OT................................................
I like little bit of journalism and write stories on issues that are dear to me, this one takes on 'Talebans' ...
Another battle far from the markets being fought by the liberals...published in major middle eastern newspapers in Arabic...
Women's Plight in Afghanistan and it's relentless war on women
A story compiled by Iqbal Latif in Paris and Peshawar..
The Taliban have forced Women to cover themselves from head to toe. Even the face is covered; this is in direct contradiction to Islamic Law!
Today, in Afghanistan a woman's basic right to vote, to pursue an education, and to join the job force, is threatened by Taliban. In its drive to restore 12th-century Islamic purity and fundamentalism, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has launched the greatest assault on womanhood in nigh on a millennium.And the women of Afghanistan have disappeared. It has been the "ethnic cleansing" of an entire gender from a country: 10 million women denied education, work, hospital care. Taliban's insistence on secluding women from public life is a political maneuver disguised as "Islamic" law. Before seizing power, Taliban manipulated and used the rights of women as tools to gain control of the country. The men who lead the Taliban today were trained in religious schools in Pakistan that were funded by the Saudis. (During Soviet rule, religious schools were banned in Afghanistan, so the mullahs moved to Pakistan.)
Taliban leader Mullah Omar lives with his two wives and children in a compound with high walls. He's around 40 years old, walks with a battle limp and never leaves Kandahar. His dream of a laboratory of Islamic virtue is directed from here. His enforcers are the Koranic Police for the Prevention of Vice and the Propagation of Virtue. The Taliban have forced Women to cover themselves from head to toe. Even the face is covered; this is in direct contradiction to Islamic Law! Taliban's stand on the seclusion of women is not derived from Islam, but, rather, from a cultural bias found in suppressive movements throughout the region. Such a view has no basis in the Qur'an, yet it has been promoted by Taliban as "Islamic." This situation is very distressing considering that women were given rights in the Qur'an to contribute to the economy by owning and selling property 1400 years ago:
Men shall have a benefit from what they earn, and women shall have a benefit from what they earn. (4:32)
This verse emphasizes the equality of men and women in the economic growth of a society. In the earliest Muslim community, women carried out business transactions and participated in battles without restriction. The Qur'an and the examples of the first Muslim society are clear evidence that the current manipulation of women to serve geo-political interests, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, is both unIslamic and inhumane. These policies against women and children "despicable."Taliban implemented the policy of closing hospitals to women. This meant that sick and dying women were dumped into a derelict clinic without running water -- a place where the evening meal arrives at 6 o'clock on a wheelbarrow.
"THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION" PUBLISHED A SURVEY DOCUMENTING FOR THE FIRST TIME THE WIDESPEAD PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SUFFERING INFLICTED ON WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN BY THE TALEBAN REGIME. ZOHRA RASEKH'S [ZOR-AH RAH-SEK] REPORT PROVIDES THE FIRST-EVER OPPORTUNITY FOR A BROAD RANGE OF AFGHAN WOMEN TO EXPRESS THE CONCERNS THEY HAVE ABOUT BEING UNDER TALEBAN CONTROL. TALEBAN FORCES TOOK CONTROL OF KABUL IN SEPTEMBER 1996 AND IMPOSED NEW LAWS SEVERELY RESTRICTING FEMALE EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, MOBILITY, AND HEALTH CARE. MS. RASEKH SAYS AFGHAN WOMEN NOW FACE A HOST OF HEALTH PROBLEMS THAT ARE DIRECTLY RELATED TO TALEBAN POLICIES.
"WE LOOKED AT PHYSICAL HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. AND WHAT WE FOUND, WHICH WAS VERY SHOCKING, WAS THE IMPACT THAT THE TALEBAN POLICIES IN THE PAST TWO YEARS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN IN KABUL, HAVE HAD ON MENTAL HEALTH. THE VAST MAJORITY OF OUR STUDY PARTICIPANTS SHOWED MAJOR DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER."PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCHER ZOHRA RASEKH SAYS WOMEN IN AFGHAN SOCIETY USED TO PLAY A PROMINENT ROLE IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, GOVERNMENT, AND TEACHING. BUT SHE SAYS THAT, SINCE THE TALEBAN TOOK CONTROL, WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ALLOWED TO WORK. MS. RASEKH SAYS SCHOOLS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS HAVE BEEN CLOSED, EXCEPT FOR QUR'ANIC TRAINING FOR GIRLS UNDER EIGHT. SHE SAYS SHE TALKED WITH AFGHAN WOMEN WHO WERE BRUTALLY BEATEN FOR WALKING ON THE STREET WITHOUT A MALE CHAPERONE OR WITHOUT A "BURQA," A GARMENT THAT COVERS THEIR BODIES FROM HEAD TO TOE. MS. RAHSEKH SAYS WOMEN CANNOT OBTAIN HEALTH CARE FROM MANY FACILITIES, AND MALE DOCTORS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CARE FOR WOMEN UNLESS THEY ARE ACCOMPANIED BY A MALE CHAPERONE.
