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huh im not support any one of them them or TALIBARBIES OR THE SHITY WEST me only got one thing im support is my self and for what me bleive in im not give a kill for them **** heads ..they r nuttin they r not islam and the west need to sort there seLves out cus it says destruction is due for them any way and thats not from any one here but the MIGHTY BEHOLDER... ??so no matter what is said here u will try and come up with one better ?????
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An undercover documentary film about the Taleban movement in Afghanistan has shown shocking footage of mass executions, and an insight into the oppression suffered by Afghan women. Dressed in an Afghan veil, reporter Saira Shah used a hidden camera to film life for ordinary Afghans under the Taleban. "I had to wear the burqa which looks like a great big tablecloth. It covers absolutely everything" Saira Shah told the BBC.
The Channel Four crew went undercover because of restrictions on their visa, saying they were only allowed to film inanimate objects. They were helped by an underground women's group, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which runs secret clinics and schools for girls. From the moment that I was across the border I felt the restrictions on women," said Ms Shah, a British journalist who is half Afghan.
She described how the veil was so thick that it was difficult to breath, and the little crocheted grill for her eyes made it difficult to cross roads. If she tripped and showed her face or ankles, she risked arrest. The woman next to her in the car was violently car sick, but was still not allowed to take her head out of her veil. "I suddenly wasn't an objective reporter anymore; I was someone actually participating in this, I was actually being subjected to the same restrictions," she said.
Female resistance
In disguise, Ms Shah was able to gain unique access to women's lives, and record the horrendous conditions in which they live. "The first thing you notice when you come into Kabul is the ghost-like figures in their blue shroud-like burqas, begging in the streets," she told the BBC. In Kabul alone, she said, there are over 40,000 widows as a result of the war. Because the Taleban forbid women from working, they are forced into begging - and sometimes prostitution - in order to support themselves and their families.
But the film, Behind the veil, also documents the resistance of some women.
Memebers of the opposition group, RAWA, risk their lives to run secret schools for girls, giving them educational opportunities they would otherwise be denied. Some women also set up underground beauty parlours in their apartments. Even wearing nail varnish is a crime in Afghanistan. "You can make a woman wear a veil, but this is our way of showing they haven't crushed our spirit," said a woman in the beauty parlour.
Executions
The crew also acquired secretly-filmed footage of a public execution in a football stadium financed by the West. The footage shows a veiled woman dragged to the centre of the pitch, and forced to kneel facing the goal posts. She is shot dead to the cheers of the watching crowds. The team then ventured to the north-west corner of the country, which is still in the hands of the opposition. Earlier in the year, the Taleban briefly took control of four villages. The survivors told stories of how dozens of civilians were rounded up and executed. Footage obtained from a local wedding photographer showed the villagers burying their dead. Three girls sittting huddled in brightly coloured veils outside one house described how they saw their mother being shot dead. Their father said they have not stopped crying for weeks.
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WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: Pawns in men's power struggles
The disastrous consequences of two decades of civil war have weighed heavily on the women of Afghanistan. While the "battles of death are played out by men, women have responsibility for the battles of life".[1]. Through years of fighting, destruction and displacement, Afghan women have struggled to support and sustain their families. Injury, death and the loss of family breadwinners have forced women into assuming a greater role in providing for their dependents; a role which has become increasingly more difficult as war has impoverished the country and adversely affected socio-economic development in all areas, even those far removed from frontline fighting.
...
Women have rarely played an active part in the fighting, but they have been targeted nonetheless. Alongside the general hardship and suffering experienced as a result of the war, women in Afghanistan have been subjected to a range of human rights abuses perpetrated against them by the many different parties to the Afghan conflict. Indiscriminate bombing and shelling of residential areas and the extensive use of landmines has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. Women along with men have been the victims of deliberate and arbitrary killings and "disappearances". In addition to this, women have been subjected to gender specific human rights abuses, such as rape and sexual assault, forced marriage and prostitution.
The violence directed against women during the Afghan conflict can be located on a continuum of human rights abuses that Afghan women have been, and continue to be, subjected to as a result of their status in society. Traditionally, the lives of Afghan women have been controlled by their male relatives. Notions of honour and shame underpinning cultural norms and practices emphasise female modesty and purity. During the last two decades, but particularly between 1992 and 1995, armed guards have used these norms as weapons of war, engaging in rape and sexual assault against women as an ultimate means of dishonouring entire communities and reducing people's capacity to resist military advances.
