The discussion on “Facing the Global Gender Backlash” may well have been a first at the Munich Security Conference — but Kosovo’s president, Vjosa Osmani, nailed perfectly why it was central to the agenda.
Osmani explained how female negotiators secure faster and more durable peace settlements — not least in her own country — but also how authoritarian leaders’ attacks on women’s rights are deliberately targeting “one of the most empowering factors towards a democracy.”
“This is not some woke agenda, this is geopolitical priority in itself,” she said, also emphasizing the economic damage to a country from oppressing women — by “leaving half of your population outside of your economic potential” — which meant “men and women, boys and girls alike, lose from not having equality.”
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, chief executive of the Washington-based International Civil Society Action Network, revealed that several men had been asked to appear on the panel, but all had refused, suggesting sarcastically: “Maybe they had other priorities?” Osmani called the no-show “quite discouraging.”