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Voices of Women Living Under Fundamentalism
last updated: May, 2008
Articles & Information:
Iran Freedom for Women in Iran
Another Woman Executed in Iran
Two Iranian Women, Two Different but Similar Stories of Suppression and Brutality
Podcast Interview with Ana Sami on the Iranian Resistance Movement
Iraq Freedom for Women in Iraq
UPDATE: Iraq: Campaign to affirm Personal Status Law and remove Article 41 from the constitution
Afghanistan Freedom for Women in Afghanistan
Afghan Journalist Zakia Zaki Slain in Her Sleep
RAWA Statement on International Women's Day
AFGHANISTAN: Honour Killings on the Rise
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence new book by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls
WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS IN AFGHAN CIVIL SOCIETY
AFGHANISTAN: Women Still Under Attack -- A Systematic Failure To Protect
* Infidel
* The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
* Zoya's Story, An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom
* With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
* Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
* Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan, The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
* Women for Afghan Women
* The Storyteller's Daughter, One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland
Journalist Facing Prison
International Herald Tribune - March 6, 2008
An Iranian-American radio journalist who is facing a yearlong prison term for her broadcasts to Iran through Radio Free Europe said yesterday that Iran had threatened to seize her 95-year-old mother's home in Tehran if she did not return to serve a sentence for propaganda. The journalist, Parnaz Azima, 59, who works for the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, said her lawyer in Iran was appealing her conviction Saturday by Tehran's 13th Revolutionary Court for spreading propaganda and working for the "anti- revolutionary" Radio Farda, the Persian-language station of Radio Free Europe. "The interrogation was about everything, about my own life," she said. "What was I doing before leaving Iran 25 years ago. What I was doing in my life before coming to Radio Free Europe. And then about what was I doing in Radio Free Europe. And they were always insisting that if I cooperated with them, everything would be closed." She noted that officials particularly urged her to avoid covering sensitive issues like human rights. IPS News - March 11, 2008 Suppression of women's movements and refusal to allow women to rally in public places by Iran's hard line rulers kept celebrations of this year's International Women's Day confined to small gatherings in private residences. The fear of harassment or arrest was real. Memories are fresh of the arrests of 10 women at a Mar. 8 rally in front of the Iranian Parliament, last year. Four days prior to that, 33 women's rights advocates, who had rallied in front of a revolutionary court to protest the trial of five women's rights activists, were arrested on charges of 'jeopardising national security'. Since then, tens of more rights activists have been arrested, summoned by courts or security bodies, imprisoned, tried by revolutionary courts or prevented from leaving the country. The Tronto Star - March 12, 2008 Soroya Malekzadeh wanted to test Iran's claim to being an open democracy, so she submitted her nomination papers to be a candidate for this month's parliamentary elections. The reply came from the Interior Ministry, formally disqualifying her for failing to meet Iran's strict Islamic requirements. Now, exhausted by state harassment and imprisonment, she has submitted another set of papers, this time to the Canadian embassy in Tehran in hope of obtaining refugee status. From a small, one-bedroom apartment in central Tehran, Malekzadeh trembles and blinks nervously as she describes her failed bid to run in Iran's elections. Visibly exhausted from years of run-ins with the authorities, Malekzadeh, 38, says her vocal stance on women's issues in Iran has left her with little option but to leave. "I have lost almost everything," she says. "My job, my future, everything," the medical nurse adds. "Women can't do anything in this country. The government tells us how to dress, whether we can see boys and what we can say ... I want to go to Canada where I can have freedom." The former lecturer and author with a Masters degree in medicine now spends her days reading and pleading her case for asylum. "I am not a criminal," she says, sipping tea.
Young Girl Stoned
Although the Iranian regime claims that it halted the practice of stoning, the stoning verdict of a 14 year old girl was approved and carried out by her father in city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan province. The security forces took no action to stop the killing of the young girl despite the desperate plea by her mother. The father admitted to the head of Zahedan police that he killed his daughter for her "illicit relation with a man, indecency and lack of morality". According to the father, he stoned his own daughter first and then killed her by four bullet because "he had no other choice but to defend his honor." According to Article 220 of Iran's Penal code, the father will not face any punishment for taking matters in to his own hands.