Alongside the violence perpetrated against women by members of armed Mujahideen groups, all Afghan political groups have used the status of women as a political tool to claim legitimacy or popularity vis a vis other factions. The cultural constraints existing for women, which are bound up with interpretations of tradition and religion, have repeatedly been raised to the political level by Afghan armed groups. Invoking religion and Afghan culture, most armed groups have made pronouncements about appropriate behaviour for women, imposing restrictions on their freedom of movement and access to employment and education in areas they controlled. Women have been publicly harassed, intimidated and beaten for carrying out activities deemed by armed guards to be 'un-Islamic'. Most consistent and stringent in their enforcement of restrictions on women is the Taleban, an armed political group who currently control all major towns and cities in
Afghanistan including the capital, Kabul. Women living in urban areas have been most immediately affected, as more liberal attitudes in town and cities had previously increased opportunities for women in education and work. In contrast, in rural areas where women's lives are already constrained by custom, the impact of administrative restrictions has been felt less. For educated, professional women, however, the loss of freedoms gained over previous decades has been hard to bear.
OVERVIEW OF THE HUMAN SITUATION FOR WOMEN DURING THE PAST 20 YEARS
Historical Background
A number of attempts have been made by different Afghan governments throughout the 20th century to improve the status of women as part of efforts to modernise the country. Significant reforms favouring women were introduced in the 1920s, 1960s [2] and then following the establishment of a communist government in 1978. The government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan moved to prohibit traditional practices which were deemed feudal in nature, including banning bride price and forced marriage. The minimum age for marriage was also raised. Education was stressed for both men and women and widespread literacy programmes were set up. Such reforms however were not universally well-received, being viewed by many Afghans - particularly in rural areas - as the imposition of secular western values considered to be alien to Afghan culture and un-Islamic. As had happened earlier in the century, resentment with the government's programme and the manner in which it was imposed, along with widespread repression, provoked a backlash from tribal and Islamic leaders.
The years 1979 to 1992
During the ten years of fighting that followed the Soviet invasion, serious human rights abuses were reported, forcing millions of Afghans to flee the country. Civilians in rural areas where most of the fighting took place were targeted by Soviet and Afghan troops apparently in reprisal for the actions of armed opposition groups. Men, women and children were killed in these attacks and people's homes and livelihoods destroyed. In towns and cities, students and teachers, some of them women, were arrested for opposition to the government, including for participating in largely peaceful demonstrations. Amnesty International reported in 1986 that thousands of political prisoners were detained on account of the non-violent exercise of their fundamental human rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of association. Many were tortured, including women prisoners who testified to being forced to witness the torture of male prisoners.
The years 1992 - 1995
Following the collapse of the pro-Soviet government and the failure of the Mujahideen groups to agree to power-sharing arrangements, the nature of the civil war in Afghanistan changed. With the fragmentation of political power and territory under the control of different militias, lawlessness spread all over the country. Alliances and hostilities between the warring factions were often based on personal loyalties, some of which were purely tactical and short-lived. As territory changed hands after long battles, local populations were subjected to violent retaliatory punishments by the victorious forces.
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Women were often treated as the spoils of war. Many women were raped by armed guards during the period 1992 - 1995. Rape of women by armed guards appeared to be condoned by leaders as a method of intimidating vanquished populations and of rewarding soldiers. In March 1994 a 15-year-old girl was repeatedly raped in her house in Kabul's Chel Sotton district after armed guards entered the house and killed her father for allowing her to go to school. "They shot my father right in front of me. He was a shop-keeper. It was nine o'clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. They then came and killed my father. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father..."
Several Afghan women reportedly committed suicide to avoid such a fate. In one case, a father who saw Mujahideen guards coming for his daughter reportedly killed her before she could be taken away. Scores of Afghan women were abducted and detained by Mujahideen groups and commanders and then used for sexual purposes or sold into prostitution. Some were victimised for belonging to a particular religious or ethnic group or by commanders or guards allied to an opposed faction. A woman told Amnesty International that her 13-year-old niece was abducted by the armed guards of a warring commander in late 1993. "They said their commander wanted her. They took her away. She was resisting and screaming, but they dragged her away. We were frightened that if we did anything we all would be killed. They would kill any girl who refused to go with them." At the same time, in certain parts of the country, women were also prevented from exercising some of their fundamental rights - including the rights to association, freedom of expression and employment -by Mujahideen groups who considered such activities to be un-Islamic for women. Mujahideen guards were reported to have stopped women from working outside their homes, or from attending health and family planning courses organised by non-governmental agencies. Educated women particularly working in the fields of education and welfare were repeatedly threatened by Mujahideen groups. However, given the unorganised structure of Mujahideen groups and the unstable alliance that made up the interim government after the collapse of the communist government in 1992, the application and enforcement of restrictions on women was unsystematic and inconsistent. In Kabul, for instance, despite the intermittent pronouncements by the interim political authorities restricting women's rights, women continued to play a significant part in public life, working in government departments and the health and education sectors. This participation was precarious, however, depending as it did on the whims of the political authorities at the time.
