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 : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (1186)	11/28/2001 10:57:30 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Afghan peace hinges on human rights The Irish Times Wednesday, November 28, 2001 People involved in human rights abuses should have no place in a new government for Afghanistan, argues Sean Love Amazing images of both fear and hope have been coming out of Afghanistan since the taking of Kabul by the Northern Alliance. The beaten and bloody executed bodies of Pakistanis and Arabs, a female newsreader happy to be back at work, and - perhaps the most poignant - a nine-year-old Hazara child soldier intent on defeating the Taliban. It is in this new context of fear and hope that everyone is talking about the future of Afghanistan. After a failed peace process 10 years ago, the world turned its back on Afghanistan. This time, the country must not be left in the dust again. The international efforts to strike a peace deal indicate that states realise it is in their long-term interest to ensure political stability in Afghanistan. But we must not leave the negotiation only at the level of power-sharing. The focus of this discussion must be on the human rights of the people of Afghanistan. Human rights protection is not romantic idealism but hard-nosed pragmatism - it is the key to the future. If human rights are not central to political negotiations, the cycle of violence is likely to continue. First and foremost there needs to be immediate protection on the ground. The UN must be given the mandate to monitor human rights violations, and Ireland must use its place on the Security Council to ensure this happens. Human rights monitoring would go some way to verifying the reports of breaches of international humanitarian law. Impartial reporting would also build the people's confidence in the process towards peace and send a message to all parties that they are being watched. Arms transfers from foreign governments need to be restricted urgently. For years, foreign governments have fuelled human rights abuses through prolific arms transfers. Those governments have a responsibility to ensure that any transfer of arms and military assistance is not being used to commit human rights abuses. Disarmament and de-mining should be included in the political settlement and should be adequately resourced by the international community. The second issue is who will form the transitional government. It must not involve human rights abusers. Such short-sightedness will lead to problems further down the track. Those responsible for past abuses need to be held accountable. Individuals known to have ordered massacres and torture cannot be trusted to lead a country. Ignoring a past history of human rights violations for reasons of political expediency has a poor track record. From Cambodia to Sierra Leone, Angola to Chile, the legacy of grave human rights violations has hampered the peace process, and affected whole communities - even decades after the violations occurred. The need for national reconciliation in societies which have experienced war and repression is paramount, but condoning impunity as part of a political settlement today will not lead to stability in the long run. Thirdly, those who are negotiating for a political settlement should insist on human rights guarantees from the Afghan parties. These guarantees should not be paper guarantees. They should be backed in the immediate term by monitoring, and in the longer term by effective institutions of criminal justice, based on human rights and the rule of law. Finally, there is talk of a "broad-based, multi-ethnic government". This talk must become the reality, and it must include women. Throughout the 23 years of conflict, women have suffered immeasurably. In the 1970s, women played an important role in Afghan society, particularly in medicine and education. This history provides a valuable foundation for the meaningful participation of women in the rebuilding of the country today. Peace building is a long-haul exercise that requires the commitment of the international community and most of all, the Afghan people. Human rights should not just be on the agenda, human rights must become the agenda. Sean Love is director of the Irish section of Amnesty International ireland.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (1186)	11/28/2001 11:04:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Beneath The Veil WDSU TheNewOrleansChannel.com Wednesday November 28 12:22 PM EST Freedom for women living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan virtually disappeared when the fundamentalist regime took over more than five years ago. Under the Taliban, women are not allowed to work, get an education or even show their faces. Even now, as U.S. troops are forcing the oppressive regime from power, many Afghan women remain skeptical about their future. The Afghan people, women especially, continue to endure suffering brought on by the Taliban regime. But things are changing in areas where American troops have forced the Taliban out. Mina, 20, is now re-entering school after being forced to quit five years ago. "I wish to work from five in the morning until 10 at night because I stayed at home for five years," Mina said. The changes come more slowly with some customs than others, however. Although Mina can now return to school, she remains hesitant to lift her veil in front of local men. Just weeks ago, if Mina had lifted her veil in public, she would have been beaten. "This is a burqua ... a full, long veil that women in some parts of Afghanistan are forced to wear," Mina said. "It weighs about five pounds. It is made out of a light fiber and has very small slits for the eyes." The Taliban cites the Koran when questioned about their oppressive policies regarding women. However, local Muslims