WFAFI News Service - February 18, 2008
web: http://www.wfafi.org
Another Woman Executed in Iran
BOSTON, MA- - On Wednesday December 19, 2007, the Iranian regime executed 3 men and one woman as part of a brutal wave of suppression and hangings. All four were hanged in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. The woman was only identified by her first name, Zahra and charged with poisoning her husband. A few days earlier, the student organizations had reported that a woman by the name Zahra N. will soon be hanged.
According to Amnesty International the number of public executions has increased sharply in Iran in 2007, especially in the wake of crackdown on "social vices" announced in April. On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran. It expressed "deep concern" at "ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedom" of its own people.
The Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI) calls upon The United States government as well as the European Union to hold Tehran responsible for gross violations of human rights, treatment of women and to denounce the brutal practices of the Islamic Fundamentalist regime in Iran. Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and the rest of the leaders of the clerical regime in Iran must be held responsible for severe violations of human rights, especially the rights of women in their country.
Recent public hangings, execution, stoning, are only a few examples of Tehran's inhumane and criminal behavior. Silence and indifference is unforgivable. The world must stand in defense of human rights and stop the policy of appeasement towards Tehran's regime. Any policy on Iran must place the human rights issues at the center of countering the threats by Islamic Fundamentalist regime. The Iranian regime must be pressured to put an end to the relentless suppression and execution of its own people.
email: press [at] wfafi.org
Media Inquiry: (617) 590-1665
web: http://www.wfafi.org
Two Iranian Women, Two Different but Similar Stories of Suppression and Brutality
Release from The Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI)
October 31, 2007
BOSTON, MA- -Two disturbing stories about two very different women from different areas in Iran follow. Both stories are testimonials to the suffering of women under the Islamic Fundamentalists ruling Iran.
- Soghra Najafpoor has spent 18 years in prison. She was arrested at the age of 13 and accused of killing an 8 year old boy. Soghra started working as a maid in a doctor's house in Tehran when she was 9. She alleges that the doctor sexually molested her. The medical records from 18 years ago also verify that Soghra was molested at the time. She was taken to be executed at the age of 17 but the parents of the deceased child changed their minds and asked for clemency. According to Islamic Sharia law practiced in Iran, the family of the victim could make the decision about execution of the accused. Soghra was released due to persistent efforts of her lawyer after spending 18 years in prison. But now the parents of her alleged victim have filled out the request for execution of Soghra. She denies the charge of killing the young boy, but she cannot even appeal her death sentence. Although Soghra was thirteen at the time of the alleged crime, according to the October 2nd edition of the state-run daily Etemad, the mullahs' judiciary insists on carrying out the hanging shortly. Iran is a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which obliges the Iranian regime not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18. But time and again the fundamentalist regime has ignored both conventions.
- Ronak Safarzadeh, a 21 year old graduate of Graphics design and a women's rights activist from Kurdistan, Iran was arrested a few weeks ago in Sanandaj and taken to the Information Ministry's detention center. The agents of Information ministry entered her house without a warrant. They confiscated her personal belongings and arrested her. Her mother has actively searched for her to no avail. She has been ridiculed and ignored. She was told her that she will be detained if her daughter's story gets publicized. Ronak was active with "one million signature" petition to change the discriminatory laws against women in Iran. She was also a member of Women's Azarmehr organization in Kurdistan.
The Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI) calls upon all human rights and women's rights organizations along with the UN Human Rights Council to denounce the brutal practices of the Islamic Fundamentalist regime in Iran. The leaders of the theocratic regime ruling Iran must be held responsible for gross violations of human rights, especially the rights of women, in their country.
WFAFI calls upon the world community to hold the Iranian government responsible for crimes against women and help free Soghra, Ronak and all the women detained, tortured and on the verge of execution in Iran.
