Petition for human/woman's rights....
The Magnificent Sarita ([email protected])
Sun, 31 Jan 1999 15:20:14 -0800 (PST)
The Taliban's War on Women:
The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. The
situation is getting so bad that one person in an editorial of the
timescompared
the treatment of women there to the treatment of Jews in
pre-holocaustPoland.
Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua
andhave
been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper attire,
evenif
this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of their eyes.
One
woman was beaten to death by an angry mob of fundamentalists
foraccidentally
exposing her arm while she was driving. Another was stoned to death for
trying to leave the country with a man that was not a relative.
Womenare not
allowed to work or even go out in public without a male
relative;professional
women such as professors, translators,
doctors, lawyers, artists and writers have been forced from their
jobsandstuffed
into their homes, so that depression is becoming so widespread that
ithas
reached emergency levels. There is no way in such an extreme
Islamicsociety
to know the suicide rate with certainty, but relief workers
areestimating
that thesuicide rate among women, who cannot find proper medication and
treatment for
severe depression and would rather take their lives than live in such
conditions, has increased significantly. Homes where a woman
ispresent must
have their windows painted so that she can never be seen by
outsiders.They
must wear silent shoes so that they are never heard. Women live in
fearof
their lives for the slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot
work,those
without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death
orbegging on
the street, even if they hold Ph.D.'s. There are almost no
medicalfacilities
available for women, and relief workers, in protest,
have mostly left the country, taking medicine and psychologists andother
things necessary to treat the skyrocketing level of depression
amongwomen. At
one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still,
nearlylifeless
bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their
burqua,unwilling to
speak, eat or do anything, but are slowly wasting away. Others
havegone mad
and were seen crouched in corners, perpetually rocking or crying,
mostof them
in fear. One doctor is considering, when what little medication that
isleft
finally runs out, leaving these women in front of the
president'sresidence as
a form of peaceful protest. It is at the point where the term
'humanrights
violations' have become an understatement. Husbands have the power
oflife
and death over their women relatives, especially their wives, but
anangry mob
has just as much right to stone or beat a woman, often to death,
forexposing
an inch of flesh or offending them in the slightest way.
David Cornwell has said that we in the United States should
notjudge
the Afghan people for such treatment because it is a 'cultural
thing,'but
this is not true. Women enjoyed relative freedom, to work,
dressgenerally as
they wanted, and drive and appear in public alone until only 1996 -- the
rapidity of this transition
is the main reason for the depression and suicide; women who were once
educators or doctors or simply used to basic human freedoms are
nowseverely
restricted and treated as sub-human in the name of
fundamentalistIslam. It
is not their tradition or 'culture,' but is alien to them, and it
isextreme
even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule. Besides, ifwe
could excuse everything on cultural grounds, then we should not
beappalled
that the Carthaginians sacrificed their infant children, that
littlegirls are
circumcised in parts of Africa, that
blacks in the deep south in the 1930's were lynched, prohibited
fromvotingand
forced to submit to unjust Jim crow laws. Everyone has a right to
atolerable
human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country in a
partof the
world that Americans do not understand. If we can threaten
militaryforce in
Kosovo in the name of human rights for the sake of ethnic
Albanians,Americans
can certainlyexpress peaceful outrage at the oppression, murder and
injustice
committedagainst women by the Taliban.STATEMENT:
In signing this, we agree that the current treatment of womenin
Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves support and
action by the people of the United States and the US Government
andthat the
current situation overseas will not be tolerated. Women's Rights is nota
small issue anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1998 to
betreated
as subhuman and so much as property. Equality and human decency is a
RIGHT not a freedom, whether one lives in Afghanistan or the
UnitedStates.
Please Sign at the bottom to support and include your town.
If you are number 50, 100, 150, etc., please e-maila copy of it to
"[email protected]"
Even if you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not kill
the petition. Thank you. * It is best to copy rather than forward
thepetition.
Melissa Buckheit Brandeis University
1) Leslie London, Cape Town, South Africa
2) Tim Holtz, Boston, USA
3) Jennifer Kasper, Boston, MA, USA
4) Ali Noorani, Boston, MA
5) Juli-Ann Carlos, Boston, MA, USA
6) Ben Siegel, Boston, MA USA
7) D. Paul Robinson, Columbia, MO, USA
8) Holly Oswald, Columbia, MO, USA
9) Angela Soiferman, Tampa, FL, USA
10)Tracy Church, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
11)Diane Katz, Merritt Island, Fl, USA
12) Lynda Joy Merkel, Lady Lake, Fl, USA
13) Albert H. "Al" Merkel, Lady Lake, FL USA
14) Susan G. Sirkus, Tucson, Arizona USA
15) Douglas G. Oliver, Pasadena, California USA
16) Judith Malin, Van Nuys, California
17) Andrea Medina, Palm Springs, California
18) James J. Steward, Palm Springs, California
19)David E. S. Steward, Palm Springs, California
20| R. H. Wickard, Meridian Idaho
21) M. Selhorst, Great Lakes, IL
22) E. Cheng, Seattle, WA
23)S. Ng, Dumont, NJ
24) S. Buchdahl, Bronx, NY
25) David Buchdahl, Georgia, Vermont
26) Dick Eisele, Middlesex, Vermont
27) Jean Eisele, Edmonds, WA
28) Kate Oliver, Edmonds, WA
29)Judy O'Malley, Edmonds, WA
30) Jeannette Sarrasin, Mazatlan, Mexico
31) Fred Bowen, Vancouver Wa
32) Alan D Wertkin, Easthampton Massachusetts USA
33) Rev. James J. Olson, White River Junction, Vermont.
34) Beth A. Kaplan, Malden, Massachusetts, USA
35) Jennifer Himsel, Baltimore, MD, USA
36) Richard J.Oatis, Baltimore, MD, USA
37) Sara Taylor, Waldorf, MD, USA
==
"Does she talk the way I do?
Is her voice, is her voice reminding you
of the promises, the little white lies too?
Sometimes, tell me, while she's touching you,
just by mistake,
accidentally, do you say my name?"
_________________________________________________________
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on Sun Jan 31 1999 - 15:21:40 PST