1995 onwards
With the emergence of the Taleban and their military success against opposing factions, the nature of the conflict and human rights situation in Afghanistan has shifted once again. In contrast to the Mujahideen groups of the past, the Taleban appeared as a more cohesive force in 1994 and 1995, bringing a degree of order to areas of the country brought securely under their control and winning support from traditional Afghan families [3]. Their policy of disarming opposition groups resulted in a reduction in acts of banditry and extortion. However, despite the improvements brought by the Taleban in some aspects of personal security, serious human rights abuses have continued to be reported in Taleban-controlled areas.
In the context of the ongoing fighting there have been reports of the Taleban militia carrying out indiscriminate killings and deliberate and arbitrary killings on a mass scale. In parts of the country where their authority has been subject to challenge there have also been reports of arbitrary and unacknowledged detention of civilians. In addition, the enforcement of their interpretation of Islamic law has resulted in the loss of fundamental rights and freedoms previously enjoyed by sections of Afghanistan's civilian population.
The rigid social code imposed by the Taleban includes severe restrictions on women's freedom of movement, expression, and association. A multitude of edicts announced by the Taleban have barred women from employment outside the home except in the health sector, discontinued education for girls, and imposed a strict code of clothing for women in public, ordering them to be veiled from head to foot. The restrictions have most immediately affected educated, working women living in the towns. However, the impact of the restrictions is felt much wider, affecting the poor, uneducated women too, as well as boys and girls, other family members, and ultimately the long-term development prospects for Afghanistan.
The most deleterious consequences of the Taleban's edicts can be seen in the areas of health and education. Although female health professionals were given special dispensation to continue working under strict guidelines, the Taleban's policies relating to the segregation of female patients and workers has resulted in women's access to healthcare - which was already inadequate - being further reduced. A number of home visit mid-wife and widow's health schemes have been shut down, as Afghan female staff have been barred from working outside approved health structures. Attempts by the Taleban authorities in September 1997 to centralise women's hospital services in Kabul would have further limited women's healthcare provision until protests by international aid agencies prompted a reversal in the policy. Not only was the proposed hospital to which women were meant to go for treatment not equipped and not functioning, but its central location would have made it difficult for women to reach given the restrictions on their mobility.
Great concern has been expressed about the edict preventing girls from going to school, which is considered by many as weakening Afghanistan's prospects for economic and social development. Moreover, it is not only girls education which has been affected: due to the fact that around 40 per cent of teachers were female, the ban on female employment has also affected the education of boys. The Taleban has responded at various times saying schooling for girls would be reinstated when peace and security is achieved, or when they have taken control of the whole country, or when they have sufficient funds to implement segregated education. However, whether the Taleban will live up to these promises remains to be seen. In the southwest of country where the Taleban have been in uncontested control for several years, the restrictions on women's education are still in force. Some initiatives have been taken to get around the Taleban ban by setting up home-based schools for girls. These have been supported by the UN and international non-governmental organisations and operate in some Taleban-controlled areas. However, in Kabul, home-based schools along with vocational training programmes for women were closed by the Taleban administration in June 1998. The head of the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (DPVPV) accused the schools of spreading anti-Taleban propaganda.
Many people judged to have defied the Taleban's codes on appropriate behaviour or dress have had to endure the pain and humiliation of summary beatings in public by members of the DPVPV. Women have been lashed on the back of the legs by young Taleban guards for not being properly clothed - for showing their ankle or wearing the wrong colour shoes. A group of Afghan women working for an international aid agency in Kabul were beaten and insulted in front of a crowd in May 1997, even though they had special permission from the authorities to continue working with the aid agency. It is an irony that although the Taleban purport their policies on women are in place to ensure the physical protection and dignity of women, many women now cite fear of being beaten by the Taleban as their main security concern.
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AID, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Many UN agencies and non-governmental organisations operating in Afghanistan face fundamental challenges in carrying out their work. After twenty years of war, the humanitarian needs of the population are immense, but the unstable political environment and ongoing conflict make delivery of assistance very difficult and sometimes dangerous. In addition to this, the Taleban's ban on female employment has further constrained the work of aid agencies. In a society in which the seclusion of women is the norm, aid agencies have traditionally relied on Afghan female staff to consult and communicate with Afghan women, carry out needs assessment, distribution, monitoring and other activities vital to reaching individuals in need. Without local female staff, the ability of aid agencies to meet the needs of vulnerable women and provide assistance on a non-discriminatory basis is impeded.
