Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (10494)	11/15/2001 8:10:57 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Poet, there is a group called the Council of Afghan Women (CAW) that is more conservative, but I couldn't find a web site for them. If you have time, perhaps you could look over the hits on this Google search... google.com

To: Poet who wrote (10494)	11/15/2001 8:19:34 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

It's the only Afghan women's group I've heard of and I too think they should be listened to. the greatest wisdom and most formidable leadership going forward may very well come from those who have suffered the most. history provides many many examples of this. i have worked extensively with and still have many contacts with a former oppressed, primitive tribe that is a matriarchal society...i have wondered if the afghan tribes might be similar. why else were the women so oppressed? does anyone know? So put up your dukes lots of fighters here...but no way do i fight with you sweetie pie.

To: Poet who wrote (10494)	11/16/2001 6:16:47 AM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

First Lady to Promote Afghan Women's Rights dailynews.yahoo.com Thursday November 15 8:56 PM ET By Patricia Wilson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an unprecedented move for a first lady, Laura Bush will deliver the weekly presidential radio address on Saturday, using the airwaves to launch an international campaign for women's rights in Afghanistan. A senior administration official told Reuters on Thursday that Mrs. Bush would highlight ``the Taliban and al Qaeda oppression of women'' in Afghanistan and point out how it had been condemned by other Muslims. ``The message will be that the Taliban and al Qaeda's oppression of women represents their vision of society that they hope to export to the rest of the world and that we need to do everything we can to help the Afghan women who have suffered so long,'' the official said. Mrs. Bush would be the first first lady to deliver an entire presidential radio address, he added. The women's rights initiative followed criticism that the Bush administration has not been paying enough attention to the public relations side of its war on terrorism and the Taliban. Immediately after taking control of Kabul, the Afghan capital, in September 1996, the Taliban issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or leave their homes unless accompanied by a husband, father, brother, or son. In public, women must be covered from head to toe in a burqa (shroud), with only a mesh opening to see and breathe through. They are not permitted to wear white socks or shoes -- because white is the color of the Taliban flag --or shoes that make noise as they walk. WOMEN 'NOT TREATED AS PEOPLE,' SAYS PUTIN Also, houses and buildings in public view must have their windows painted over if women are present. The senior administration official described an orchestrated campaign to highlight the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban that would include release of a report by the State Department on Saturday, briefings by senior officials and a conference call among women in Congress and the Cabinet. With the Taliban government apparently on the verge of collapse and efforts to fill the political vacuum incomplete, the White House felt it was important to begin highlighting the need for women's rights now in hopes of winning freedoms back. ``There's no question the Taliban is the most repressive, backward group of people we have seen on the face of the earth in a long period of time, including and particularly how they treat women,'' President Bush told high school students in Crawford, Texas on Thursday, where he wrapped up a summit at his ranch with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin leader agreed. ``In Afghanistan this phenomenon has taken an extreme form, and the disrespect of human rights has acquired extreme dimensions,'' Putin said. ``Overall, women in Afghanistan are basically not treated as people.'' Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney also would be pressed into the campaign for women's rights, said the administration official. And Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will do a similar event in London on Monday or Tuesday. RESTORING WOMEN'S FREEDOMS The State Department report will focus on the freedoms that Afghan women enjoyed before the Taliban came to power -- 70 per cent of teachers and 50 per cent of government workers were women -- and the importance of restoring them in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The United States has blamed Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, his al Qaeda network and their hosts, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. A U.S-led bombing campaign has succeeded in helping the American-supported Northern Alliance to oust the Taliban in much of the country. The women's rights campaign is being coordinated by the multinational Coalition Information Center set up by the White House in Washington, London and Pakistan last month to provide an around-the-clock rapid response to help harness the 24-hour news cycle during the war on terrorism.