Strengthening peace processes in Turkey, Kurdistan, the MENA region, and worldwide is one of the goals of CENÎ, the “Kurdisches Frauenbüro für Frieden” (Kurdish Women’s Office for Peace).

For “On Violence #6”, CENÎ is bringing key figures together who will share their experiences of peace negotiations in Kurdistan, Afghanistan and the Philippines. The panelists are Coni Ledesma, Selma Irmak and Mina Jawad. The moderator is Nazan Üstündağ. The women will discuss the role of women in conflict prevention, reconstruction, and peace negotiations, looking at the connections between peace work and the commitment to a just society beyond militaristic masculinity.

The panel will take place on 12 April in Berlin at HAU2 (Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin).

The speakers

Coni Ledesma is one of the central feminist figures in the Philippines. As a member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, she has accompanied the peace process in the Philippines. She is a member of the Working Committee on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and is also the international representative of Makibaka, a feminist organization in the Philippines.
 
Selma Irmak is a Kurdish politician, former deputy of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and former co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK). For her political work, she was imprisoned in Turkey for almost 10 years in the 90s.
 
Mina Jawad is an author and educational consultant working on gender and postcolonial analysis in art, culture and society. She is involved with the Afghan Diaspora Initiative in Europe.
 
Nazan Üstündağ is a sociologist and has taught at Boğaziçi University. She holds a doctorate from Indiana University. She is one of the founders of Peace Assembly, Women for Peace Initiative and Academics for Peace.