"THEY WERE MISERABLE. MOST OF THEM HAD SOLD THEIR HOUSEHOLD ITEMS. BEGGING WAS A MAJOR VOCATION FOR WOMEN. IT WAS PART OF THE SOCIETY. I SAW HALF OF THE KABUL POPULATION OUT ON THE STREET BEGGING, FROM MEN TO WOMEN TO CHILDREN OF ALL AGES." MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS SURVEY REPORTED A DECLINE IN THEIR PHYSICAL HEALTH OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, MS. RAHSEKH SAYS. AND, A MAJORITY OF THE AFGHAN WOMEN DESCRIBED OCCASIONS WHERE THEY WERE SERIOUSLY ILL AND UNABLE TO SEEK MEDICAL CARE. ZOHRA RASEKH SAYS AN AFGHAN PHYSICIAN REPORTED DECLINING NUTRITION IN CHILDREN, AN INCREASING RATE OF TUBERCULOSIS, AND A HIGH PREVALENCE OF OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES AMONG WOMEN AND CHILDREN. SHE SAYS MALE DOCTORS' ACCESS TO SICK CHILDREN WITHIN WOMEN'S HOSPITALS IS SEVERELY CURTAILED, LEADING TO UNNECESSARY DEATH.
RESEARCHER ZOHRA RASEKH SAYS THE TALEBAN'S RESTRICTIONS DEPRIVING HALF THE POPULATION OF JOBS, SCHOOLING, MOBILITY, AND HEALTH CARE ARE LITERALLY "LIFE-THREATENING" TO AFGHAN WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN. THE REPORT OF PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS URGES THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO CONSIDER WAYS THAT THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE "VAST DEGRADATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN AFGHANISTAN" BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BEFORE THE WORLD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. AMONG ITS MANY RECOMMENDATIONS IS THAT AFGHAN WOMEN WHO FLEE PERSECUTION BY THE TALEBAN BE DESIGNATED AS "REFUGEES." "EVEN IF THEY WERE ACCOMPANIED BY A MALE CHAPERONE, THEIR TREATMENT WAS VERY LIMITED. THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO TREAT WOMEN AS A DOCTOR IS SUPPOSED TO TREAT A PATIENT. THEY HAD TO EXAMINE THEM THROUGH THEIR CLOTHING. IF THERE WAS SURGERY NEEDED, THAT WAS NOT AN OPTION -- FOR A FEMALE PATIENT TO BE OPERATED ON BY A MALE DOCTOR."
MS. RAHSEKH SAYS THIS PROBLEM IS COMPOUNDED BECAUSE MANY FEMALE DOCTORS AND NURSES HAVE ALREADY LEFT AFGHANISTAN BECAUSE OF THE RESTRICTIONS THE TALEBAN IMPOSED ON THEM. AND, THERE ARE FEW SPECIALISTS SUCH AS SURGEONS OR OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNOCOLOGISTS. ZOHRA RAHSEKH SAYS, IF AN AFGHAN WOMAN NEEDS MAJOR SURGERY, SHE HAS TO GO TO PAKISTAN, AND MANY CANNOT AFFORD THE TRIP. ACCORDING TO HER RESEARCH WITH PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, GETTING ADEQUATE MATERNITY CARE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM, AND PRENATAL AND POST-NATAL CARE ARE ALSO VERY POOR. MS. ROSEKH SAYS ONE HOSPITAL IN KABUL HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS A MATERNITY HOSPITAL, ALTHOUGH WOMEN ARE SOMETIMES ALLOWED TO USE OTHER HOSPITALS WHEN THEY ARE HAVING BABIES.
"IN ONE OF THE HOSPITALS THAT DOES ACCEPT WOMEN AND DOES DELIVERIES THERE, WOMEN DELIVERED ON THE FLOOR. THAT'S HOW POOR THE CONDITION IS FOR WOMEN. I WAS IN THE ONLY MATERNITY HOSPITAL, AND WHAT I SAW IN ONE OF THE ROOMS I WENT IN [WAS] TWO PATIENTS WERE LYING DOWN IN ONE BED AND THESE WERE TWO WOMEN WHO HAD COMPLICATIONS, AND ONE WOMAN WAS BLEEDING AND WAITING FOR HER UNBORN CHILD TO DIE BECAUSE SHE COULD NOT AFFORD AN ANTIGEN FOR AN R-H INCOMPATABILITY. IT WAS SO SAD SEEING HER LYING THERE IN THE HOSPITAL, AND THERE WAS NOTHING THAT COULD BE DONE FOR HER."