... The implications of the Taleban's discriminatory gender policies have brought the connections between relief assistance, development and human rights sharply into focus. Most international aid agencies working in Afghanistan operate on a basis that relief assistance will be provided in a non-discriminatory manner, promoting the participation of both men and women. The Taleban's edicts have therefore challenged some of the international aid agencies' core operating principles. In response most aid organisations have tried through negotiations with the Taleban to obtain agreements to ensure that assistance is delivered in accordance with the principles of neutrality, impartiality and universality. In a few instances aid agencies have taken the decision to suspend their programmes where agreement has not been reached, although many are understandably reluctant to resort to this step, particularly with regard to life-sustaining humanitarian assistance work.
Efforts have been made by the UN to coordinate the work of international organisations in Afghanistan to ensure more integrated approach to peace-building initiatives and assistance programmes, in addition to defining a principle-based approach on the issue of gender discrimination. The UN Strategic Framework for Afghanistan recognises the complementarity between the UN's political and assistance strategies in Afghanistan, and stresses the point that the international response to the situation in Afghanistan can afford no " ... 'disconnects' between the political, human rights, humanitarian and development aspects..". [4]. Work to develop and implement the strategy, however, has been slowed down due to the reduced UN presence in Afghanistan after international staff were withdrawn from the country following the murder of a UN military adviser in Kabul in August 1998.
The work of the UN and international non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan has also been affected by a reduction in the amount of money made available by the international community for projects in Afghanistan. The UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, described the response to the UN's 1999 annual appeal for funds as disappointing. The appeal launched in December 1998 for 113 million dollars needed to meet Afghan commitments in 1999 had raised just 14 million dollars by the end of March. The shortfall in funds from the international community has in part been put down to donor fatigue after 20 years of continuous assistance, but concern over human rights (along with narcotics and criminal activity) have also been a factor.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The status of women in Afghanistan has been, and continues to be used by armed groups as a political tool in their struggles to secure and maintain power. Most armed groups have imposed restrictions on women in the name of religion and culture as a means of consolidating their own position and legitimacy. At the same time, acts of violence perpetrated against women - public beatings, rape and sexual assault - appear to have been used as instruments of intimidation, humiliation and coercion, of women and the wider population. The repression of women symbolises not only their vulnerability, but also the powerlessness of their male relatives to protect them.
Today, the treatment of women in Afghanistan is receiving much international attention. The Taleban's discriminatory gender policies have been heavily criticised by outside governments, intergovernmental organisations, and non-governmental organisations. Whilst the Taleban's response has been to vigorously defend their position, the opposition alliance fighting the Taleban in the northeast have sought to portray themselves as defenders of women's rights, although whether this is anything more than an opportunistic attempt to garner international support remains to be seen. They themselves have committed human rights abuses.
This pattern of using the status of women to accrue political advantage must be broken.
If the aims of peace and development are ever to be realised in Afghanistan, then women's fundamental human rights must be respected. It is now recognised the world over that progress, social justice, the eradication of poverty, sustained economic growth, and social development all critically depend on the full participation of women on the basis of equality in all spheres of society. As agreed by the governments participating in the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, local, national, regional and global peace is attainable and is inextricably linked to the advancement of women. In the Platform for Action, world governments pledged to take all necessary measure to prevent and eliminate violence and discrimination against women which are major obstacles to the advancement and empowerment of women.
Responsibility for breaking the pattern of human rights abuses against women in Afghanistan lies with Afghan armed groups and Afghan women and men themselves. But the international community has an important role to play in support of this process.
Recommendations to Afghan Armed Groups:
• Afghan armed groups are urged to adhere to international norms and standards relating to the protection of human rights, including women's rights. • Armed groups should take steps to ensure that their members, and members of armed groups allied to them, are prevented from perpetrating acts of violence against women, such as beatings, rape and sexual assault during armed conflict, as well as forced marriage and abduction. • Restrictions placed on women which violate their fundamental rights to freedom of movement, employment and association should be withdrawn. Amnesty International believes that women detained or otherwise physically restricted solely by reason of their gender are prisoners of conscience. • Recommendations to the International Community: • The international community and particularly those governments with influence over the warring factions in Afghanistan should bring pressure to bear on the armed groups to respect women's fundamental human rights in all circumstances. • Outside governments that have provided arms, or continue to provide arms, and political support to the warring factions in Afghanistan have a particular responsibility to ensure that violations of women's human rights, as well as other civilians, are brought to an end. Governments must end transfers of equipment and training to military forces in Afghanistan which could be used to commit or facilitate human rights abuses. • Donors are encouraged to support the efforts of international aid agencies and UN agencies on the ground who are providing humanitarian and development assistance which facilitates the participation and empowerment of women, and helps to secure their fundamental human rights. • Companies seeking to operate in Afghanistan should use their influence to make sure that human rights are respected, both in their own operations and by the Afghan parties with whom they are in contact.
