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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2001Afghan women speak for themselvesby Tahmeena FaryalTahmeena Faryal, of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan, spoke in New York City on Oct. 30. Her remarks are excerpted here.
That talk and one in Chicago Nov. 9 were sponsored by News and Letters
Committees. --- It is very unfortunate that it was only after the events of Sept. 11 that
Afghanistan suddenly became the center of the world's attention. For years it
was the largest forgotten tragedy in the world. In a way it is good that the
Afghan people, and especially its women, are finally getting attention by the
world community. But it is also very tragic. We don't think of the bombing as any solution. Although the U.S. government
has promised that it would be very targetted, as we know, there have been many
civilian casualities. Fundamentalism and terrorism can't be limited to just bin Laden in
Afghanistan. Right now in Pakistan there hasn't been any pressure on the
madrases [religious schools] which are begetting more and more Osamas. Refugees
are coming to Pakistan fleeing the bombing with no shelter, no food, no
clothing. Whenever people hear about our country the question they ask is why are all
these tragedies occurring? Are these brutalities the representation of its
culture, tradition and religion? The big question that comes to people's minds
is why do the people not rise up if they don't agree with the situation there? The people of Afghanistan have always risen up and fought against invaders
and defeated them. Unfortunately, the Russians did not learn from the history of
the Afghan people. They invaded our country in 1979. Had they not invaded our
country, we would have not gone through all these miseries. The world would not
have witnessed the Sept. 11 incident. The Russians invaded Afghanistan with 100,000 troops, thinking they could occupy Afghanistan and reach their dreams and goals. But the people in Afghanistan rose up against them from the villages to the cities. The resistance war lasted for 10 years. We lost two million people. One and a half million became disabled, mainly by land mines. Five to six million took refuge in different countries, mainly Pakistan and Iran. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, France, England and the U.S., opposed the Russians by supporting and incubating the fundamentalists. When we say fundamentalists, we mean all those who are misogynist, anti-democracy, anti-civilization, and who are dependent on foreign countries for their power. We have to get rid of the fundamentalists to achieve what we have struggled
for freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of belief, democracy,
women's rights and human rights. In 1992 the fundamentalists took power. They consisted of many different
parties, belonging to different countries, and they started fighting each other.
They committed the most heinous, unprecedented crimes in the history of
Afghanistan. The national museum, the hospitals, and the schools were looted as
a result of their internal fighting. There were many cases of rape, abduction,
suicide, and forced marriages by commanders of the different groups. The world's
leaders remained silent while these atrocities were committed. Taliban means "religious students." Most of these religious were
orphans of the Soviet war. At a young age they were taken to Pakistani religious
schools. They were trained, raised and brainwashed in them. They were
brainwashed about women. What is a woman? Only a sexual object. A woman is what
you can do whatever you want with. With that hatred they forced all the
restrictions on women. The Taliban took control of Kabul in 1996 and soon seized most of the rest of
Afghanistan. The people were fed up with the crimes of the other fundamentalist
groups, and they thought the Taliban would be better. When the Taliban took
power, there was nothing left of the country to destroy. They imposed
restrictions, not only on women, but also on men. They have shut down all the learning institutions for girls and women. They
called them "gateways to hell." They ordered all women to be fully
covered with the burqa. They ordered women to be accompanied by a male relative,
such as a brother, son, husband or father. They even ordered women to paint
their windows dark so they could not be seen by men outside. Photography, TV, cinema, and music were banned, while the Taliban enjoyed all
these things. They watched movies and listened to music. They even ordered us to
use camels, as during the time of the Prophet Mohammed. But they themselves used
the most luxurious cars. The people of Afghanistan have been going through the poorest times in their
history. If during the other invasions they fought with empty hands, today they
fight with empty stomachs. Afghanistan is now a country without any social,
political or economic structure. There are no banks. There is no education
system. The facts and frustrations that have been imposed on the people, and
especially on women, have degraded much of the population. Ninety percent of
Afghan women suffer from psychological problems. We believe that if tomorrow we have a peaceful and stable government, it
would not take Afghanistan long to rebuild. Of course, we will not be able to
get back the heritage lost during the internal fighting, for example the
Buddhist statues destroyed by the Taliban. But it will take a long time to
rebuild the people mentally, as they have been destroyed in an incredible way. Still, there has been resistance by women, even under the Taliban. In many
parts of the country individuals run home-based classes for girls. When these
classes were discovered the teachers were put into prison or were beaten up in
front of their students. But the women did not give up. Today, in different
cities and even in villages in rural areas, classes are still being run by
women. There is no "moderate" Taliban. It's not possible to change their
mentality, given the way they were raised and brainwashed. But the resistance of
people and women especially have changed the situation. Even though no woman is allowed to go outside alone, you'll find women
walking in the streets alone, because many do not have a living male relative.
In Kabul alone there are more than 70,000 widows. They have to go out, even if
it's to beg, in order to find something to feed their children. The most mobilized and organized form of resistance is the work of our organization. RAWA is a 24-year-old organization, established by Meena, who was assassinated in 1987 by Russian KGB agents with the help of one of the fundamentalist groups in Pakistan. She was assassinated because her powerful voice, dedication, and commitment was not tolerable to the Soviets, the puppet regime and the fundamentalists. They plotted the assassination thinking they would stop RAWA and the women's movement in Afghanistan. They were wrong. RAWA decided that because we do not have our national emancipation, we cannot talk just about women's emancipation. That was the point where RAWA turned into a more political organization. RAWA took part in the resistance war. It had to transfer part of its activities to Pakistan because the situation was so difficult in the country. There were so many refugees in Pakistan that there was a need of establishing schools and hospitals for women and children there. RAWA in fact anticipated Sept. 11. It warned the countries supporting the Taliban that it does not care about those who once supported it. Unfortunately, it is only now that the world has learned that fundamentalism is terrorism. RAWA has many humanitarian projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In both countries we operate underground. Our demonstrations have been attacked by puppets of the Taliban. We cannot have an office in Pakistan. If today we were to open one, our members would be killed. In Pakistan there are thousands of children age six or seven who are the only breadwinners in the family. They never had access to education. So RAWA provides these children with free education. They are called "children of the garbage" as from early in the morning most of them go and look in the garbage heap for pieces of paper. If they earn a dollar, they are lucky. We also run home-based classes for girls which serve more than 1,000 across Afghanistan. RAWA has always had its concentration on educating women because barely 5% of women can read and write. We believe it is crucial to develop women's awareness about themselves, their humanity, their human potential, about what they can do in society, the world, in their families. |
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