Media Inquiry: (617) 590-1665
web: http://www.wfafi.org
Public Hangings
from E-Zan Newsletter, September 15, 2007
"In the past eight months, there has been 235 prisoners hanged, according to Iran's state-run news sources and agencies. Men and women have been publicly hanged in major cities and the number is growing daily. No criticism or condemnation, as of yet, from UN Human Rights Council. Instead, the Council's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour traveled to Iran to attend a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference on human rights and cultural diversity. Given the backing from NAM of developing nations, there is now a plan to set up a human rights and cultural diversity centre in Iran. And Arbour is ready to provide 'technical and consultation assistance' for this center.
"One can only wonder how Louise Arbour, neglected to acknowledge the atrocities taken place in Iran. While families of victims and political prisoners desperately tried to meet with her during her trip, she enjoyed an orchestrated visit with fundamentalist leaders in Tehran.The day after Arbour left Iran, Ahmadinejad's regime hanged 21 people. On September 5, the Amnesty International said that it is "appalled at the reports of the execution of 21 people." With Ahmadinejad, it is hard to ignore the daily public hangings in Iran these days.
"Ironically, her trip also coincided with the one year anniversary of women's campaign to gather 'One Million Signatures' on gender discrimination in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Some of the organizers of this campaign are still in prison. Of course, they never got a visit from Louise Arbour, nor did the families of victims and political prisoners.
"With the state-sponsored escalated violence against women, public hangings, arbitrary arrests and crackdowns, Arbour's visit was adding salt to injury for Iranian people, particularly women!"
Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (web: http://www.wfafi.org)
phone: (617) 590-1665
Podcast Interview of Ana Sami on the Iranian Resistance Movement
http://www.feistyaphroditemovement.com/UserFiles/Media/podcasts/MEKpodcast.mp3
The voice podcast interview is an excellent overview of the Iranian Resistance Movement and worth every minute of your listening time for the important issues that are discussed. The interview was done by a group called Feisty Aphrodite.
Valuable link:
About Stop Stoning Forever Campaign: http://www.meydaan.com/English/aboutus.aspx
The objective of this campaign is to change the Islamic Penal Code of Iran such that stoning will neither be issued as a sentence nor be practiced as a punishment ever again.
IRAQ
UPDATE: Iraq: Campaign to affirm Personal Status Law and remove Article 41 from the constitution
Organization calling for this campaign: Women in Leadership Institute
Update on: UPDATE: Iraq: Protect Iraqi women's rights in the new Iraq Constitution
October 25, 2006: We have received the following information from Iraqi friends who have initiated a campaign now that the constitutional committee has been formed. Their demands will be sent to the committee, to urge them to affirm the Personal Status Law and to remove Article 41 from the Iraqi constitution.
Article 41
First: The followers of all religions and sects are free in the:
A. Practice of religious rites, including the Husseini ceremonies (Shiite religious ceremonies).
B. Management of the endowments, its affairs and its religious institutions. The law shall regulate this.
Second: The state guarantees freedom of worship and the protection of the places of worship.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Send your messages of support to the Women in Leadership Institute wliiraq@yahoo.com
BACKGROUND
Letter to the Constitutional Amendment Committee
In the name of God the Merciful and the Compassionate
Ladies and Gentlemen, respected members of the constitutional amendment committee:
Warm greetings:
We are Iraqi organizations, both women’s groups and those which include men and women, working both inside and outside Iraq. We are Arab and international organizations. We are individual men and women. We all believe in human rights and freedoms. We believe in the importance of establishing Iraqi unity according to the principle of citizenship. We believe a state of law, justice and equality. We raise before you our demand to affirm law 188, the Personal Status Law of 1959, in the knowledge that certain necessary amendments which do not affect the essential nature of this law will be necessary, and the deletion of article 41 from the Iraqi constitution.
We would like to explain the reasons behind raising this demand:
The Personal Status Law 188/1959 is built on an advanced reading of the Islamic Sharia.
This law unifies all Iraqis.
Affirming this law is a step towards implementing the National Reconciliation project and establishing national unity. Furthermore, it promotes the principle of a citizenship far from sectarian or doctrinal divisions.