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- War and destruction. The US continues to provide ardent financial and military support to the Northern Alliance who are responsible for atrocities committed against the people of Afghanistan during their rule before the arrival of the Taliban (source: http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/dev_xyz/hr/ai_1994_annual.htm).
- Indiscriminate bombing took thousands of lives of women and children. There is no security as the Northern Alliance troops who are supported by the US and Britain are looting and abducting innocent civilians without hesitation. (source: http://www.oureffort2001.com/RESEARCH/TALIBAN/looting1113.htm)
3. Honor
Taliban:
- - Protection of honor. When the Taliban came to power, they asked the working women to temporarily stay home with pay, in order to protect them from rape and murder which was rampant in Afghanistan, at that time. After the society was stabilized, the women were allowed to return to work.
Northern Alliance (terrorists funded by America):
- Abducted and raped women at every opportunity. See Current Situation of Women in Afghanistan
4. Respect and Dignity
Taliban:
- It has been a long tradition for the women in Afghanistan to wear burqa and they continued to wear it during the Taliban rule. The burqa also became a form of protection from lustful gazes and harassment. However, the current situation with the Taliban gone, has only increased the distress of the women who fear for their honor and dignity. "[The Northern Alliance] announced that women were free, but it is not freedom to throw off our veils. That is not the liberty we want. Right now the situation in Kabul is not good. It is not what we wanted.” --- Nafeesa, 17 (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1679000/1679337.stm)
Northern Alliance (terrorists funded by the US):
- The burqa became a shield for the Northern Alliance and prevented them from victimizing the women. Therefore, upon their capture of the major cities in Afghanistan, according to eye-witnesses, the Northern Alliance troops forcefully made the women remove their veils and to some, they gave a choice to either remove their veils or be raped.
5. Law, Order and Safety
Taliban: - The Taliban brought law and order to a country in which chaos and oppression was prevalent. With the implementation of shari`ah law and practice of hudood, crimes such as rape, murder and looting decreased drastically.
- Safety on the streets and markets. When the Taliban first began to clean the society, they had asked women not travel out of their homes without a mahram (a male companion), so that they may be protected and secure. Later, as the law and order was established by the Taliban, women were given the permission to go out without a male companion. They went to the markets alone and did not worry about any harassment, abductions or rape.
Northern Alliance (terrorists funded by the US):
- With the arrival of the Northern Alliance, the country has plunged into lawlessness and chaos. Women are afraid to leave their homes as the Northern Alliance begin to repeat their past record of atrocities against innocent civilians while the U.S. and Britain continue to give them more military and financial support. "Lindsey Davis, spokeswoman for the United Nation’s World Food Program, said the situation in the northern city — taken by Northern Alliance forces on Friday — was "volatile". "We have reports of looting, abductions of civilians from the city, and uncontrolled freelance gunmen," she told reporters, adding that "street battles are ongoing." (Arab News: http://www.oureffort2001.com/RESEARCH/TALIBAN/looting1113.htm)
- There is no safety whatsoever and women fear to leave their homes. Northern Alliance troops, in particularly the Uzbeks and the Tajiks, abduct women from markets and hand them over to the American soldiers.
6. Health Care
Taliban:
- Tried their utmost to establish health care facilities even though their economy was suffering due to the unjust sanctions imposed on Afghanistan by the United States. Refer to Contrast Between the Taliban and the NA.
- broken up many families due to bombing and killing, or forcing relatives to flee from their homes and loved ones.
8. Right to keep their children
Taliban:
Right to keep their children
United States:
Americans have engaged in forcibly taking away children from Muslim mothers. Gul Agha and his paedophilic army are well known for committing sodomy with small children.
9. Landmines
Taliban:
- The Taliban took immediate action in trying to get rid of the landmines that were left by the Soviets during the '79 war, injuring and claiming many innocent lives, especially those of small children.
