THE plight of Afghan women cannot be overstated. My first experience of them was in Chicago when a group of young women who had been studying in Canada and were lobbying to stop the war in Afghanistan formed Afghans for Peace. They joined Iraq Veterans against the war on a march against NATO in 2012.

My collaborator, Adjunct Professor Suellen Semekoski of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, had invited me over to experience how art and non-violence training could bring peace to a volatile situation. The thought of putting those things together seemed like the most unrealistic combination ever. Suellen, along with Ken Butigan of Pace e Bene, had already done some training with veterans over a long weekend.  

Although Ken was doing the training as an independent, the organisation he was working for – Pace e bene – is a peace organisation that started with the Catholic Church and although it still has spiritually at its core, it has become pretty non-denominational. They do amazing work all over the world and have an excellent online training programme.

My experience that year in Chicago was to go to a cool gallery that Suellen designated a 'non-violent gallery', which seemed curious to me. "Well, we are just declaring this gallery as non-violent," she said. First we had some young Vietnamese women turn up to make art, then slowly the gallery filled up with Vietnam veterans, then Iraq veterans. We made some art and proceeded with non-violence training. At one point the young women who were Afghans for Peace came into the room and everyone got a bit edgy, but I will always remember the passion and power of how they spoke.

Fast forward to Covid and the Women's Platform, and Belfast was asking for volunteers to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women online and report back what they heard. One event I registered for was an update on the status of women in Afghanistan. UN Security Council resolution article 1325 came about because of the Women's Coalition and the peace process in Northern Ireland. It states:

'The resolution acknowledges the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. It calls for the adoption of a gender perspective to consider the special needs of women and girls during conflict, repatriation and resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration, and post-conflict reconstruction.'

The UN update was basically telling us that when they tried to put women in positions of power, the women were being murdered. It has got much worse, if that is possible, with a ban on women speaking in public, windows of houses being boarded up, child brides being big business and creative freedom for women in the public sphere  turning into a forgotten dream.

But, as always, there is hope. The hope comes in the form of women in Belfast with its UNESCO City of Music Status, and an organisation like Beyond Skin, a champion of all things creative receiving smuggled paintings by Afghan women, selling them and getting funds back to the women.

This International Women's Day on March 8, the Ulster Orchestra in Townsend Street along with Beyond Skin will hold an Afghan Women Solidarity Concert. Featured performers include Afghan rapper, film-maker and activist, Sonita Alizadeh, who was sold into child marriage at the age of 10 (a growing industry in Afghanistan); Afghan-Northern Irish music duo, Zarifa Asghari and Eva Kearney; Hazara singer Elaha Soroor; and Alaskan composer/conductor Dr Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey.

There is a wider community programme and tickets for the concert are on a donation basis and available via the Ulster Orchestra website. It is hoped that this focus on the Afghan women's plight might raise some hope, as well as funds, and put a little pressure on the international community.