experience to the last point with your permission. >> sure. >> one is that i told you that there was a need to put new words in these new facilitiesment when i came into position, there were two female wardens out of 20 facilities. one for the female of course and one for juveniles. after three years, there were eight wardens. few others in a core function that after seven years since i retired, now we have in the israeli prison service five generals that are female and one major general female. that was when i was there. there was only colonel. there was no high ranking

officer. when you are there, you have to do it. these women were talented. they have been there all the time. you need to put them and give them the chance when they are acting in the best way. the last point is from my importance again. i met not very few men that have developed these soft skills and unfortunately i have met not so very few women that have forgotten. we need to do it all together. >> let me ask you a question. >> when you increased the amount of female wardens, you made the statements, but did you see it in the prison system?

>> yes, of course. it's comes from the environment first of all and that is an a sheefment for itself. it brings the opportunity to deal with the inmates in a different way. less tension. it's much better for both. >> one of the reasons it comes or the reason that is it comes to the environment is the various attributes or the characteristics that you were describing about being there. >> and they are paying for women. >> that's very interesting. >> yes, it is. >> to stay with this issue of security that you both talked about, doesn't the danger of the situations stop you from being able to do your work? >> let me pick up from here.

this is so important. i come from there and i am an affluent women. this is so related. i wanted to share a very special experience. a story that all women face. it was june 2nd, 2010. the first day in kabul. kabul was quiet because the government who are hosting 1600 out of which 347 were women. a group of us got together in one car because only that car had access to the tent due to so much security. we have to be very careful to look after them as much as possible. we were going to meet the men

coming from conventions where they don't sit with women at the same platform. finally we reached the place and we had to go to the check points of the security. the president is pardon ming. president karzai is coming. finally they stopped it and after the official integration and it was in the middle of the speech that they are hit and these rockets, they hit far behind the tent, but one rocket was just behind the tent. >> were these all at once? >> one after the other. >> how long was in between? >> a second? a second. i just got this information from my colleague saying a suicide attacker was outside the gate

trying to get inside. it was such a tense situation for all of us. our life was at risk. but what did the women do? we would continue our state. they were for three days. we took the risk. we didn't know what's going to happen next. the second or the third day. we have to face the challenge of actually fighting with our family. >> i was going to say. >> my mother was telling me don't go. you are going to kill yourself. don't go. i think peace is so important for all of us. we are contributing at once. we are already working hard and yes, we are risking all of it and proud of what we are doing. thank you very much. >> and you also have been able to get women into the major conferences too.

>> right. >> is it hard for them to go back home? are families proud or is there retribution where they get criticized when they go back? >> it's depends from family to family. culturally i use this word, we are diverse. we are so much diverse. the way i live in kabul, a woman does not live an hour away. it depends from family to family. >> have any of you -- >> also imagining her age and the environment. it comes from the environment and it is so forceful and very strong. >> they didn't used to. for example, when we were arrested, i told my mother in the morning that we were going

to the port. she saw in al jazeera that two laesere aested and she said i knew you would be one of them. >> rebecca, you were a freedom fighter, right? >> yeah, i was. it was not easy. >> tell us about that. >> i don't know. if the audience thinks i look like a freedom fighter. do i look like it? >> do you look like a general? >> yes. i think it's good for a flash back, but i would love to make it a comparison. let it be a wall of comparison to move from war to peace and look at dangers and security and protection. you are aware of course from your reading that the war broke out, the civil war in 1983.

i got married in 1986. i am sure phi asked a married couple here you would talk about your honeymoon in paris and any of these parts of the world. rebecca's story is to have her honeymoon in the bush. >> you don't have to pay. >> it was not easy. it was not easy. the life of bush is not an easy one. it's not a nearby bush that we are talking about. they are in the forest where there animals and you have to look for a place where you can be secure. it is in the bush. real bushes and real forest and it's difficult. you have nowhere to sleep but to find yourself a place to sleep. >> where did you sleep? >> you have to use your mind. when you are out of a town

city, you can use sometimes we cut the trees and you would imagine to be a bed. if you really yearn for a mattress, you can get grass around and stuff it and make a very good bed. it's your choice. what you like. what makes you comfortable providing it will be pinching you throughout the night if you have to sleep. there was a time that to reach some of the people who were displaced, that's where you get promoted and you would be able to use the boxes that i use for air dropping food. you take these boxes and you make a makeshift of a bed. you imagine it of course like you sleep on it. it was not easy. it was rough. there was a lot of danger.

