Is pace finally coming to afghanistan the u. S. And the taliban sign a deal aimed at ending 18 years of war but the government in kabul is not involved so kandice agreement lost and will the Afghan Peoples rights be protected this is inside story. I. Now live and welcome to the program dick clark it is being called the 1st step towards lasting peace in afghanistan the United States and the Afghan Taliban have signed a preliminary deal towards ending nearly 2 decades of war its a result of 18 months of talks here in doha in qatar the 1st stage involves exchange of 6000 prisoners in whats called a meaningful reduction of violence over the next 135 days the u. S. And nato will withdraw all troops within 14 months if the taliban not holds its commitments its hopes all this will lead to direct talks between the taliban and the Afghan Government in kabul which the taliban has refused to recognize were just at the beginning. Furthering the cause of peace will require serious work and sacrifice by all sides United States coalition taliban the Afghan Government other afghan leaders the Afghan People themselves to maintain the momentum needed to reach a comprehensive inclusive and durable peace. Well tens of thousands of people have been killed since the u. S. Led invasion began in 2001 horrible hammett has been looking at how people in afghanistan feel about the agree. Its a momentous time for afghanistan many still in disbelief that what had been unthinkable is happening the u. S. And the taliban agree with each other Mohamed Bouazizi is a beat this has been the most peaceful week kabal has seen in years you can go outside. Of homes without any. Fear of anything so its been a good week yeah there. Is between them and you can only tell us that it is really a fake. That will be have lots of i think on Afghan People because the. Security of afghanistan is in the hands of them against but outside of kabul siraj should mohammad wonders about his future he has feelings the taliban ruled here before so he knows them well they are something. Else its bad if the taliban come back i wont be able to run my business they forbid music i will have to leave the country for the past 40 years foreigners didnt let us live in peace thats why the country is in this situation its maybe better if they leave but there will be no peace with the taliban it will be worse im scared. The war has been devastating for bibi girl her husband a soldier in a National Army was killed in a Suicide Attack in the whole province of ludlum and then another 4 members of her family died in another attack being a widow with 7 children is stuff they help out by polishing shoes on the streets or begging in the market and all of that. Weve never had any help from anyone its a miserable life my sons collect charge so we can burn it in the stove the foreigners must stay i havent seen anything good from the government and the taliban destroyed our lives its because of them that we became beggars its humiliating only the foreigners can help us. The taliban controls nearly half of the country mainly rural areas where most of the war against american troops unfolded people have been told that they will fully withdraw soon and theres a sense of victory on the. People are happy we also want peace and security taliban are committed to their promise the fighters obey whatever orders they get this is a big success for us. Back in the cities it up my year is worried she was born as a refugee in iran now shes a University Student part of a new generation full of aspiration Everybody Knows that tal advanced your ideals like how limited and close minded they are and if they come to the government like officer the they cannot implement them and. They can implement and people there will be hard as the women follow martin and never good with him and. The people working in the Government Office elves do not have peace between themselves and i dont think ever going to have risen someone else like polamalu if only goes well do us will pull out its troops the taliban and afghan leaders might find a compromise but many afghans remain cautious about the future theyve seen many full stones before but at the. Couple. Well ahead of the signing the taliban is short out is there that womens rights will be preserved on one condition women one that. And their right to work we both. Accept and give them as per the islamic rules that only that they observe that he will you that. All right lets bring in our guest now from kabul were joined by have be back whos a National Security analyst and a lecturer at heart and University Also standing by for us in kabul in afghanistan we have followed her koofi whos a former member of the Afghanistan Parliament and chairperson of afghanistans Women Civil SocietyHuman Rights Commission and from washington d. C. Were joined by birth a go persuade me who is a distinguished senior fellow with the Observer ResearchFoundation Welcome to you all if you are lets start with you if i may you have lived through the time of the taliban when they took over afghanistan in the 1990 s. And with the banished women from public life you face them as a politician in negotiations how hopeful are you at this moment that were heading towards peace and a peace thats acceptable to all. Well we in afghanistan are cautiously optimistic im hopeful im saying cautiously because the we the people of afghanistan the Political Community disavowed society and people from across walks of life are fed up