The National Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) has said that women can be agents of peace and efforts to enhance their role in preventing terrorism must be enhanced.
“We encourage women’s organizations at this event to become agents of peace,” head of the BNPT’s counter-propaganda sub-directorate, Solahuddin Nasution, said here on Wednesday.
At a workshop organized with the Central Sulawesi Terrorism Prevention Coordination Forum (FKTP) at Palu’s Alkhairaat University and involving national women’s organizations, the BNPT official said that women have the ability to promote and raise awareness to fight all forms of terror propaganda.
Given their vital role in the family, women have a strategic role to protect the family and their community from terror propaganda, he said.
“A mother can be a dialogue partner with her child, and as a wife, she could become a discussion partner with her husband on various aspects, for instance, on comprehension of religious teachings,” Nasution added.
He said that women are also expected to be early detectors of anomalies occurring within their families.
The household is the primary educational institution, as from there, children start studying all aspects around them, including social, cultural, and religious values, he noted.
“Educating children within the family is the parent’s reciprocal duty, yet the position of women is as a mother, which has a greater emotional intimacy with their children. Hence, children’s character and personality development depend upon the women,” the BNPT sub-directorate head said.
Meanwhile, head of the Central Sulawesi FKPT’s women’s affairs department, Nurhayati, said that women could initiate peace in their respective regions.
Women must be aware of their surroundings to prevent themselves from becoming involved as suspects or victims in acts of terror, she added.
Source: Antara News