see no similarities between the Taliban's rules and the Islamic religion. Jenny Yanez teaches at the Islamic School for Greater New Orleans and has family in Saudi Arabia. She converted to Islam years ago, and told WDSU NewsChannel 6 reporter Helena Moreno that the Taliban's extreme rules regarding the way women dress and their position on education does not accurately follow the teachings of the Koran. "To ask a woman that she should dress modestly in public would be part of Islamic law," Yanez said. "To ask that they cover as much as they (the Taliban) have is an exaggeration of the law and could be viewed as an infringement." Yanez also said that the Islamic religion does not deprive women of the right to work or have an education. In fact, she said, the religion encourages such things. "As you know this is an Islamic school ... most of the teachers here are women," Yanez said. "In our religion, if a woman can fill a position it is her obligation to do so." Women like Mina are still skeptical about the future in Afghanistan even in places where the Taliban have been removed from power. Still, Tulane University Middle East expert Mark Wegner thinks that there is hope for these women. "The United States is trying to insist that women are present in parts of the talks with foremen in the governments of Afghanistan," Wegner said. "So there are a lot of forces at work to see that women are more respected under whatever is to come." Hope for a more lenient government is what women in Afghanistan are holding on to. And the issue of women's rights is not just limited to Afghanistan. From driving a car, going to the store or just visiting the beach, much work remains to be done on the issue of individual rights in many Middle Eastern countries. Stay tuned to WDSU NewsChannel 6 Wednesday night at 10 p.m. for part two of this special report on women in Afghanistan. dailynews.yahoo.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (1186)	11/28/2001 11:09:11 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Muslim Women as Symbols — and Pawns The New York Times November 27, 2001 By RINA AMIRI CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- On the morning of Nov. 20, the world awoke to the promise of a new era in Afghanistan, reflected in the hasty retreat of the Taliban from Kabul and the timid smiles of Afghan women emerging from beneath their burkas. Women shrouded in billowing clouds of blue had become hallmarks of the Taliban's extremism and repression. But envisioning a real peace, with women as key stakeholders in the country, requires looking beyond symbols and unfolding the layers of complexity beneath the politics of religion and gender in Afghanistan. It has come to be assumed in much of the Muslim world that to be a proponent of women's rights is to be pro-Western. This enmeshing of gender and geopolitics has robbed Muslim women of their ability to develop a discourse on their rights independent of a cultural debate between the Western and Muslim worlds. If we cast a glance backward through the annals of Afghan history, we see that women have long been the pawns in a struggle between the elite modernists, usually defined as pro-Western, and the religious and tribal-based traditionalists. This tension recurs throughout Afghan history and has led to extreme oscillations in the roles of women — from modernist-led periods where women have represented more than 60 percent of the educated and professional population to traditionalist- based rule in which women have been rendered powerless and invisible. The ideological war over modernism has focused on the emancipated Muslim woman as the symbol of Westernization and as a threat to the integrity of the authentic and Islamic way of life. In the Muslim world, versions of this story have been played out repeatedly, and differing views of women have come to signify nothing less than a battle between East and West. The Western world has contributed to this perception by centering on the place of women in its depiction of Islam as repressive and backward. To help Afghan and Muslim women create new spaces in which to negotiate their positions, we must move beyond the premise that Islam is anti-woman. Distinctions should be made between countries that pursue a more moderate form of Islam, allowing for women's civic and professional participation, as in present-day Iran, and those like Afghanistan under the Taliban that practice a distorted and politicized Islam. Despite the fact that women in Iran still face many challenges, Iranian feminists have been able to make changes from within by re- interpreting the Koran and dismantling narrow patriarchal constructions of Islam. A generation after its Islamic revolution, Iran today has some of the most politically active women in the Islamic world. Women in Iran have run for the presidency and been appointed to the vice presidency under President Mohammad Khatami, and they make up more than 40 percent of the university students. In postwar Afghanistan, where Islam remains the only source of political and social legitimacy, Western organizations can be more effective in helping women if they ground their support in the positions of Muslim feminists. Some international women's organizations have been concerned that a religious framework for the discussion of women's roles would sanction abuses against women, but this need not be so. The international community should never tolerate abuses against women in any part of the world. In order to oppose injustices that have been imposed on women in the name of a repressive and politicized Islam, Westerners must gain a better understanding of Islam as a whole. To ensure that the Afghan women's agenda is not perceived as a Western agenda, advocacy on behalf of Afghan women must be tied to support for all ethnic and religious groups that have lacked representation in Afghanistan. The United Nations, the United States and the international community must continue their unequivocal support for the participation of women in the political and developmental reconstruction of Afghanistan. But we must tread a careful path as we struggle to restore Afghan women's roles. Afghanistan is at the crossroads, and there is much at stake. But Afghan women have already shown their determination to create change from within; last week some in Kabul even made defiant attempts to march for their rights. Let Afghan women guide us in moving toward an inclusive peace in Afghanistan, beyond the confines of rhetoric and symbols. Rina Amiri is a senior associate for research with the Women Waging Peace Initiative at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. nytimes.