This law is considered a legislative achievement for all Iraqis. It came into being in 1959, one and a half years after the change of Iraq from a Kingdom to a Republic on July 14, 1958. Strenuous efforts, both religious and legal, were made in the drafting of this law. It was the result of hard work by judges, other experts who further refined it, and the Iraqi women’s movement who pressed for its existence. Is it really possible to return the Iraqi family to the period before 1959 and to the state of no law?
The main goal of the efforts that made law 188 (1959) a reality was to settle the regulation of domestic life and to put an end to the confusion that happened because there was no unified law to organize this aspect of life. Most Iraqi families have been and are still built on mixed marriages between different sects. For this reason, the country is in real need of a law that organizes personal status.
Affirming the Personal Status Law is in accordance with the new direction of Iraq towards a democratic style of life where its people, encouraged by obtaining rights that ensure their humanity and dignity, play their proper role and participate in society.
Respected Ladies and Gentlemen.
We are certain of your desire to perform your historic mission honestly and with deep vision, but we confirm our efforts to preserve our social unity and we support your efforts to achieve this politically.
God bless you for serving Iraq and its people
Alsalam Alaiqum Warahmat Allah Wabarakatuh
Organization calling for this campaign: Women in Leadership Institute
Iraq/Baghdad
October 12, 2006
AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Journalist Zakia Zaki Slain in Her Sleep
June 8, 2007
Internews Network
Internews mourns the devastating loss of Afghan journalist Zakia Zaki, the owner and manager of radio Sada-i-Sulh, or Peace Radio, an Internews partner station. Late in the evening of June 5, gunmen entered her house and shot her seven times, including in the chest and head, while she lay asleep in her bedroom with her baby.
"Zakia was one of those people we all knew and loved; she was so courageous and positive at the same time," said Jan McArthur, Country Director for Internews in Afghanistan. "We are truly shocked and saddened at the killing of this respected and inspirational community leader."
Zaki, who was 35, had described Peace Radio as "a community home for the residents, the only place where they dare to express themselves freely." As the only independent radio station in Parwan Province, based an hour north of Kabul, Peace Radio covered women's issues, human rights, education and local politics.
Zaki had received several death threats for her programming and her staff had been harassed. She had received threats of station takeovers from local community and religious leaders opposed to her political views and also to the concept of a woman as manager of a radio station. But she remained optimistic and vigilant in her commitment to managing a station that is truly community-owned and -run, and one of the few in Afghanistan that gives a real voice to women.
Radio Peace was one of the first radio stations that Internews supported when it began work fostering independent media in Afghanistan in 2002. Zaki participated in Internews trainings for journalists and station managers with great enthusiasm and, though she was one of only four female station managers, she was one of the most active and successful managers of all Internews partner stations as well as a strong advocate for independent media.
Zaki's six children, who were in the house at the time of her murder, were unharmed, and her husband was away. Zaki was also a representative from Parwan Province to a national tribal assembly and was headmistress of a high school for girls.
Zakia Zaki’s murder was the second targeted murder of a female journalist in Afghanistan in a week. Television reporter Shekiba Sanga Amaaj was killed in her home a few days earlier.
Link to article:
Malalai Joya is Suspended from Parliament
by Sonali Kolhatkar
May 21, 2007
http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=582%5D
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RAWA statement on International Women's Day, March 8, 2007
As long as the fundamentalists are in power, there will be no end to the oppressions and crimes against Afghan women
The world came into motion in the name of "liberating Afghan woman" and our country was invaded, but the sorrows and deprivations of Afghan women has not just failed to reduce, but actually increased the level of oppression and brutality day by day on this most ruined population of our society.
Women's Rights is Human Rights
The corrupt and mafia government of Mr. Karzai and its international guardians, are playing shamelessly with the intolerable suffering of Afghan women and misuse it as their propaganda tool for deceiving the people of the world. They have placed some women into official posts in the government who are favored by the warlords and then proclaim it as symbol of "women's liberation" in the country. But the presence of a number of women in high posts is not important unless they touch the depth of our people's adversities and sufferings, like the parliamentarian Malalai Joya, and uncompromisingly struggle against the bloody enemies of woman's rights and democracy and consider women's emancipation as an integral part of the liberation of our whole country from the filthy shackles of the fundamentalists and their foreign masters.
