South Asia women's peace offensive

'Give peace a chance' may just be another cliché for many, but for women who have suffered the ravages of war, endless strife and other forms of conflict, joining hands to find meaningful solutions to their collective aspiration lends it a whole new meaning. Within the South Asian region, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have for decades been torn by internal and external conflicts that have cried out for, but have not quite found, a lasting resolution. "We waited for a long time to see what the men would do for peace," Zahira Khattak, a member the think-tank formed by Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP), told IPS. For Khattak and scores of other women in this region, not only has peace proved elusive, they have also been left out of much of the peace efforts by their respective states. "Why should this be so?" argued Khattak. "For 5,000 years women have been sitting in 'jirgas' (tribal councils), at least in Afghanistan. We have 'jirgas' all over Pakistan's tribal areas also, and we thought why not introduce this concept?"