United States:
- In the present war, the U.S. has replaced the landmines with cluster bombs that have caused heavy injury to innocent civilians. Moreover, the appearance of the cluster bombs and food packages dropped by the UN are so similar that many children have gotten injured while attempting to pick up the cluster bombs thinking that they are food packages. (source: http://www.oureffort2001.com/RESEARCH/TALIBAN/countless1113.htm)
10. Drug Trade:
Taliban: - Afghanistan used to be the largest producer of opium in the world. The Taliban completely banned poppy cultivation. "According to a recent report by the UN Drug Control Program, the decree brought raw opium production in Afghanistan to a virtual halt, dropping from 3,276 tons to only 185 tons in just one year." (Chicago Tribune: http://www.oureffort2001.com/RESEARCH/TALIBAN/opium123.htm)
- Relief agencies distributed food and aid to the people because of the economic hardships suffered by the population of Afghanistan because of the sanctions that were cruelly imposed by the U.S.
United States:
- Since the beginning of the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan, the U.S. has bombed many relief convoys and destroyed many storage facilities. "UN agencies have warned that 7.5 million people are dependent on aid for their survival through the coming winter. UNICEF has estimated that 100,000 children may die. The U.S. government has continued its protracted bombing campaign in the face of numerous concerted from private aid agencies and from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Access to Food for a bombing halt so that supplies can be trucked in. Simultaneously, the noncombatant toll of the bombings continues to grow a bus in Kandahar, a hospital in Herat, numerous private homes, and more." (source: http://www.oureffort2001.com/RESEARCH/TALIBAN/poison.htm)
12. Environment
Taliban:
- Clean and healthy environment.
United States/ Northern Alliance:
- Polluted the environment by severe bombing and use of chemical weapons.
( TAKEN FROM THE MUSLIM NEWS AGENCY AZZAM PUBLICATIONS www.azzam.com)
-------------------- -- here... [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0955020700/qid%3D1133898517/026-7853042-0414807= Recommended...![/url] Posts: 2457 | From: U | Registered: Jun 2005
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I just read a book written by a young woman which got out of Afganistan when Taliban was at their worst. Here girlfirnd had fingers chupped off fore having nailpolish on, they could no longer go to school, they had to where those stupid burkas where they could not see anything, they where not allowed walking with out a man on the street. Her and her girlfrind was wipped on the street fore doing that. Here father hid some old valued books and they didn't destroy their tv so Taliban bursted into their home and beat him up, burn the books inside their appartment on the livingroom floor -there was ca. 100 people living in that house that could have being burned alive - took the tv and her father with and they never saw him again.
Dont make this girl's life harder and more worthless by saying how wonderfull Taliban is or that she is lying. She and many more has suffered enough without you telling them they are either lying or that this is a wonderfull life. I you do so - then you lost all respect and should be treated that way.........
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TIME, February 18, 2002 BY TIM MCGIRK/SHOMALI PLAIN
Widow Shah Jan sits in an icy room with mud walls in a snowfield on the edge of Kabul. She wipes her tears with the edge of her grimy sweater as she recalls the day in August 1999 when the Taliban set fire to her home in the vineyards of the Shomali Plain and kidnapped her best friend, Nafiza. "The Taliban burst in with their guns and torches," says Shah Jan. "None of us even had time to put on our veils."
With the women stripped of their burkas, it was a simple task for the Taliban invaders to cull the young beauties. Nafiza was one of them. Green-eyed, with raven-black hair that grazed her waist, Nafiza had rushed to help Shah Jan get her three kids out of the burning house. A Taliban fighter spotted the woman with the emerald eyes. She was his prize. With the butt of his AK-47 rifle, he slammed Nafiza into the dust and dragged her, crying and pleading, to the highway. There, Arabs and Pakistanis of al-Qaeda joined the Taliban to sort out the young women from the other villagers. One girl preferred suicide to slavery; she threw herself down a well. Nafiza and women from surrounding villages, numbering in the hundreds, were herded into trucks and buses. They were never seen again.
Only now, two months after the Taliban's fall, are the dirtiest secrets of their persecution of Afghan women coming to light. The Taliban often argued that the brutal restrictions they placed on women were actually a way of revering and protecting the opposite sex. The behavior of the Taliban during the six years they expanded their rule in Afghanistan made a mockery of that claim. The United Nations and relief agencies picked up warning signals of these abuses from women refugees fleeing the conquering Taliban. Now it is clear from the testimony of witnesses and officials of the new government that the ruling clerics systematically abducted women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other ethnic minorities they defeated. Stolen women were a reward for victorious battle. And in the cities of Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Khost, women victims tell of being forced to wed Taliban soldiers and Pakistani and Arab fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, who later abandoned them. These marriages were tantamount to legalized rape. "They sold these girls," says Ahmad Jan, the Kabul police chief. "The girls were dishonored and then discarded."
