Society must work to establish local peace: Herat roundtable

HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): Participants of a roundtable discussion, organized by Pajhwok Afghan News and aired on Maraj Radio in western Herat province, have stressed that local peace could lead to a lasting peace in the country.

The 42-minute discussion, titled: “Local peace is the foundation of lasting peace,” was aired on Wednesday at 10:00am and the program will be aired again tomorrow at 10:00am.

Manijah Bahara, a sociologist and researcher in Herat, expressed happiness over the absence of war in the country and stressed that it was time for society to become aware of the importance of peace and its preservation.

She emphasized: “The society must work to establish local peace first, because local peace is the foundation of lasting peace throughout the country.”

“Family members are among those who could play a significant role in reducing violence,” he added.

Manijah cited lack of awareness among families about their rights as the only reason for the increase in domestic violence and emphasized that in order to address these problems, the media must inform people at the community level.

However, Hafiza Amin, another participants in this program, referred to the word peace from the Islamic point of view and emphasized that peace, tranquility and security were among the most important and key blessings of Allah (swt).

According to Amin, peace and security are among the most valuable and central concepts of Islam, and it was so important that one of the attributes of Allah is Salam “peace and security”.

On the other hand, TaranomKhudaBakhshi, a journalist and media activist at the roundtable, said that discrimination, unjust, and one-sided discourse in institutional, group and interpersonal relations endangered peace.

Mirwais Karimi, a rights activist for people with disabilities, said with the new government, killings had stopped but he complained about lack of work and poverty.

He said violence would increase again if jobs were not created and poverty was not eradicated from society.

sa/ma