I wonder if they asked the Afghanistan women to compare life under the Taliban to life after the Taliban.
As if you care... but why not read what they say? RAWA was very active against the Taliban, trying to improve life for women... here's their motto: (from rawa.org)
If you are freedom-loving and anti-fundamentalist,
you are with RAWA. Support and help us.
RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan.
Now, the recent news reports. From their mirror site at rawa.false.net.
Mar.22, 2003: Afghanistan: the Taliban's smiling face
Mar.12, 2003: Afghan Police Accused of Rights Abuses
Feb.26, 2003: Afghanistan has been well and truly betrayed
Feb.23, 2003: Afghan poor sell daughters as brides
Feb.1, 2003: Afghan Warlords Killing at Will
Jan.29, 2003: War 'has ruined Afghan environment'
Jan.28, 2003: Film Accuses U.S. of Atrocities at Dasht-i-Leili
Jan.24, 2003: British Parliament: "Afghanistan Could Fall Back Into Anarchy"
Jan.21, 2003: Afghan Chief Justice Bans Cable TV
Jan.14, 2003: Disabled War Vets Accusing the Government of Misusing Aid Donations
Dec.23, 2002: Afghanistan: Rogues on the loose
Dec.18, 2002: US Broke Law in Use Of Cluster Bombs in Afghanistan
Dec.18, 2002: US Troops Blamed in Afghan Kids' Deaths
Dec.17, 2002: Post-Taliban Warlords Oppress Afghan Women
Dec.15, 2002: Severe Cold Kills 41 Afghan Refugee Children
Dec.13, 2002: Afghan refugees freeze to death
Dec.12, 2002: Warlords are Afghanistan's new worry number one
Dec.8, 2002: Old Fears in the New Afghanistan
Nov.18, 2002: Self-Immolations on Rise in Afghanistan
Nov.16, 2002: Book: U.S. Paid Off Afghan Warlords
Nov.13, 2002: Reporters Without Border report on the situation of press in Afghanistan
Nov.12, 2002: Afghan Police Fire on Student Protesters, Killing Four and Wounding 30
Nov.9, 2002: U.S. Used More DU Weapons in Afg. Than in Gulf War: Dracovic
Nov.6, 2002: Afghan Women Die Giving Birth at Staggering Rate
Nov.5, 2002: HRW Reports Rights Abuses by Afghan Governor Ismail Khan
Nov.2, 2002: Afghan Woman Fired for Meeting Bush Uncovered
Nov.2, 2002: Disappointed repatriates likely to re-enter Pakistan
Oct.30, 2002: Afghan Girl's Schools Struck by Attacks
Oct.25, 2002: Afghanistan is again the world's largest opium producer, UN
Better? Some success there?
Women who show their faces in public risk insults and threats in Afghanistan. In Kabul and across the country the limited freedoms granted to women after the fall of the Taliban are being contested anew. The government is partly responsible for this step backwards. It pays lip service to the demands of Western financiers, who forced the government to improve the status of Afghan women. But ultraconservatives inside the government have also sought to impose accepted standards of proper behaviour. Last summer the ministry of Islamic education, which replaced the Taliban's infamous ministry for the promotion of virtue and suppression of vice, began reminding women about the national official dress code, based on Islamic values. Ministry officials approach women in public who, in their eyes, are improperly dressed. They pressure them to respect the code: this means wearing head scarves and long dark coats or skirts to cover the entire body, including wrists and ankles. Make-up is forbidden.
Sometimes these moral guardians escort female "offenders" back to their homes, where they reprimand the women's husbands or relatives. Not surprisingly, women prefer to wear burkas rather than face constant harassment: at least burkas allow them to use make-up without being chastised and to wear what clothes they like underneath.
Rina Amiri, a political liaison officer with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, calls these new moral guardians "the smiling face of the Taliban".
rawa.false.net - dated March 22nd.
Yep, sorted that one out, haven't we. |
