Women in Afghanistan today: hopes, achievements and challenges
Thursday 27 April
Delivered by Mariam Rawi: Member of the Revolutionary Association of the
Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
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Distinguished friends,
Let me convey to you all the warmest greetings from my sisters in
Afghanistan. I, on behalf of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA), the oldest political/social organization of Afghan
women, advocating for peace, freedom, democracy and women’s rights in
Afghanistan, would like to express heartfelt thanks to SAWA and The Bob
Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre for giving me the opportunity to talk about
the situation of my country- especially the women.
Respectable friends,
I belong to Afghanistan, a country that has been at intense war for over two
decades and now has fallen back into the hands of criminals, who made the
major contribution in its looting and destruction. I am speaking of the
Islamic fundamentalists, whose reign of terror from 1992 to 1996 left behind
a legacy of tens of thousands of deaths and homelessness. These Islamic
militants and warlords rule over the whole country again with their guns and
money as their real power, while unfortunately the western world and United
State at the top, just stare at them.
You might expect me to talk about Afghanistan as a free, peaceful and
liberated country but painfully and unfortunately the reality is not what
you might be aware of through media. After the September 11, and the
subsequent US military intervention in Afghanistan in the name of “war on
terror” and “liberating Afghan women”, despite tall claims of USA and its
allies, Afghanistan is still burning in two-fold fire. On one hand, there
are the brutal and horrific Jahadi fundamentalists of the “Northern
Alliance” who are supported by the USA and on the other hand, there are the
Taliban and Al-Qaida terrorists who have the support of all the
fundamentalist and terrorist regimes, parties and organizations in different
parts of world.
RAWA has stated several times that an administration, legislature and
judiciary under the domination of the criminals and traitors, will never do
any good for our bereaved people. Against the accusations that RAWA’s
criticisms and attacks on government are always from a negative point of
view, treacherousness and corruption has meshed around the roots of
government so deep. And there are several examples to prove it:
Like previous years UN is warning that Afghanistan is going to become a
Norco-State under the “Northern Alliance” drug mafia.
“New York Times” has exposed a number of these drug dealers and the former
interior minister has another list of them. “Financial Times”, January 31st
says Afghanistan’s issue is not an easy issue. It is a country where the
government has stopped poor and hungry farmers from growing poppy but lets
the governor of the same province keep dealing in drugs. It is a land that
is facing health disaster worse than Tsunami. 700 children and 50-70 women
die on daily basis due to the lack of health services.
Ironically, this is happening in a country that has received 12 billion
dollars in aid while another 10 billion were pledged at the recent London
conference. Even a fraction of this aid has not been used for the benefit
and welfare of our people, but filled the pockets of the warlords and high
rank officials. According to Dr. Ramazan Bashar Dost a popular MP and former
minister of planning, if one billion of the aid reaching Afghanistan was
spent honestly to benefit people, Afghanistan’s features would have changed.
An inquiry by the US daily, the “Washington Post” (Nov.20, 2005), has
discovered serious flaws in the US efforts to rebuild Afghanistan,
suggesting that corruption and inefficiency caused millions of dollars to be
wasted on useless projects.
While the country is in chaos and our people are fed up with corruption,
drugs, poverty and thousands of other political, social and economic
problems, the compromising government of president Karzai is unable even to
solve smallest of these issues. The recent war of words between Afghanistan
and Pakistan is nothing but a good tool for the governments of both
countries to deceive people to raise false nationalism issue, and drive the
attention from the internal problems which are threatening people.
The USA and its allies have always been hypocrite in war on terror. They
have never been concerned with the main cause behind terrorism. The US
government keeps promising not to repeat its past mistake. But the agonizing
truth is that the USA is committing the same mistake by replacing the
Taliban with infamous “Northern Alliance” fundamentalists. And by brining
them back to power, USA proved that they are not concerned with the
establishment of peace and democracy in the region.
I speak of a land where fourteen-year old Fatima and her mother were raped
by warlords gunmen; 11 year old Rahima and a 60 year old grand mother; a
land where 30 year old Amina was stoned to death; where 9 year old Saima was
easily tortured and scarified for her father’s violence; where Gulbahar was
burnt by her husband when she refused to go to back to his house; a land
where young UN worker Muska -exactly on election day- after being kidnapped
by gunmen, had to immolate herself to save her honor; where despite the
presence of more than six thousands UN peace keeping troops in only in
capital city of Kabul, aid workers are kidnapped in broad day light; and so
on….
But those who are responsible for the mentioned brutality are sure that they
have the support of local warlords and fundamentalist misogynists and know
that there is no law or at least implementation of law which might bring
them to justice.
