEM. The discussion was on police women’s responses to violence against women and what police women need to respond to such events. Discussion was interactive, with many national and international police women exchanging ideas and opinions.

After a short tea break, the Turkish police women showed a film on training of Turkish police. Thereafter, a plenary discussion was facilitated by conference organizer Tonita Murray and Samira Hamidi of UNDP. This session posed three main questions to the conference participants:

creation of a professional association of Islamic police women;
having an annual conference; and,
a conference declaration of intention.

All participants agreed that having an annual conference of police women is an excellent plan. There were several different suggestions for where the next conference should take place. The majority of participants agreed that forming an association is also a positive step and would plan to do so after discussing the matter with their respective governments. Finally, the participants agreed that a conference declaration of intent is also desirable and a draft declaration will be added to the website.

First Deputy Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid from the Ministry of the Interior arrived at the conference to thank the organizers and participants, and to hand out certificates to the police women and gifts to all. Mohamed Azam Farooq of the Ministry of the Interior gave the closing prayer. Thereafter, everyone went to lunch and spent some time saying their farewells.

This conference is the first of its kind for Afghan police women and all agreed it has been a very worthwhile event. For police women who have had so very little the past few decades, this event is hopefully the beginning of change toward a brighter future for women in the Afghan National Police and for women in Afghanistan in general.