In the mud-fortress villages above the Shomali vineyards, more than 600 women vanished in the 1999 Taliban offensive. Yet these abductions are considered such a great dishonor that the victims' families almost never mention them. Says Qadria Yasdon Parast, leader of Freedom Messengers, a Kabul women's rights group: "If you ask about the missing, they'll say, 'Our daughter's dead,' or that she's off married in Pakistan." Many of the women probably did end up in Pakistan--but were sold to brothels or kept as virtual slaves inside homes, say officials from relief agencies. None have come back. Even if they could escape, these women would probably calculate that their families would no longer welcome them.
The trail of the missing Shomali women leads to Jalalabad, not far from the Pakistan border. There, according to eyewitnesses, the women were penned up inside Sar Shahi camp in the desert. The more desirable among them were selected and taken away. Some were trucked to Peshawar with the apparent complicity of Pakistani border guards. Others were taken to Khost, where bin Laden had several training camps. The al-Qaeda Arabs had a hard time finding voluntary brides among the Afghan women, but they did have money. One Arab in Khost spent $10,000 on a teenage Afghan beauty, says Ahmad Jan, but abandoned her a week later, when the U.S. air strikes began.
Orders to abduct women came from the Taliban leaders, say the Kabul police, but not all commanders obeyed. In the Shomali Plain, Taliban commander Nuruludah says, he saw women being forced onto trucks by Pakistani members of al-Qaeda, so he gathered 10 men, ambushed the trucks and released the women. In Jalalabad too, a few local Taliban eventually stormed the camp and freed the women who remained there. These were the heroic exceptions. For others, apparently, the profound degradation of women seemed perfectly tolerable.
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Sad stories so so so so sad. And whats even sader is that some might even try to put the blame fore these horrible things on the US or the West - it must be a part of a hidden agenda against the muslim - as alway muslims do no wrong.........
Posts: 1215 | From: Nowhere | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Tibe: Sad stories so so so so sad. And whats even sader is that some might even try to put the blame fore these horrible things on the US or the West - it must be a part of a hidden agenda against the muslim - as alway muslims do no wrong.........
The west has no agenda against Muslims but some western countries, particularly USA don't even give a **** about who is suffering on the hands of who, their philosophy is, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Before Taliban the northern aliens committed the most terrifying massacres in the history of Afghanistan and this is why Afghans supported Taliban because they needed security. USA even wanted relations with Taliban and invited them despite all talk about women rights as they found in Taliban the future of Afghanistan and didn't want to see this new country befriending Russia. What stopped between Taliban and USA was Osama bin laden's 9/11 move which got USA crazy on the edge and had to release this pain somewhere through cooperating with northern allies who in the first day of capturing Kabul back from Taliban massacred hundreds of powerless Talibans under USA army protection who collected hundreds of men and children then to send to Guantanamo Bey with no valid accusations till now.
In this whole mess, Does the western or eastern governments seem very concerned about anyone rights? What's interesting is how the western media react to what pleases the USA. When USA wanted to invade Afghanistan, suddenly all this women issues got to the headlines, as if the USA really care now about women there! and before invasion of Iraq, all stories about Saddam's brutal regime and millions of victims came on, and now Saddam is being judged for responsibility of death of 1 or 2 hundreds men! Not 2 millions!
It's true that many Muslims blame the west for everything but also Many westerners don't seem to have a slight knowledge about corruption the west caused to others!
As for Taliban, they are to strict for me but I think this has much to do with the harash enviroment they grew in. They needed time to improve and learn but were they given any time?
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
The USA cares only for its best intrest, the madia is taking the form of organizations, and organizatoins want to make $Bling$Bling$ so its only bussines, thus the media lacks integrity and credibility, actually media (news agencies) are a Marketing Tool.
Islamic countries are loosing a lot just because they cant use the media, whose problem is that???!!!!
As well Westerners will never give a flying f*ck about how many ppl they hurt as long as they make $Bling$Bling$, coz it's not their problem.
The same is being applyied on Europe btw, China's growth is a threat to all producres in US and Europe, yet it's not China's problem, it's the EU and US producers problem, I dont see them blaming their faluire on China.
Posts: 517 | From: snake city | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
7 year old Samia has a shocking story. She is one of tens of thousands of Afghanistan's girls who fall victim of family violence in the male-chauvinistic society where fundamentalists promote and support dirty misogynistic customs.
