Surveys

Women’s Opinions on a Comprehensive Ceasefire in Afghanistan

March 2021

2,212 women in 16 provinces were polled on a comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan.

Download the PDF Report of this Survey

English

Dari دری

Pashto پښتو

Share this page

Summary

In March, 2,212 women and girls aged 18-60 in Kandahar, Nangarhar, Bamiyan, Balkh, Helmand, Takhar, Herat, Daikundi, Panjshir, and Jawzjan were polled on a Comprehensive Ceasefire in Afghanistan.

Among the respondents, 27.22% said they understood a ceasefire as being the stopping of armed violence, 15.78% defined it as a reduction in violence, 12.34% said it meant a temporary cessation of all hostilities and 41% felt it denoted a mixture of all of the above.
In order to ensure that a ceasefire contributes to the broader peace process, almost all respondents (99.5%) said a formal commitment on a mechanism to help parties resolve disputes that could arise during its implementation should be included within the ceasefire agreement.
A large majority (98.6%) of the respondents agreed that women and civil society should be involved in the monitoring of a ceasefire.
34.04% of respondents said that civil society organizations should be part of a ceasefire oversight commission, while 33.63% said provincial government institutions and only 2.62% said local Taliban figures.

Data Explorer

Welcome to our Survey Data Explorer. Using Microsoft Power BI you can see the results of this month’s survey, and use the interactive controls to explore the data in more detail.

Page Controls: Navigate through different pages of the dashboard by clicking on the page numbers or using the arrows to move forward or backward.

Full Screen: Click the arrows icon button located at the bottom right corner of the visualization.

Filters: Use the drop-down menus to filter the data based on specific criteria such as province, age group, or profession.

Analysis of Provincial Findings

Since the start of Intra-Afghan Talks in Doha, the issue of a comprehensive ceasefire had been a key topic of discussion. The Republic Negotiating Team has long insisted that a ceasefire should be enforced as a prelude to talks while the Taliban stated that a ceasefire should be treated as an item on the agenda for talks. Moreover, there is no official definition provided by either of the parties on what could constitute a reduction in violence or a comprehensive ceasefire. Therefore, with no discussion or commitment made by either party towards a ceasefire and no clear definition of what it could constitute, civil society actors are deeply concerned about what this could mean for civilian casualties, how a ceasefire or reduction in violence could be treated, implemented or monitored if, and when, it was agreed upon.

In the absence of a definition of a ceasefire by the parties, BISHNAW asked 22,129 respondents in Kandahar, Nangarhar, Bamiyan, Balkh, Helmand, Takhar, Herat, Daikundi, Panjshir, Farah, Faryab, Badghis, Baghlan, Kunar, Paktia, and Jawzjan which definition of a ceasefire most accurately reflected their understanding of it. A quarter (27.22%) of the respondents said they believed it meant a stopping of armed violence, 15.78% said it was a reduction in violence, 12.34% said it was a temporary cessation of all hostilities, and 41% felt it was a mix of all of the above.

When asked which provisions should be included in a ceasefire agreement to ensure that it contributed to a broader peace process, almost all of the respondents (99.5%) said a formal commitment on a mechanism to help parties peacefully resolve disputes that arise during the implementation of the ceasefire. Furthermore, when asked which government or non-government institutions should be part of an oversight commission, 34.04% said civil society organizations, 33.63% said provincial government institutions, 10.99% said tribal elders, 9.13% said members of Provincial Councils, 4.88% said religious scholars, 4.34% said district and village Shuras, and only 2.62% said local Taliban figures. In line with earlier responses, when asked if women and civil society should be involved in monitoring of a ceasefire, almost all of the respondents (98.6%) said yes.