From: "Irene Unpingco" <aries_ivu-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: FWD: sm0j-AT-lehigh.edu (SHEILA MATHIESON): women in Afghanistan
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:40:33 PST



>> 
>> --------- Begin forwarded message ----------
>>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> I am sending this to a broad distribution because
>of the urgency of the
>> issue.
>> There is NO medical care for women in Afghanistan
>-- mental or physical. 
>> Male
>> doctors cannot treat women, and women doctors are
>not allowed to
>> practice.  If
>> your appendix ruptures or you get an infection, you
>die.  The Taliban's
>> war on
>> women is the equivalent of the Burning Time in
>Medieval Europe or female
>> infanticide in China.  We cannot sit by and allow
>this to happen in the
>> guise
>> of "cultural differences."
>> 
>> Lynne Marcus
>> 
>> 
>> The Taliban's War on Women:
>> 
>> **** Please Sign at the bottom to support and
>include your town.
>> If you receive this list and it contains more than
>50 names, please email
>> a
>> copy of to sarabande-AT-brandeis.edu.  Even if you
>decide not to sign,
>> please be
>> considerate and do not kill the petition.  Thank
>you.  It is best to copy
>> rather than forward the petition.
>> 
>> Melissa Buckheit
>> Brandeis University
>> 
>> The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon
>women.  The situation
>> is
>> getting so bad that one person in an editorial of
>the Times compared the
>> treatment of women in Afghanistan to the treatment
>of Jews in
>> pre-Holocaust
>> Poland.  Since the Taliban came to power in 1996,
>women have had to wear
>> burqua
>> and have been beaten and stoned in public for not
>having the proper
>> attire,
>> even if this means simply not having the mesh
>covering in front of their
>> eyes.
>> 
>> One woman was beaten to DEATH by an angry mob of
>fundamentalists for
>> accidentally exposing her arm while she was
>driving.  Another was stoned
>> to
>> death for trying to leave the country with a man
>that was not a relative.
>> Women are not allowed to work or even go out in
>public without a male
>> relative.
>> Professional women such as professors, translators,
>doctors, lawyers,
>> artists
>> and writers have been forced from their jobs and
>stuffed into their
>> homes, so
>> that depression among the country's women has
>reached emergency levels.
>> 
>> There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society
>to know the suicide
>> rate
>> with certainty, but relief workers are estimating
>that the suicide rate
>> among
>> women, who cannot find proper medication and
>treatment for severe
>> depression,
>> and would rather take their lives than live in such
>conditions, has
>> increased
>> significantly.  Homes in which a woman is present
>must have their windows
>> painted so that she can never be seen by outsiders.
> Women must wear
>> silent
>> shoes so that they are never heard.  Women live in
>fear of their lives
>> for the
>> slightest misbehavior.  Because they cannot work,
>those without male
>> relatives
>> or husbands are either starving to death or begging
>on the street, even
>> if they
>> hold Ph.D.'s.
>> 
>> There are almost no medical facilities available
>for women and relief
>> workers,
>> in protest, have mostly left the country, taking
>medicine, psychologists,
>> and
>> other things necessary to treat the skyrocketing
>level of depression
>> among
>> women.  At one of the rare hospitals for women, a
>reporter found still,
>> nearly
>> lifeless bodies lying prone on top of beds.  Afghan
>women, wrapped in
>> their
>> burqua and unwilling to speak, eat or do anything,
>were slowly wasting
>> away.
>> Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in
>corners, perpetually
>> rocking or
>> crying, mostly out of fear.  According to the
>reporter, one doctor is
>> considering that, when what little remaining
>medication runs out, placing
>> the
>> hospitalized women in front of the President's
>residence as a form of
>> peaceful
>> protest.  The situation has reached a point where
>the term 'human rights
>> violations' has become an understatement.
>> 
>> In Afghanistan, husbands have the power of life and
>death over their
>> female
>> relatives, especially their wives.  Angry mobs have
>just as much right to
>> stone
>> or beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an
>inch of flesh or causing
>> the
>> slightest offense.  David Cornwell has told me that
>we in the United
>> States
>> should not judge the Afghan people for such
>treatment because it is a
>> 'cultural
>> thing', but this is not true.
>> 
>> Before the Taliban came to power, women enjoyed
>relative freedom. 