Two years ago, the father of Samia raped a 10 year old daughter of Mohammad Yassin in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. When he was arrested, according to the customs of that area which are called “Bad”, he is asked to give his daughter to a son of Mohammad Yassin, so the issue could be settled. He gives Samia to Mohammad Omer (son of M. Yassin) to marry.
posted
i said nuke me here and nuke me there god blazing im losing my mind ...its late me need ma beautysleep ,cus me so bEAUTIFUL...god im a bragger
Posts: 1602 | From: the banana island shake me tweeeeeeee | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
thats the TALIBARBIES ,KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA PUMP UP THE BOMB PUMP IT UP WHILE UR FEET R STOMPIN AND THE BOMB IS PUMPING Pump it up a little more Get the party going on the dance floor Seek us that's where the party's at And you'll find out that talibarbies not too bad
I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day
Make my day Make my day Make my day Make my day
Yo! Pump up the bomb Pump it up While your feet are stompin' And the jam is pumpin' Look at here the crowd is jumpin' Pump it up a little more Get the party going on the dance floor Seek us that's where the party's at And you'll find out talibarbies are not too bad
I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day
Make my day Make my make my make make my day Make my day Make my day Make my make my make make my day
Yo! Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb Pump it pump it pump it pump it, Yo!
Pump up the bomb A pump up the bomb Pump up the bomb Pump it up a pump it pump it pump it Pump up the bomb Pump up the bomb Pump up the bomb Pump it pump it pump it pump it pump
Pump up the bomb Pump it up While your feet are stompin' And the bomb is pumpin' Look at here the crowd is jumpin' Pump it up a little more Get the party going on the dance floor Seek us that's where the party's at And you'll find out talibarbies are not too bad
I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day
Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb Pump it pump it pump it pump it, Yo!
Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb pump it up A pump it up yo pump it Pump up the bomb Pump it pump it pump it pump it, Yo! Pump it up Pump it up
Make my day Make my day Make my make my make make my day Make my day Make my day Make my make my make make my day
Yo! I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight Make my day I don't want a place to stay Get your boody on the floor tonight
Posts: 1602 | From: the banana island shake me tweeeeeeee | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by TheWesternDebt2Islaam: a handful of non-muslim journilist
RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . RAWA’s objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women’s human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.
Before the Moscow-directed coup d’état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA’s activities were confined to agitation for women’s rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance. In contradistinction to the absolute majority of the vaunted Islamic fundamentalist "freedom fighters" of the anti-Soviet war of resistance, RAWA from the outset advocated democracy and secularism. Despite the horrors and the political oppression, RAWA’s appeal and influence grew in the years of the Soviet occupation and a growing number of RAWA activists were sent to work among refugee women in Pakistan. For the purpose of addressing the immediate needs of refugee women and children, RAWA established schools with hostels for boys and girls, a hospital for refugee Afghan women and children in Quetta, Pakistan with mobile teams. In addition, it conducted nursing courses, literacy courses and vocational training courses for women.
Demonstrations against the Soviet invaders and their stooges and later on against the fundamentalists, and unrelenting exposure of their treason and heinous crimes has been a hallmark of RAWA’s political activities. It was in consequence of its anti-Soviet occupationist struggle and agitation that RAWA was marked for annihilation by the Soviets and their cronies, while the Islamic fundamentalists vented their wrath on our organisation for our pro-democracy, pro-secularist and anti-fundamentalist stance. Our uncompromising attitude against these two enemies of our people has cost us dear, as witnessed by the martyrdom of our founding leader and a large number of our key activists, but we have unswervingly stood, and continue to stand, by our principles despite the deadly blows that we have been dealt.
For the purpose of propagating our views, aims and objectives, and to give Afghan women social and political awareness in regard to their rights and potentialities, RAWA launched a bilingual (Persian/Pashtu) magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Woman's Message) in 1981. Publication of this magazine is on-going and by-issues in Urdu and English for non-Persian/Pashtu speakers.
Since the overthrow of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in 1992 the focus of RAWA’s political struggle has been against the fundamentalists’ and the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban’s criminal policies and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan in general and their incredibly ultra-male-chauvinistic and anti-woman orientation in particular. Apart from the political challenges facing RAWA, tremendous social and relief work amongst unimaginably traumatised women and children lie ahead of us, but unfortunately we do not at the moment enjoy any support from international NGOs or governments, therefore we can't run our humanitarian projects as effective as we wish due to lack of funds..
The US "War on terrorism" removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries. In fact, by reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan, the US administration is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. The US government and Mr.Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.
RAWA believes that freedom and democracy can’t be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values. Under the US-supported government, the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.
Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved. Today RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.
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