it was a worse situation. also i wouldn't forget how you were relying on the communities. because you don't have any supply of food. you have to look for food to eat apart from picking what is there and the type of animals thaw get ood to try it. any type of animal and a tree and leaves. if it doesn't kill you, then it is food. we also relied on the communities. the communities around and people who are in villages. real villages. they have their eggs and the chickens before they got depleted. these were the things we were relying on. moveing for the situation of war, danger, fear, and if you are a freedom fighter, you can get killed. that has not been easy. the most important thing is how you transit from a war situation from difficulties into this

piece. that's what i'm talking about. it was times for us, the women, to walk for peace and advocate for peace and create awareness. with the women and with the communities for them to be towards peace. the beautiful part of that is to compare to the war background. how we created awareness with the women and the communities for them to go into the referendum and a vote for peace. for a peaceful place. that is again giving back. it's giving hope. it's moving from fear into opportunity of stability and of peace. we managed to create awareness and improve the process so that they vote for their destiny. we will work on slogans and messages that we are very, very

effective with. some of them like your destiny is in your hands. your words count. i wish i could bring it to show you this slogan that you used. it was very, very effective. intelligent women to work. my last point is to give back. the same women and communities that were helping and feeding us during the war, the same communities that were in the villages. these hats which were plastered with mud and the most important part of peace. what we see that the same eggs

we were eating is time to give them stability. it was time to give them independence. give them the communication and give them hope that they wanted to see. >> that's fabulous. >> i'm a freedom fighter now. >> you talk about the villages and it reminds me of the scenes that i saw pictures of. >> we worked together for a couple of years and you have shown me pictures of you in the villages as well. i think of you as the professor and the researcher and do you have a scene from that?

we work in the areas that were hard hit. the first courteous affected. we work in the community level to address extremism. at that level. while working with the communities, we came across mothers who just started that they should join us. when talking to the mothers, we told them you have to be with the way your child is in the hide out or with the extremist. they did not trust and talking to them like can they trust us or not.

they started coming to us and we said yes, she would like a boy to survive. we want them arrive. in this process, one of the managers who i think was courageous enough to take the initiative of calling and my son i don't know if they will leave the house. i live here and the mother was calling us which is four hours drive from islamabad. i said it's dangerous because at that time the operation was like it was just over. i said definitely we will be having my breakfast with you around 8:30 in the morning.

she has to keep her son until 8:30. the boy and the mother on the floor of the kitchen. a cup of tea along with the bread in front of her first. the boy was sharp because the mother did not tell her there would be this modern lady coming from islamabad. whenever we go to the villages and especially when i am facing and meeting these boys for the first time, we hide our face like this. we feel like we are secure.

i checked with him on the floor and started talking and he was very shy. one thing that i could notice in his eyes was very strange. it was so much sadness. the eyes were really blank. you could see through them there was something in him. i started discussing, why did you join these people? he was just looking at me like this. then he said we do have this question. where were you when we were going to help? where were you when you had no food to eat? you know the food that i can offer you now, i could not even provide this to my family. you got the money for this. we give the money for it.

that's not the only reason that these boys join these forces. the story is very long, but definitely i can convince the situation and feel until the mother is supportive, the boys and especially those with the extremist would dare not come to a woman like this. they transmitted to the boy. they agreed that he definitely wanted to go back to the normal life. this was the beginning of the process that we wanted to initiate the areas. that was the first boy we tried

to help him and tried to bring him out from the situation and tried to transform his attitude towards life as well as the way they were being convinced and the way they were misinterpreted to transform them into jihadis and into societal attackers. nowhere in the koran it says that you can go for society like that. it's forbidden in islam. similarly, jihad can actually take the certain situations, but when you ask these voices, what is meant by jihad? they said the killing. who is that? pakistan security forces. but why? they are siding with those who want to harm us.