The government and Western media trumpet the presence of 68 women in the parliament as a huge achievement for Afghanistan and a sign of democracy and women's rights. But almost all of these women themselves are the most horrible enemies of woman's rights and democracy and are acting as little crank dolls in the hand of the warlords. In this odious reactionary parliament, with the exception of the glorious and suffocated voice of Joya, no voice from the remaining 68 has been raised against the Khalqi, Parchami, Jehadi or Talibi vultures. A number of these women members of parliament like Safora Niazi, Noorzia Atmar, Parveen Durani, Shakeela Hashmi, Malalai Isaqzai etc. are so shameless that they clearly overtook blood suckers like Sayyaf, Rabbani, Alam Seya, Farooqi and others in physically attacking Malalai Joya inside the parliament.
In reality the heart-rendering pain and cry of Saimas, Rahimas, Gul Shahs, Sanoobers, Gul Bibis, Aminas and hundreds of awful stories of suicide and self-immolations as a result of injustice and disappointment in every corner of the county, is an stigma on the face of the institutions and all of those who, out of their political interests, try to paint a brilliant picture of the women's rights situation in Afghanistan. One shouldn't expect drastic changes in the terrible situation of the women, in a land where the drug-lords and champions of destruction, corruption, crime and a handful of treacherous intellectuals are in power.
The main cause of the catastrophe in our country is the fact that traitors like Rabbani, Sayyaf, Qanoni, Muhaqiq, Dostum, Khalili, Ismail, Fahim and the like are in power, who have a dark history full of tyranny and barbarism. These men have their regional and international protectors wrapped around their fingers and have a number of dishonorable intellectuals in their pockets. Recently these religious fascists passed a bill called "National Conciliation" in the parliament and senate house, in order to escape justice and enjoy immunity before any court, for the killing of hundreds of thousands of defenseless people of our country.
Once again these betrayers of our motherland, by organizing a march in Kabul, tried to show their power and intimidate our mournful people into conciliation. But they must think we are blind to assume they will not be prosecuted. If their march was to show their power to Mr. Karzai, they must know that for a long time Karzai has accepted the historical and disgraceful collaboration by conspiring with the murderers of his father and hundreds of thousands compatriot fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers.
Fahim and his partners warned that the next time the Jehadi leaders are accused for war crimes, they will react with seriousness. If Karzai was not involved in their guilt and crimes, he would have responded to such shameful threats and taken back the title of Marshal from the criminal named Fahim. This act would have at least removed one of the shames from Karzai's record and not allow the presence of unreasonable traitors as his ministers. These felon robbers, by their cheap threats, prove themselves to be untamed blood-suckers and war-mongers who still have the lust and facilities of endless crimes against our people – they are capable of repeating the treacherous years of 1992 to 1996.
It is not important whether Mr. Karzai puts a stamp of endorsement on this deceitful immunity bill or not. His anti-patriotic dealings with, and installation of, the most hateful enemies of people in the legislative, executive and judicial bodies, has shown him to have dipped his head into the black pot of Jehadi, Parchami, Khalqi and Talibi assassins. But they must know that one day our people will bind the hands of all these criminals and take them to justice without fail, and on that day Mr. Karzai must also be questioned as their guilty partner.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), empowered by the blood of its martyred leader and the pain and misery of its nation, is vowing in front of the oppressed but freedom-loving women and men, to continue its uncompromising struggle against murderers, fundamentalists, their lackey intellectuals and their foreign masters, without any compromise or diplomacy. And on behalf of our currently silenced majority, we will continue the claim against these oppressors. By relying on our people and the justice-loving people of the world, we will push them into a court of justice like we did to their religious brother Zardad.
The US government and its allies have committed an unforgivable betrayal to our people by mounting the Jehadi mafias in the power. They have left no doubt for our people and the world that they are after their own global and regional interests and that they have no use for stability, freedom and democracy in Afghanistan.
The women and men of Afghanistan should know that freedom and democracy are those values, which are not possible to be donated to us via the power of B52 bombers and by a foreign country and spies from Iran, Pakistan, the USA and Russia. Achieving these values is only possible through their conscious, stable, and constant courage and combat.