with the 4 decades of war which afghans have paid the major price for it in the meantime. This is the hope if if this war ends that if peace with dignity and justice prevails in afghanistan i think this is what people of afghanistan expect and desire and deserve in the meantime we are cautious because given the taliban regime and the especially attitudes to worth civic rights and particularly for womens rights. We are concerned we are worried that probably you know some of the gains we have had in the past 18 years with all the problems we were it is not a perfect situation im not claiming that our woman of afghanistan enjoy all the freedoms but of course nothing to compare with the taliban regime so we are worried that some of the gains we have how did the past 18 years probably will be a. Compromise. This was the reason i actually participated to ensure that womens rights are not a matter of compromise with the cost of peace ok well well come on to the more in a little bit. More dark a piece of dignity justice has found here 4 decades of war and distrust how do you overcome. Well. The way i look at it personally when you have about 302252300 coffins being sent out to african families across the across the country be it into that of one son are going to understand. Most of the time come across very cost metric because they happen to be and out of 1. 00 of understand. My personal conviction is that once the rivers of blood finally stops everything can be worked to be a. Civic grinds be it freedom of speech but 1st and foremost important thing is that this. Blood needs to stop it happened after 18 years should have happened way way earlier but its still better than nothing today all of the africans across the country being ruled in afghanistan or out of one of understand all very optimistic about it nobody is denying that the complex enter african dialogue stage is yet to come in we are yet to overcome that. To ensure is sustainable long term and subsequently peace in afghanistan but we are all very optimistic about it right thats the thing isnt it because the potential for this to falter is significant not least because the Afghan Government itself with itself. Well i mean i think the 1st and foremost was the intra of conduct which we said and i you know where the. We strongly encourage we meaning the u. S. The u. S. A strongly encourage to come to a peaceful resolution on what the in traffic on the dialogue must look like and all these months through the negotiations that was one of the major sticking points and finally where we reach with that but the taliban and suddenly we have divisions among the of can pollute the lalit about what the government might look like and who is the with the government in charge that the taliban will need to engage with and talk to i dont leave all we see now is that the taliban is a consistent partner and not the Afghan Government and thats in that sense so. The constant pressure from the Afghan People the of gun society the Civil Society the International Pressure the regional pressure of must be kept with these afghan political actors so that they come on the same page to have a discussion so that im sure theyre tired too but you know they must overcome their differences out here and and thats my previous calling for that for the bloodshed to stop that is and that is imperative and that that is the pressure that we must all build on the of consular to colleagues from there when you hear the taliban say we heard it earlier on that on this program when you hear the taliban say that they will be education there will be jobs for women but under islamic rules and with his job what does that indicate to you about whats coming. Well firstly let me clarify that the call for. Inclusive at. The call for freedom the call for laboratory in afghanistan is not limited to urban. Cities it is its across afghanistan i travel across afghanistan i have been to the villages i am a village woman everywhere you go probably the demand is different but. Every human being and particularly woman no matter where they live they now want to have a life where their daughters could go to school they could benefit the you know the freedom that people in other parts of the world. Enjoy that but this term of what then islam. Values is a very broad term and we are an islamic country and women of afghanistan never demand that so far an eating beyond islamic values but there is a different interpretation of islamic values as we. Have experienced that during taliban there was a different interpretation of islamic values in the parliament in the it is really basis i face some of these. Male members of parliament who try to the have their own enter protection of islam within the islamic. Call it islamic value so therefore i think we have to really clarify that and thats why the editor Afghan Dialogue or the enter afghan talks are crucial because you really have to clarify a lot of issues that people of other son are worried about they have to we have to really agree upon the way forward off what will a piece government look like we have to really clarify you know what does it mean to to say Islamic Education of women or islamic working conditions for women we have to agree upon all of those details because we dont want history to repeat itself we remember when during ninetys the International Community had discussions with which i did there was no woman involved there was no Civil Society there was no people from afghanistan