As Amnesty International says in its 2005 report: “Women continue to face
systematic and widespread violence and public and private discrimination.
Fear of abductions by armed groups forced women to restrict their movements
outside the home. In the family, extreme restrictions on women’s behavior
and high levels of violence persisted. Election officials registering women
voters were among those killed by armed groups”.
You might have heard recently that the USA and other western countries tried
to stop the fundamentalist court in Afghanistan to not sentence Abdul Rahman,
an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity 14 years back and was
arrested in Kabul. No doubt, defending freedom of belief and expression is
the main pillar of democracy and RAWA as a secular organization believes in
it and therefore defending Abdulrahmans against fundamentalist court is a
positive step but America’s much ado in support of Abdulrahman lose its
meaning because they kept silent from 1992-1996 when the “Northern Alliance”
criminals got power and committed the most shocking crimes against our
people, and especially the women. The “Northern Alliance” were not only
trailed and taken accountable for their crimes but once again imposed on our
people with the support of USA and left free to make the life of our women
much more miserable.
Therefore, defending Abdularahman’s case by the USA and the West is
meaningless for our people because if democratic values including freedom of
belief mattered to the USA, it above all would have condemned and punished
the “Northern Alliance” military groups who are the main violators of these
values.
What I just talked about, is the reality of my country. Surely you will
agree with me and my people that such a country cannot be free and
liberated!
Dear friends,
In Afghanistan as one of the most backward and traditional countries of the
world women's rights have always been ignored and they were subjected to
every kind of horrible male chauvinism; in short, women are discriminated in
society in every aspects. Therefore, to raise the voice of the Afghan women
in an organized and effective manner was a necessity and a problem to which
an answer should have been given. And the establishment of RAWA was the
right answer.
RAWA was formed in Kabul in 1977 as a way to promote women's rights through
nonviolent action. Since then, the organisation has evolved - it now runs
schools, orphanages, mobile health-care units, adult literacy classes,
income-generating projects, and it provides emergency relief in refugee
camps.
As a women’s organization we are opposed to violence and believe in human
suffrage, therefore we have concentrated our work on increasing awareness
among women and encouraging them to struggle for gaining their basic rights.
As far as our economical means allow us (which are critical at this moment)
we have engaged in organizing demonstrations, conferences, publicity
campaigns through our normal publication and also Internet. We have gained
experience using these means to deliver the voice of our women to the people
of the world and we have had some success in it.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is at the
forefront of the international campaign for women's rights and democracy in
Afghanistan. We are of the opinion that Afghanistan will never experience a
real peace and justice if the fundamentalists are not eliminated as
political and military force in Afghanistan. We also believe that only a
secular democracy can bring stability to our country.
RAWA is perhaps one of the most important organizations aware of the gravity
of the situation in its entirety. RAWA alone is fighting for enlightening
the minds of the people. The key issue for RAWA is to make people aware and
to inspire them into believing that freedom from the hands of fundamentalism
and terrorism is not impossible. To this end, RAWA uses all justified means.
By educating people, especially women, RAWA has been able to win many
hearts.
RAWA continues its work, speaking out as loudly as we can about the problems
Afghan women face under the puppet government of Hamid Karzai. Their
suffering continues in the face of violence and poverty. Our outspokenness,
along with our activities in educating and economically empowering women,
has put RAWA members at great risk.
We the women of Afghanistan are well aware of the hardships, challenges,
threats and sacrifices in our struggle. To overcome the menace of
fundamentalism and establish true and secular democracy in Afghanistan, we
the people of Afghanistan need the support of human rights defenders and
freedom-loving organizations and individuals.
We believe that in a country where women are not counted as human being and
are treated worse then cattle, working for women’s rights and secularism is
a great and revolutionary struggle and it is because of this fact, that we
call ourselves “revolutionary”. A real democratic Afghanistan based on
women’s rights is a real revolution in a benighted and war- torn country
like Afghanistan.
The major hardships RAWA face are financial and security concerns while
continuing its humanitarian and political activities. No need to talk about
the importance of the support not just in words but practically to
anti-fundamentalist movements of people especially in Central Asia as the
center of most dangerous terrorism in the world. But we are left alone in
this fight.
If the enemies of democracy and peace can get united, why can’t the
anti-fundamentalist forces all over the get united and form a wide, active
and powerful front to make another world possible.
Thank you very much!
RAWA
PO Box 374, Quetta, Pakistan
Web: www.rawa.org
Email: rawa@rawa.org
Mob: 00 92 300 5541258