Below is an excerpt from the interview, as well as a link to the complete WMC Live with Robin Morgan show containing the interview. Donor Direct Action thanks The Women’s Media Center for permission to post this excerpt.

Robin Morgan: Welcome, Mouna, to Women’s Media Center Live.

Mouna Ghanem: Thank you very much.

RM: Let’s start right in with the Syrian Women’s Forum for Peace, which is a crucial element that has been very overlooked in the media and unfortunately to date in the negotiations. For listeners who don’t know, Resolution 1325 from the United Nations was something that women fought long and hard to get. In short, it mandates that women have to be included, must be included in peace making and peace keeping, and it has made a huge difference when it has been observed, but it isn’t always observed. I assume that the Syrian Women’s Forum for Peace has been trying to have a voice in negotiations using 1325. Am I correct?

MG: Yes.

RM: How has that been happening and what has been the response?

MG: Actually, the Syrian Platform for Peace has done a lot of raising awareness about 1325. To that end we have published a report, a study about the challenges of implementing 1325 in Syria, and we distribute it to all our counterparts. Add to this that we organize training sessions for women on negotiations and on 1325 so that they could be ready for any negotiation process. I come from a political organization which called for negotiation from day one, and we believe that negotiation is the only way to solve the crisis and the civil war now in Syria. So we raise this in our diplomatic work and with the embassies, with the Kofi Annan delegations and now with the Lakhdar Brahimi delegations. And we also emphasize the role of women in this process.

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