Women’s National Consensus for Peace, Equality, and Inclusive Nation Building

Speech at the Ceremony of National Consensus of Afghan Women for Peace 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Respected sisters, the First Lady of the country, distinguished guests, and my dear compatriots joining us from every corner and province of Afghanistan. I had originally prepared a written speech for today, but as I sat here and closely listened to your powerful interventions, I decided it would be far better to speak directly from my heart to yours.

Today is a profoundly historic day. The heroic Afghan woman has taken her place as a true history-maker. For decades, thousands of poems and hundreds of analytical essays were written depicting you as mere bystanders or instruments on the sidelines of national events. Today, however, you stand as the primary drivers and authors of positive structural transformation. You have transitioned from being the tragic casualties of our history to the direct architects of our national destiny. Congratulations to all of you.

Secondly, it was traditionally claimed that women required men to organize, structure, and direct their grand assemblies. Look around this hall today—you alone are the sole organizers, managers, and strategic planners of this entire platform. The order and discipline visible here are truly remarkable, Mashallah. It is my sincere hope that you will extend this organizational expertise to help bring similar structure to the assemblies managed by our men.

Thirdly, your posture today is that of deeply responsible, active citizens. You have taken the abstract rights guaranteed to you as equal citizens under the Constitution of Afghanistan and translated them into living, breathing practice. This realization of true citizenship is a victory that deserves to be celebrated by every single citizen of Afghanistan.

Fourthly, you are both forward-looking visionaries and practical nation-builders. You understand the deep institutional scars of our past because you have experienced the brutal costs of war firsthand. You feel this trauma in your very souls; there is not a single family left in Afghanistan that has escaped the devastating ripples of this forty-year conflict.

The sisters and brothers who shared their testimonies today must know that they do not stand alone. The entire Afghan nation shares this collective grief, and I feel this profound pain alongside them from the bottom of my heart. The fundamental difference today is that we have reached a historic consensus: instead of remaining trapped as passive victims of our circumstances, we must actively choose to live in peace, institutional stability, mutual empathy, and national unity. We—and you, the women of Afghanistan—are sending a powerful, positive message to our entire population, our region, the wider world, and specifically to the Taliban. The question is straightforward: Do you wish to sustain the horrific scenes of bloodshed, or shall we come together to write a new chapter defined by development and peaceful coexistence?

The Constitutional Mandate: Women and Our Armed Forces

Today, the 9th of Hoot, marks the proud and glorious Day of our National Security and Defense Forces. Today, you too stand as soldiers of this nation; let us join together in a resounding round of applause to honor the brave soldiers of this land. [Applause from the audience]

When my team originally reviewed the schedule, they asked me to separate these two events—suggesting that we postpone the national women’s assembly so it would not overlap with our official military commemorations. My immediate response was that these two pillars are entirely interdependent and inseparable. Our security and defense forces exist to stand as the ultimate guardians of our Constitution. Meanwhile, our women—as responsible citizens, administrators, educators, highly trained professionals, and especially as the sole breadwinners for countless households—live and thrive precisely within the protections of that constitutional framework.

Therefore, the message from the women of Afghanistan to our security forces today is clear: continue to be the uncompromising shields that protect our Constitution, our sacred Islamic rights, and the national liberties of Afghan women.

Sixthly, the process of building peace is a delicate, highly sensitive science. We are here to build peace because we intimately understand the nature of war. War does not require genuine resolve, courage, or strategic intellect. Anyone can prolong a conflict; you can simply take a few bags of chemical fertilizer and, instead of using them to cultivate the land, turn them into an explosive device. Anyone can keep a vicious cycle spinning. True moral, civic, Islamic, and national courage lies in the strength to break that cycle and establish a virtuous path toward peace, long-term stability, and the rule of law.

For this reason, I want to begin by expressing my profound gratitude to the First Lady for her unwavering, lifelong commitment to the women of Afghanistan, and specifically for her dedication to fostering logical, strategic, and inclusive dialogues that span across the country.

I also extend my deep appreciation to all the key organizers who first conceptualized this national initiative and traveled directly to our provinces to mobilize communities. I specifically thank the three provincial governors who are present with us today: the Governors of Kabul, Kapisa, and Kunar. Most importantly, I extend my profound gratitude to the 700 sisters who have traveled across long distances from our provinces to sit in this hall today.

A Unified National Posture and the Path Forward

As a direct result of this massive, diverse participation from our provinces, you can now confidently declare that this resolution truly represents the collective voice of all Afghan women. With all due respect to our capital, organizations in Kabul could issue a hundred resolutions independently; yet, if they lack direct representation from the provinces, they cannot claim to speak for the nation. Today, you represent the educated, resilient core of Afghanistan, and I am immensely proud of you. Every single sister across this country belongs to the generation of progress—because our core demands are entirely aligned.

Today, the women of Afghanistan—whether from our rural heartlands, our growing urban centers, or the capital of Kabul—have converged to speak with a single, unyielding voice. I congratulate you on establishing this unified and powerful stance. The first major step toward building this national consensus was taken last year by our religious scholars. The second historic step has now been taken by the women of Afghanistan.

Our administration has identified roughly 26 distinct social sectors across our society. My direct call to every single one of these sectors is to organize, mobilize, and unify your perspectives just as our women and religious scholars have done. This will ensure that when we soon convene the Consultative Loya Jirga, we can engage in structured, cohesive, and deeply respectful national dialogues.