In addition to sending its warmest greetings to all of our supporters and friends around the world on this International Women's Day, RAWA is asking all of them and all people supporting justice, freedom and human rights, to help us prosecute these war criminals of last thirty years.
Down with fundamentalists and all of the religious and non-religious criminals and their foreign protectors!
Long live the struggle of women and men of Afghanistan for independence, democracy and social justice!
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
8th March 2007 - Kabul
RAWA website: http://www.rawa.org/
Also see photos from a RAWA celebration of International Women's Day: http://www.rawa.org/events/mar9-07.htm
AFGHANISTAN: Honour Killings on the Rise
Written by Christine
KABUL, 15 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - A weak judiciary, a lack of law enforcement and widespread discriminatory practices against women are fuelling a rise in honour killings in Afghanistan, officials from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said on Friday.
Bebi (not her real name) fears for her life after fleeing her house in the southeastern province of Paktia in June. The 15-year-old said she was forced into a marriage that she did not want. “I was engaged to an old man when I was only six months old, how can that be right?”
She's now living incognito with friends in the capital Kabul. Facilities to protect women like Bebi are virtually nil in Afghanistan and many resign themselves to their fate.
“My husband treated me like an animal, not as a human, with daily beatings and torture and locking me indoors, ”Bebi said. “I know he [husband] is pursuing me to kill me because he thinks I have disgraced him but God knows it is he who was guilty.”
So-called honour killings, which rights activists say have become increasingly common in Afghanistan, are murders of women or girls who are believed to have brought shame on the family name. They are usually carried out by male family members, or sometimes by ‘contractors’ who are paid to carry out the killing and occasionally by children too young to face the law.
The killings are commonly carried out on women and girls refusing to enter into an arranged marriage or for having a relationship that the family considers to be inappropriate. Due to such pressures from families, many women are driven to suicide or flee their homes to escape an honour killing.
According to AIHRC, some 185 women and girls have been killed by family members so far this year, a significant increase on the previous year. But rights activists say that the real number is much higher as many such cases go unreported, particularly in rural areas.
“Unfortunately, many women and girls continue to lose their lives due to this [honour killing] brutal crime. Sadly, it’s totally ingrained in [Afghan] culture, particularly in rural areas of the country,” Soraya Sobrang, head f AIHRC, told IRIN.
Sobrang blamed weak prosecution of perpetrators and a lack of awareness among women about their rights as the key factors driving the practice.
A change in attitude on the part of the police and judiciary was also needed. "Regrettably, police forces in Afghanistan either don't arrest such killers or they don’t treat them as murderers," Rahmatullah Weda, an information officer at AIHRC remarked.
Afghanistan’s government, which says it is committed to human rights and ending discrimination against women, hopes to end the practice but admits there are challenges ahead.
Dad Mohammad Rasa, an interior ministry spokesman, said honour crimes were prosecuted, but that the practice was so entrenched that stamping it out would be a long-term project.
“We have created a commission in the interior ministry to try and eradicate such cases but it will take a long time to overcome such crimes as it has become a part of many people’s culture.”
Despite considerable progress being made following the collapse of the hard line Taliban regime in late 2001 and women’s rights being protected under the new constitution, violence against women such as self-immolation, forced marriages and rape remain widespread in Afghanistan.
The increase in such crimes against women has also been explained by the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan’s southern provinces. The killing, maiming and beating of women were practically institutionalised during their ultra-conservative rule from 1996 until late 2001.
The Afghan rights watchdog has registered some 704 cases of violence against women, including 89 cases of forced marriages and 50 cases of self-immolation so far in 2006, again, a significant increase over last year, it said.
© IRIN
* IRIN
Source: IRIN - www.irinnews.org .
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence
By Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls
Seven Stories Press (September, 2006)
Description
In the years following 9/11, U.S. policy in Afghanistan has received little scrutiny, either from the media or the public. Despite official claims of democracy and women’s freedom, Afghanistan has yet to emerge from the ashes of decades-long war. Through in-depth research and detailed historical context, Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls report on the injustice of U.S. policies in Afghanistan historically and in the post-9/11 era.