as a result civil war 1 occurred in afghanistan and we paid the you know that Afghan People paid the major price you have paid in kabul but this is something we want to avoid beginning of after the fall of taliban regime. There was talks about peace and justice and then money people said well lets prioritize peace as justice might be become so 6 politicized at the end of the day now d we dont have peace and there is no justice i think this has to go parallel or yes we we are working for peace because we strive for peace because that is what people of afghanistan deserve and in fact when i personally attend some of these dialogues my own daughters ask me this question why do you attend when they are killing our people and my answer is exactly for the same reason that i want to attend these talks to stop this bloodshed and killing of up right evil but there should be a cost we cannot compromise all the gains for the for the for the sake of peace ok. Were talking about power sharing here you can power what are you sharing deal with the taliban except indeed the Afghan Government and what shape would it take. Very much forward thinking. My my sort of question would be how do we get to find a consensus and then come across each other after negotiations whenever i have been talking to members of the taliban delegation in doha or the Afghan Government in kabul. What i have told them dot be future structure of honest on does not really matter for a long as its based on consensus when the africans come together to form a consensus now it could be called in the stomach and method of understand it could be called a republic of understand but for a strong us its based on consensus where all africans we are talking about different tribes talking about pollution of woman we are talking about Civil Society we are talking about. Religion the sex that we have in terms of sin is indeed for the strongest all of them come together agree on a framework right dad let me just interrupt. Easy to say that isnt it because consensus means agreements and for example when the taliban leader says he wants an islamic regime for afghanistan what does he mean by that. Is it something that would be acceptable to the rest of afghanistan. Interestingly. The same thing in the joint declaration that came out today which was signed by ambassador. Indicated and something called people settlement islamic government of afghanistan. I think been one says that they want a total review afghan constitution and based on that forming a government they have their reservations and amendments to the constitution will only happen once you have the taliban the Afghan Government the political elites come together. Not necessarily in a form of emirate but they have their reservations about the constitution its still early to sort of laugh about it as of what is it exactly that they want they have not yet gone into details of what exactly they want we still have about 2 weeks for dialogue there are still about a few Little Things to be done which includes the release of about 5000. 00 prisoners of taliban by the Afghan Government and about a 1000 prisoners of the afghan side with the taliban to include. A tally of about 6000 prisoners in total that needs to be released before march 10th march 9th so that we can get into the in travellin dialogue ok ill tell you to jump in because i need to take it all and im sorry i have there is a lot to cover i just need to bring in. If the taliban are part of the government is your sense that they would try and impose their strict agenda again well i mean. You know if theyre part of the government why will they want to be part of a government of their part of the agenda is not covered the reason were in this place in the 1st situation is because they want to be part of the government they are a fabric of the Afghan Society and they want to be part of they want to impose their agenda they want to have a you know lets lets put it in business terms they want to be an operational part or they believe that they they they want to. At the table there and you know they have they want to impose how that they were they have ideas about their own ideas about how the country is to be run yes theyre willing to compromise theyre willing to accept a compromise theyre willing to work out a deal thats why were in the 1st place i think thats where this and i think going back to some of what my colleagues have been saying i think the 1st and foremost my immediate tactical problem tactical problem that i see is where the danny danny faction of the of the love the love faction lie i think they have to come on the same page before we start about that not all of con dialogue i think thats are you going to see those problems theyre facing and getting all these actors on the same page is what youre going to see as in terms of the next 2 weeks im and by a 1st colleague remarked that we are cautiously optimistic and i shes right to be cautiously optimistic because these political elites do they put their political interests 1st they put their power interests 1st or they put the afghan interests as the 1st question that i would ask and the thing is the child of an already strong position has a control more territory now than they have done any point 2001 yes that is strictly speaking in the by going by the reports thats what we read thats what b. S. S. And thats what we understand and thats what thats what all the evidence and indicators point are they control more