Dr. Omer Gebreel, head of the World Health Organization in Afghanistan and himself a gynecologist, described how he once appeared before the Taliban high command to make the case for women gynecologists being allowed to continue work.
"I rolled up the sleeve of my right arm and explained that in my work I have to examine a woman internally. I looked around the table, and they had all put their heads down and covered their faces with their hands -- some were giggling with embarrassment. International condemnation forced the Taliban to back down. They did reverse the decision to withdraw health care for women. However, the conditions of women population remains very poor.
"The Taliban want the Afghan seat at the United Nations," says one international aid worker in Kabul. "They still have an eye on international legitimacy, and even they realized that the women's hospital business was going too far."
" ZOHRA RAHSEKH SAYS THAT AFGHAN WOMEN WHO ONCE WORKED AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE SUPPORT OF THEIR FAMILIES HAVE BECOME DESTITUTE. IN KABUL, SHE ADDS, ABOUT 40,000 WIDOWS HAVE PUT ON THEIR 'BURKAS' TO GO BEG ON THE STREETS, JUST TO FEED THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN.Once Taliban seized power, a classical pattern that has been observed in some Muslim countries repeated itself. The Taliban capital Kabul misses the girls and women. The few who are outside on this autumn day move under nylon tents shaped like shuttlecocks. After the faces disappeared, women's voices were banned. In shops or in the market, a woman must have her brother, her husband or her father to speak to the shopkeeper so that she will not excite him with the sound of her voice.
By March there was only one thing left to silence -- their feet. Women were forbidden to wear heeled shoes under their tents because it distracted men. Now they shuffle through the autumn mud in the ordained slippers. Abul Raman has been in charge of the Holy War against women that was so easily won an Islamic warrior for 18 years, has lost his youth, a dozen relatives sits in a bare room furnished with a telephone and a spittoon -- any human joy he may once have known.
The war against sexual crime was another victory. His one and only adultery case happened a year ago. If the couple had both been unmarried, the punishment for sex would have been 100 lashes. Each was married, so they had to be killed."What do you prove by burying a man and woman in the ground up to their neck and then crushing their skulls with stones?" he is asked. "Nothing special," says Abdul Raman. "It is the law of God."
Chaupira Sunic a beautician tells her story from her camp where she escaped from persecution in Kabul . She had just put the curlers in her customer's hair, a bride, and was about to apply black eyeliner when four men came into her beauty parlor. The bride, Zakia, was marrying a German, who was taking her back home. Three of the men were young -- 16, maybe 17 -- the fourth was older. He was the one who spoke: "You have started the bride so you can finish her, but she will be your last. This place is closed from today."
Chaupira finished the hair and closed the shop. The next day, she passed by and saw that the shop sign had been covered with sheets of white paper. She decided to stay in Kabul, keep her face covered and her head down and hope that the Taliban would be replaced by others -- as leaders and factions had come and gone so many times before during 19 years of war in Afghanistan. Three weeks later, she was visiting her mother's grave when she saw something that changed her mind.
It was early afternoon when she got to Kabul cemetery, and as she was walking up the hill to where her mother is buried she saw a young couple on a bicycle. The husband was perhaps 20, his wife younger.
A young Taliban raised his hand and stopped the bike. Why, he asked the woman, was she breaking the rules and riding on the bike, showing her ankles. She replied: "I am with my husband. It is not your wish for me but his wish for me, and if he does not mind, then who are you to say?"
Chaupira Sunic saw the argument begin and end. An older Taliban came from behind. "He said, 'I will deal with this shameless woman.' Then he shot the husband in the foot and the woman straight in the heart. He killed her, and everyone who saw it ran like crazy and the two of them were left lying on the ground."
The next day, Chaupira took the refugee road across the Pakistan border to a U.N. camp, where 2,000 families have gathered -- some with tents supplied by the U.N., most living under sacks -- in a valley where there is nothing: no crops, no water, no shade.
"I would stay here for the rest of my life rather than go back there while the Taliban are still in Kabul," she says. In this scenario, political instability coexists with an extreme and oppressive ideology regarding women. Some members of Taliban have been quoted as saying that these actions are temporary and that women's rights will be restored once the government is more stable. One must bear in mind that, as history has amply demonstrated, other Muslim countries have committed the same atrocities and the result is that women within their boundaries continue to be oppressed, politically and otherwise. To maintain control over the people, radical groups such as Taliban divert attention away from political and economic crises by oppressing half of the population.
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