>> Generally,
>> they were allowed to work and dress as they wanted,
>to drive and appear
>> in
>> public alone until only three years ago.  The
>rapidity of this wide scale
>> social transition is the main reason for the
>depression and suicide;
>> women who
>> were once educators or doctors or were simply used
>to basic human
>> freedoms are
>> now severely restricted and treated as sub-human in
>the name of
>> right-wing
>> fundamentalist Islam.
>> 
>> It is NOT their tradition or 'culture'; this
>situation is alien to them,
>> and it
>> is extreme even for those cultures where
>fundamentalism is the rule. 
>> Besides,
>> if we as Americans can excuse abherrant social
>practices on cultural
>> grounds,
>> then we should not be appalled that, for instance,
>the Carthaginians
>> sacrificed
>> their infant children; that little girls are
>circumcised in parts of
>> Africa;
>> that blacks in the deep south in the 1930's were
>lynched, prohibited from
>> voting and forced to comply with the Jim Crow laws.
> Everyone has a right
>> to a
>> tolerable human existence, no matter where they
>live or what their gender
>> may
>> be.  If America can threaten military force in
>Kosovo in the name of
>> human
>> rights for the sake of ethnic Albanians, Americans
>can certainly express
>> peaceful outrage at the oppression, murder and
>injustice committed
>> against
>> women by the Taliban.
>> 
>> *************
>> 
>> STATEMENT:
>> 
>> In signing this, we agree that the current
>treatment of women in
>> Afghanistan is
>> completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves support and
>action by the people of
>> United
>> States and the U.S. Government.  We agree that the
>current situation
>> overseas
>> will not be tolerated.  Women's Rights is no longer
>a minor issue around
>> the
>> world and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1998 to
>be treated as sub-human
>> pieces of property.  The right to equality and to
>human decency are
>> RIGHTs, and
>> are not debatable, whether one lives in Afghanistan
>or the United States.
>> 
>> 1) Leslie London, Cape Town, South Africa
>> 2) Tim Holtz, Boston, USA
>> 3) Jennifer Kasper, Boston, MA, USA
>> 4) Ali Noorani, Boston, MA
>> 5) Juli-Ann Carlos, Boston, MA, USA
>> 6) Elaine Alpert, MD, Boston, MA USA
>> 7) Diane Morse, MD, Rochester, NY
>> 8) Mark Winsberg, MD, Rochester, NY
>> 9) Elizabeth Hirsh, Rochester, NY
>> 10) Ellen Goldstein, Rochester, NY
>> 11) Kathryn Fiske, Rochester, NY
>> 12) David H. Hunt, Seattle, WA
>> 13) Dan Freeman, Kent, WA
>> 14) Sheryl Allen, Bellevue, WA
>> 15) Larry Allen, Bellevue, WA
>> 16) Nancy Kahn, Seattle, WA
>> 17) Jim Ekberg, Olga, WA
>> 18) Carol Summers, Seattle, WA
>> 19) Ken Jenkins, Petaluma, CA
>> 20) Cindy Jarrett, Fairfax, CA
>> 21) Thomas Jarrett, Fairfax, CA
>> 22) Lisa Traynor, Redmond, WA
>> 23) Tim Traynor, Redmond, WA
>> 24) Liz Gamberg, Seattle, WA
>> 25) Annie Links, Seattle, WA
>> 26) J. Clare Taylor, Seattle, WA
>> 27) L. Secord, Seattle, WA
>> 28) Dana Reynolds, Carmel, CA.
>> 29) Amy Sturm, New York City, NY
>> 30) Simone Kaplan, Boston, MA
>> 31) Aline Kaplan, Sudbury, MA
>> 32) Lynne S. Marcus, Brookline, MA
>> 33) Cathryn S. Kaner, Framingham, MA
>> 34) Andrea Rosner Najer, MI
>> 35) Ellen Kachalsky Silberman, MI
>> 36) Marilyn R. Feingold, Livonia, MI
>> 37) Arnold Portner, Huntington Woods, MI
>> 38)Suzanne Portner,Huntington Woods,MI
>> 39) Amy H. Grynberg, Highland Park, NJ
>> 40) Helene K. Grynberg, Old Bridge, NJ
>> 41)  C Lynn Carr, Salt Lake City, UT
>> 42) Alena Kralikova, Bethlehem, PA
>> 43> Sheila Mathieson, Whitehall, PA
>> 44)  Michael E. Heye, Saint Joseph, Mo.
>> 45) Angela Baskins, Leavenworth, KS
>  46) Joan Thomas, Lake City, FL
>> 47) Amanda Materne, New York City, NY
>> 48) Irene Unpingco, Paris, France

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