territory i mean at the end of the day we you know we are like the u. S. Policy was not negotiating with the taliban but we are negotiating with the taliban today so you know there is a so if those indicators are right that thats where weve arrived at we know that thats where the problem is and thats where thats why were talking to the sales if you want to come in there did you think people in afghanistan trust the taliban. There is a Huge Trust Deficit its true. And the trust deficit comes from the experience that people had during taliban and also it continues to happen up to now probably the the ones that are in doha are the political Negotiation Team their perspective on some of the issues the people of afghanistan are worried about are different my concern is how do we reintegrate those who are actually fighting on the ground a lot of them are uneducated i have been part of the integration of x. Child soldiers in the past and i know that this will be a major operation to safely reintegrated those who actually are least have seen a gun as a means of survival so that there is a huge task ahead of us writing now its time in afghanistan internally to a better to create a consensus politically because. At this united Political Community in afghanistan will put afghanistan the public of other son in a weaker position and i think its time for the political leaders the 2 pilot the 2 campaigns Election Campaign comes to come together to put a strong Negotiation Team forward and then to look ahead because you know we have suffered and its time for us to get together do you think this could be the man with the gun in abdullah do you know its called together because of. It is not a z. It is a its it is about a divided society you know we know that peace united election divides we are in the midst of a boat we just had an election and it is this futile. You know weve we had a National Unity government which was not really successful so we didnt have to look at all aspects on my call to the political leaders and we have been trying a group of women actually have been trying to also meet with these political leaders inside of afghanistan to bring to see how we can bring unity because this is not just peace with taliban we really have to have peace among ourselves and unity and look ahead because this country has paid a lot for war it is understood because of wrong politics of our leaders the country deserves a better politician better politics going to end with you why do you think the taliban have been amenable to get as far as we have today when all efforts have failed in the past works sweeten the deal for them this time round. Well i mean i think the taliban. One of the reasons is where my colleague also left ill begin from there one of the domestic political consensus the corruption in the government the endemic. In the make corruption amongst the political elite and the division and. Confusion in coherence and in at many levels incompetence as well so these have contributed on the political level the other the other end of it is also the u. S. Many of the policy choices and the war fighting tactics where the taliban have shown they have been on the military level theyve shown that theyre more successful at the end of the day u. S. Is fighting a 1000 miles away from a land where it does not fully understand the let fully understand the terrain the 3rd 3rd thing thats largely uncovered is the role of regional actors out there if you notice the secretary pompei are speaking he he has to be read a lot of. He gave credit to the pakistanis you know they have theyve had their share of roles in pakistan has had a part to play russia has partner had a part to play iran has a part to play in the u. S. Interest with the v ds countries there in doing the u. S. Interest with russia u. S. Interest with iran and u. S. Interest with pakistan have contributed to the taliban success so you know and thats where. Thats thats perhaps thats perhaps where the taliban has come out ahead in this whole scenario right well it could be wrenching to see how this unfolds in the crucial weeks months and indeed years ahead thank you very much indeed to i guess a reward across the country and Barbara Kopple swami thanks very much judy and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our web site al jazeera dot com and indeed for further discussion just go to our Facebook Page facebook dot com for slash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a. J. Inside story for me nick lowe and the whole team here its goodbye. Its really good to the both of the 3rd time in less going to yeah after both main parties failed to form a governing coalition and with Prime Minister netanyahu facing the start that his corruption trial. 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Hello youre watching aljazeera im so robin and paul these are all top news stories greeces Prime Minister has called for a meeting of the National Security council as thousands of refugees and migrants continue to gather at its land border with turkey local media say 10000 people have been prevented from entering of the past 24 hours forward to say more than 500 have also arrived on its islands closest to turkey most of them landing on less balls. Were standing at the beach on the north shore of. Both arrived this morning with 74 people mostly from afghanistan some of them still lingering here on the beach and the boat which has now been deflated you can see lying in the shallows