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From
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wash <wash@ecn.org>
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Date
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Sun, 31 Oct 1999 17:16:54 +0100
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Subject
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globe_l: femmes d'Afghanistan
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Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:21:43 -0500
From: "Elson E. Boles" <facbolese@usao.edu>
Organization: USAO
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Please read the following and pass it on. When forwarding it, do
not simply hit the "forward" option in your email program.
Kindly cut and paste it onto a new message so that the format is not
interrupted. Thanks!
I have received several of these but NONE explaining the whole truth.
I am usually passive but feel we should all get involved. After you copy
and paste you can add your name.. Please take the time to do this it
seems
a small thing but like a mustard seed it can produce good results..
Thanks
-------------------
Please spare a moment to read. Thanks.
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 It
to
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. Suicide 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 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' has 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 said that those in the
West
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. Everyone has a right to
a
tolerable human existence.
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 Nations and that the current situation in
Afghanistan will not be tolerated. Women's Rights is not a small issue
anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1999 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 anywhere else.
**** Please sign to support, and include your town and country.
1. Carlo Heip, Yerseke, The Netherlands
2. Anneliese Ernst, Yerseke, The Netherlands
3. Erika Oberer-Bley, Konstanz, Germany
4. Alexandra Koulaeva, St. Petersburg, Russia
Then copy and e-mail to as many people as possible. If you receive this
List with more than 50 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to:
Mary Robinson,
High Commissioner,
UNHCHR,
webadmin.hchr@unorg.ch
and to:
Angela King,
Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, UN,
daw@undp.org (mailto:daw@undp.org)
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.
Valentine Thiebold
e-mail vthiebold@cus-strasbourg.net
tel 03 88 43 62 46
fax 03 88 60 95 22
Elson E. Boles
Assistant Professor, (Historical) Sociology
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
(405) 574-1243
facbolese@usao.edu
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