Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 01:17:13 -0500
Subject: Women's Rights in Afghanistan


>Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 00:45:57 -0500
>To: sarabande-AT-brandeis.edu
>From: vacirca-AT-charm.net
>Subject: Women's Rights in Afghanistan
>Cc:
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>>Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1999 21:08:34 -0500
>>From: Chauna Brocht and Kris Misage <chaunankris-AT-erols.com>
>>Reply-To: chaunankris-AT-erols.com
>>Organization: .
>>MIME-Version: 1.0
>>To: jennifer wheeler <jenniferwheeler-AT-erols.com>, mary hall
>><hall-AT-aclu-md.org>,
>>        kim donahue <kdonahue-AT-savethebay.cbf.org>,
>>        juliet vacirca brown <vacirca-AT-charm.net>,
>>        kris misage <kmisage-AT-successforall.net>,
>>        gwen pfeifer <gwenpfeifer-AT-juno.com>
>>Subject: Women's Rights in Afghanistan
>>
>>I don't usually do these electronic petions, but I thought this was good
>>for educational value, at least.  I wasn't aware of the severity of the
>>situation, but maybe I'm out of it.  --Chauna
>>
>> * * * * * *
>>
>>Please sign petition at the bottom to support and include your town.  If
>>you
>>receive this list with more than 50 names on it, please email a copy of
>>it
>>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.
>>
>>* * * * * * *
>>
>>The situation is getting so bad in a Afghanistan that one person in an
>>editorial of the times compared the treatment of women there to the
>>treatment of Jews in  pre-holocaust Poland. Since the Taliban took 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 is becoming so widespread that it
>>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 where a woman is present must have their windows painted so that
>>she
>>can never be seen by outsiders.  They 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 and psychologists and other things necessary to treat
>>the
>>sky-rocketing level of depression among women.  At one of the rare
>>hospitals
>>for women, a reporter found still, nearly lifeless bodies lying
>>motionless
>>on top of beds, wrapped in their burqua, unwilling to speak, eat or do
>>anything, but are slowly wasting away.  Others have gone mad and were
>>seen
>>crouched in corners, perpetually rocking or crying, most of them in
>>fear.
>>One doctor is considering, when what little medication that is left
>>finally
>>runs out, leaving these women in front of the president's residence as a
>>form of peaceful protest.
>>
>>It is at the point where the term 'human rights violations' have become
>>an
>>understatement.  Husbands have the power of life and death over their
>>women
>>relatives, especially their wives, but an angry mob has just as much
>>right
>>to stone or
>>beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending
>>them in the slightest way.
>>
>>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 even true.  Women enjoyed relative freedom, to work, dress
>>generally
>>as they wanted, and drive and appear in public alone until only 1996 --
>>the
>>rapidity of this transition is the main reason for the depression and
>>suicide; women who were once educators or doctors or 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', but is alien to them, and it is  extreme even for those
>>cultures
>>where fundamentalism is the rule.  Besides, if we could excuse
>>everything on
>>cultural grounds, then we should not be appalled that 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 submit to unjust Jim Crow laws.
>>
>>Everyone has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are
>>women
>>in a Muslim country in a part of the world that Americans do not
>>understand.
>>
>>If we 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.
>>
>>Kathleen Barbosa
>>
>>* * * * * * * *
>>
>>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
>>the United States and the U.S. Government and that the current situation
>>overseas will not be tolerated.  Women's Rights is not a small issue
>>anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1998 to be treated as
>>sub-human
>>and so much as property. Equality and human decency is a RIGHT not a
>>freedom, whether one lives in Afghanistan or the United States.
>>
>>* * * * * * * *
>>
>>1) Kathleen Barbosa, New London, CT
>>2) Melissa J. Buckheit, Waltham, MA
>>3) Olga Broumas, Brewster, MA
>>4) Heather Feldman, Waltham, MA
>>5) Robert L. Hawkins, Waltham, MA
>>6) Ann Vollmann Bible, Cambridge, MA
>>7) Joy Garnett, New York, NY
>>8) Cynthia Pannucci, New York, NY
>>9) Ken Knowlton, Merrimack NH
>>10) Eric Somers, Poughkeepsie, NY
>>11) Faith Watson, Philadelphia, PA
>>12) Sherry Branch, Orlando, Fl
>>13) Susie Ellis, Strasburg, VA
>>14) Christine Jurzykowski, TX
>>15) Marion Hunt-Badiner, CA
>>16) Riane Eisler, CA
>>17) Dagmar Celeste, OH
>>18) Linda Krasienko, Westlake, OH
>>19) Patti Verde, Westlake, OH
>>20) Anita C. Hill, St. Paul, MN
>>21) Peggy Yingst, Mentone, CA
>>22) Laurie Line, El Cajon, CA
>>23) Barbara D'Aversa, La Mesa, CA
>>24) Erin Alcaraz, Phoenix, AZ
>>25) Erin Thomas Palmeter, San Diego, CA
>>26) Karen Van Dyke, San Diego, CA
>>27) Robert MacPhee, San Diego, CA
>>28) Robin Yerian, Santa Barbara, CA
>>29) Jack Canfield, Santa Barbara, CA
>>30) Eve Hogan, Kihei, HI
>>31) Marty-Jean Bender, Kihei, HI
>>32) Marsha Lash, Kihei, HI
>>33) Jodi Scaltreto, Hillsboro,NH
>>34) Donna Raycraft, Penacook NH
>>35) Karen Dufault, Contoocook, NH
>>36) Melissa Dyckes, Denver, CO
>>37) Amanda Guinn, Austin, TX
>>38) Toni King, Austin, TX
>>39)  Jane Rock Kennedy, Laramie, WY, USA
>>40) Dianne Adkins WV, USA
>>41) John London Houston, TX, USA
>>42) Connie Frady, Warner Robins, GA, USA
>>43) Lisa Wynn, Evansville, IN  USA
>>44) Carolyn Filzer, Owensboro, KY
>>45) K. Cue, Owendsboro, KY
>>46) Karen Husby, Evansville, IN
>>47) Alida Zweidler-McKay, Somerville, MA
>>48) Elizabeth Starling, St. Paul, MN
>>49) Chauna Brocht, Baltimore, MD
>>50) bob brown, baltimore,md
>

"Solidarity is running the same risks."
                        - Che Guevara
("La solidarieta' significa correre gli stessi rischi.")




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