it takes time to convince these people that this is not the real islam. islam means peace. it takes months and sometimes weeks and sometimes months to convince and transform the mind. particularly those who have gone through a lot. they were able to transform not only this boy, but this was just the beginning. we now have a place and very well in the society, the most difficult and challenging part for us even today is to be the acceptance of the community. they are back in their own communities. they had to build a better trust with the communities so far have been able to take back 79 boys back to the communities and have

placed them well. they were working in different places. they are really productive. they have been productive citizens. >> it's a powerful thing. >> there is an ability to make the process reversible and it is inspiring because on the other side, you always deal with the radicalization and extremism in how to cope. maybe part of coping is preventing. it gives us hope that there is not changing things not only by force. that's very important.

i think before everything, it may happen again. >> i know that there huge efforts among the women that are here because you represent half the women who are here for this week long meeting. peace education or etc. so many ways that women are working on this. i want to open it up to questions, but first i want to introduce to us all from the christian science monitor. the monitor is so well-known. i don't have to you so much about it. and conflict resolution and appreciate particularly the nobel prize. that you were willing to give

that coverage. that was so explicit and powerful. you may have been the first interview and when i came here, others who would like to join, but i would love to hear you are here with a pad and a pen. do you have reflections? >> i can't think without a pen. thank you very much. i just wanted to recognize who won elizabeth new for award.

gina is very much in elizabeth's shoes. >> welcome. john, will you turn the mike towards you? there you go. >> i wanted to pick up on the points about this idea that there is so much effort that goes into peace making, you have to make peace and keep peace. you have to build peace. you have the cycle of violence return. something can break it very quickly. you identify radicalization. maybe the general can tell us about this too. is there anything that you hit upon that helps to deglamorize war in the minds of especially young men.

we know that's something that they are attracted to. have you had thoughts about that? >> let's open it up to anyone who would like to address that. >> i need some clarification. >> it seem that is the whole idea of peace building is complex and slow and you described a kind of a knitting together of societies. there is an attraction it does seem among young men to violence and war. it doesn't take much attraction to ruin all the work being done slowly to build peace. i wonder if perhaps the general can address this. in watching people come through

a penal system for instance, is there anything that happens in which you can see the thought changing so that they begin to support the idea of building society rather than taking up a gun and doing the glamorous or romantic things. >> i think it begins and ends in education. that's the point. if we have failed to that point and that situation, when they are in facilities or in community treatment, there is a need to try and find a therapy. even in prison in the juvenile prisons, prison, only one in israel. you give them alternatives like playing soccer or doing a lot of activities.

the aggression and frustration and give them new skills and abilities. how to work to generalize your anger to a different way of like art or like reading, like theater. everything that will be a replacement for that need to come. sometimes they just want to be shown and be influential and try to do it in a positive way. sometimes it goes and wins and succeeds and sometimes no. never give up. >> i would like to take the situation. i think violence is culture.

as well as this question. south sudan, you are concerned about the peace culture. in terms of and including the curriculum for a student. >> maybe from there. >> depends on the objective environment in every country. there country where is people suffer from injustices. i have been asking, but we were subjected to a pressive regimes and no way for people to pick up and say okay f it doesn't work, there is a problem. that's why i'm saying it was with a cost, but again violence

usually does not work. they said tell them you have oppressed me too much, but i want to move into peace. when it comes to the youngsters, that's where your question is. people need democracies. you need to be given your space and given your rights. you open a space for people to say i have an opportunity to go and fight. she mentioned peace education. i will go back a little bit. we have our cultural way of peace making and peace keeping. because you were subjected to defending ourselves, you find that youngsters going into the culture of violence and being