The authentic voice of a nation cannot be represented by a self-appointed, limited minority. Both the government and the President draw their ultimate legitimacy and strength directly from the sovereign public. Yet, there are individuals who make sweeping claims based entirely on who they were or what they did in the past, demanding that the international community and the public defer strictly to them. I look to you to give them their answer: demonstrate clearly where the true pulse of this nation beats, and show them what the authentic voice of our people sounds like.

Through your words and your actions, show everyone where our non-negotiable boundaries lie. The explicit boundaries of peace can only be drawn by the sovereign citizens of Afghanistan. No external power can impose a manufactured peace upon us. Any peace agreement that fails to ensure long-term, sustainable stability is fundamentally unacceptable.

nvesting in the Girl Child: Shifting Cultural Paradigms

Today, I observed two distinct realities. On one hand, we see the modern Afghan woman. The entire nation, the region, and the world now recognize that the contemporary Afghan woman is completely different from the woman of our distant past. She is active, strategic, capable, informed, forward-looking, and fiercely committed to the national unity of her country.

On the other hand, we must acknowledge that the traditional mindset of the past still affects the vast majority of our women today. We heard various poems recited here, but our sister from Nimruz shared a truly profound piece. In many traditional Afghan homes, when a son is born, a grand celebration is held; but when a daughter is born, people offer words of consolation as if a tragedy has occurred. This deeply ingrained mindset must change.

Why must it change? Consider our current health crisis: there is practically no province—especially among our ten most deprived provinces—that does not constantly demand female doctors. My answer to those communities is direct and uncompromising:

If you refuse to allow your own daughters to attend school and universities, by what right do you expect the daughters of other families to come and serve your communities?

It is absolutely essential that those Afghans who have been left on the margins of development are fully integrated into our national life. Today, we see respected leaders like Dr. Sima Samar, Dr. Soraya Sobhrang, and others present here as living proof of what educated women achieve.

Investing in our women is quite literally investing in ourselves. In that moving poem, our sister from Nimruz expressed that she had never truly experienced a mother's affection. This is not an isolated grievance of missing a father's love; it reflects a deeper structural reality where even mothers are conditioned to see their future security exclusively through their sons. Therefore, we need a massive, nationwide dialogue on peace. Yet, an even broader debate must take place on how we intend to rebuild Afghanistan, and within that framework, the exact role and socio-economic share of women must be clearly defined.

Eradicating Lawlessness and Enforcing the Rule of Law

Regarding your specific consultations and the formal resolution you presented today, I want to address three core areas:

• As a Citizen: I am deeply proud to see the women of Afghanistan reach a level of political maturity where they can represent themselves flawlessly. My solemn commitment as a fellow citizen is to work shoulder-to-shoulder with you until our constitutional rights are fully realized in practice.

• As Commander-in-Chief: I accept your explicit demand to completely erase the term "unresponsible armed individuals" from our political and social lexicon with $100\%$ certainty. The legitimate monopoly on the use of force must belong exclusively to the sovereign state. Without this monopoly, every armed faction will continue to threaten our citizens.

• National Sovereignty: What kind of system allows self-styled "strongmen" to trample the law underfoot and assault innocent people? Is this what we call strength? Is this what we call honor? If we look back to our classical heritage, Khushal Khan Khattak teaches us that true honor and chivalry demand using one's power to protect the vulnerable and maintain social order. These lawless individuals and the culture of intimidation they represent have no legitimate place in our society.

The Constitution does not tolerate a dual system of justice. The rule of law cannot be enforced through double standards where one set of rules applies to those who carry weapons, and an entirely different set applies to peaceful citizens who carry no guns. Every single Afghan must stand completely equal before the law, which is precisely what your resolution demands. The National Security Advisor is seated right here; my promise to you as your Commander-in-Chief is that we will exert every ounce of our institutional leverage to enforce this principle and turn it into reality, Inshallah.

As President, I am fully committed to synthesizing your constructive recommendations with the perspectives of all other social sectors. This will allow us to forge a unified national vision to which we are all mutually accountable, and the upcoming Loya Jirga will provide the ideal historic platform to achieve this integration.

The Constitutional Path to Peace: Elections vs. Interim Government

The most sacred duty I assumed when taking the presidential oath of office was the strict implementation and preservation of the Constitution of Afghanistan. The Constitution can only be amended through the rigorous, explicit mechanisms defined within the document itself. Until that day comes, it is our collective oath and national duty to ensure that this foundational document continues to serve as the bedrock framework governing our lives, just as you have demanded.

Let me be absolutely clear, my respected sisters: peace, constitutional legality, and democratic elections are not in conflict with one another. Since you form the overwhelming majority in this hall today, we can temporarily relegate our brothers to the sidelines for a moment. Elections are the sole source of political legitimacy. An Islamic Republic completely ceases to be a republic the moment it abandons democratic elections. The core principle of an election is to provide a mechanism through which a sovereign nation can freely choose its path.

When certain political circles whisper about bypassing this process to establish an "interim government," they do so out of a deep, fundamental fear of the ballot box. If these individuals believe they have a mandate to lead, let them step forward as candidates. If the Afghan people vote for them, well and good; if the nation rejects them, they must submit to the rule of law and step aside.

The next government of Afghanistan must derive its mandate and authority directly from the sovereign will of the Afghan public. This clear mandate is absolutely required to determine how we negotiate peace, how we nurture it, and most importantly, how we sustain it for generations to come. This requires a profound national discourse, and Inshallah, that discourse is already underway.

In conclusion, I congratulate you once again. I am immensely proud that this historic day marks the beginning of a new era. Moving forward, the women of Afghanistan will gather annually from every corner of this country to deliberate on specific national priorities, speaking with a single, unyielding voice to shape the destiny of this great nation.

Long live Afghanistan!