KABUL – *President Ashraf Ghani has said that women must be part of anypeace process with the Taliban group.*

“Our women have emerged to speak for themselves, to take great publicpositions. We have 10 deputy ministers, five women ambassadors, threeministers. They’re increasingly active. They are going to be engaged inevery part of the peace process,” President Ghani said in an interview withCNN.

During his interview, Ghani also decried the loss of civilian life in theconflict and said Afghanistan’s young people need change.

“Over 100,000 international troops left. We have been doing the fighting,the dying and the defending of this country,” he said.

The Afghan government has lost control of large swaths of territory to theTaliban. But Ghani denied that his offer signaled desperation or that hisgovernment had lost the upper hand.

“For the first time since the withdrawal of the international troops, weare steadily moving,” he said. “We have (a) four-year plan. We are offeringthis not out of some desperation but out of courage and conviction that theviolence that is inflicted on our people, the type of violence that theyare resorting to, is an indication of weakness, not strength.”

The Taliban has waged a bitter insurgency with a goal of ruling the countryunder its strict interpretation of Islamic law. The group carries outregular terror attacks and has in recent years also battled ISIS forterritory and position.