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (1186)	11/28/2001 11:15:14 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Hunks and Brutes The New York Times November 28, 2001 LIBERTIES By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON Women used to get in a snit when a hardhat with a flag decal wolf-whistled at them. Now women get in a swoon when a hardhat with a flag decal wolf-whistles at them. In three decades, feminism has done a back flip. Once men in uniform were the oppressors. Now they're trophy mates. Once cops were pigs. Now they're foxes. Once firemen were the guys you brought home if you couldn't snag a doctor. Now they're the most sizzling accessory. Bad news for the Dockers generation. "The Hunk Factor," blared the headline in Monday's USA Today. "Manly men and their uniforms muscle onto the scene." Women looking for "knights in shining helmets" say they are now turned off by effete investment bankers and dot-commers in blue button- down shirts, khakis and designer glasses. So American women now ogle the macho men they once spurned. Meanwhile, half a world away, the fledgling feminists of Afghanistan grumble that the brutes with guns are oppressing them. (And those guys really are brutes.) The heady mood last week, when the Taliban fled and women threw off their veils and offered shy, radiant smiles, has been replaced by a more cautious mood. Most women are still wearing their burkas, and most are not yet returning to work. They tell reporters they are dubious about how much better life will be under the Northern Alliance or Pashtun tribal leaders in the south. The U.S. is trying to jolly along the Northern Alliance to modernity, but the warlords seem content with their patriarchy. The interior minister in Kabul twice forbade women to walk in unison to the United Nations compound, and policemen shooed a few women trying to rally in the street back onto the pavement. "They said it was for security, but that is just a pretext," said Soraya Parlika, the head of the newly formed Union of Women in Afghanistan. "They don't want women to improve." The warriors taking over are not yin to the Taliban's yang, by any means. The Taliban rose because they seemed to be more gallant toward women than the other warlords. Muhammad Omar came to power after he pursued a Kandahar commander who had kidnapped two teenage girls, shaved their heads and taken them to a military camp where they were gang-raped. But it turned out that the Taliban's idea of protecting women was obliterating them. So women in the land of cavemen are right to hope that the U.N. and U.S. will step in to make sure that the new leaders do not revert to their old rapacious ways. Asked whether the administration would take a stand on the Northern Alliance's refusal to let women march, Ari Fleischer demurred. "We're talking about different regions of the world where people have their own cultures and histories," he said, adding, "We cannot dictate every day's events to everybody all throughout Afghanistan. . . ." Perhaps Mr. Fleischer missed Laura Bush's recent radio address, when she said, "All of us have an obligation to speak out" for "the rights and dignity" of Afghan women. Mrs. Bush hit that note again yesterday, meeting at the White House with 11 women exiled from Afghanistan. "I hope that one principle of that new government will be human rights, and that includes the rights of women and children," she said. The first lady was asked by Charlie Gibson on "Good Morning America" why the administration wasn't pressing Saudi Arabia to give women the right to drive and Kuwait to give women the right to vote. "Well, at least one good thing is that women are educated in that country, and we all know how important education is for the success of any country," she replied. Just because you can recite Shakespeare to yourself in the back seat of the car doesn't make being relegated there any easier. If the U.S. can bomb a path to victory for the Northern Alliance, we can lay down some terms for what women can attain in the new Afghanistan. And if the U.S. can go to war to protect Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait, we can move up the bar a notch for women there, too. So why on earth don't we? nytimes.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (1186)	11/29/2001 1:54:12 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Pat, the restoration for women's civil rights in Afghanistan do not look promising. The Northern Alliance has rejected UN resolution: Message 16717353 "Western nations hope to use the promise of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid as leverage to prod the Afghans toward a historic agreement on a broad-based government, a constitution with full civil rights for women and eventual elections." Women have never liked the Northern Alliance. They are as vicious as the Taliban. Also, I wonder what the US will do with the Northern Alliance. Recent press editorials have pointed out that once the Taliban were kicked out the War Lords would move back in and the only way the US could get them out would be to start a war with them.