Drawing from declassified government documents and on-the-ground interviews with Afghan activists, journalists, lawyers, refugees, and students, Bleeding Afghanistan examines the connections between the U.S. training and arming of Mujahideen commanders and the subversion of Afghan democracy today. Bleeding Afghanistan boldly critiques the exploitation of Afghan women to justify war by both conservatives and liberals, analyzes uncritical media coverage of U.S. policies, and examines the ways in which the U.S. benefits from being in Afghanistan.
About the Authors
SONALI KOLHATKAR and JAMES INGALLS are the co-directors of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that works with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).
Their writings have appeared in Z Magazine, Foreign Policy in Focus, on Alternet, Common Dreams, and in CounterPunch.
In February 2005, Kolhatkar and Ingalls traveled to Afghanistan to witness firsthand the results of U.S.policy, and to understand how ordinary Afghans felt about the war.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Uprising, a popular, daily, drive-time program on KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles.
James Ingalls is a Staff Scientist at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology.
WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS IN AFGHAN CIVIL SOCIETY
Author: Rowden, R.
This issues report offers a brief overview of some of the key challenges and concerns faced by women's NGOs within Afghan civil society as women's rights and opportunities are pursued in the context of national reconstruction and development.
The authors explore issues including how much international aid actually targets women, capacity building programmes aimed towards women, leadership opportunities for women, relationships between local and international NGOs, as well as examining how various facets of international trade and development are affecting opportunities for women in Afghanistan. The authors also examine local and international programmes dealing with health, education, aid, and private foreign investment.
The authors conclude that there must be a more concerted effort by the international community to address and improve women's opportunities in Afghanistan. They critique the international aid mechanism as failing to adequately address women's needs, and as potentially duplicating or unnecessarily overlapping with local NGO activities. The authors also address how international aid functions in Afghanistan on a broader, more gender-neutral level.
Produced by: ActionAid International (2005)
Available online at:
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC18655
AFGHANISTAN: Women Still Under Attack -- A
Systematic Failure To Protect
This report highlights the failure of the Afghan state to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of women and girls. It seeks to provide examples that highlight the inability, and at times the lack of will, of the government and its institutions to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of women. The report documents abuses perpetrated against women and girls in Afghanistan, including; forced and underage marriage; sexual violence; violations of the right to mental and physical integrity; deprivation of life and liberty; denial of freedom of movement; and the very present risk of torture and ill-treatment.
The paper, produced by Amnesty International, calls on the state to ensure that women are free from violence, whether committed by the institutions or agents of the state, members of the community, informal justice systems or by a family member, the state is required also to hold perpetrators to account. The paper also calls on the international donor community for Afghanistan to encourage and support the Afghan government in ending crimes against women through sustained commitment to rebuilding of the country in ways that enable women to realise their rights.
The paper examines the social, cultural, and economic environment in which violence against women in Afghanistan is occurring, and also examines Afghanistan's obligations as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The report includes extensive interviews with Afghan women, exposing graphic stories of domestic and legal abuse and violations.
The authors conclude that while the Afghan government faces significant obstacles to ensuring women's rights, there are further measures that the government needs to adopt, both specifically to address abuses, as well as to create a socio-economic climate that will allow both men and women to explore alternative behaviours. The paper ends with an extensive list of recommendations, to the Afghan as well as international authorities.
Author(s): Amnesty International
Produced by: Amnesty International (AI) (2005)
Available online at:
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19219
Infidel
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2007)
"In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalis, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
"One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission."
The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2006)
"Muslims who explore sources of morality other than Islam are threatened with death, and Muslim women who escape the virgins' cage are branded whores. So asserts Ayaan Hirsi Ali's profound meditation on Islam and the role of women, the rights of the individual, the roots of fanaticism, and Western policies toward Islamic countries and immigrant communities. Hard-hitting, outspoken, and controversial, The Caged Virgin is a call to arms for the emancipation of women from a brutal religious and cultural oppression and from an outdated cult of virginity. It is a defiant call for clear thinking and for an Islamic Enlightenment. But it is also the courageous story of how Hirsi Ali herself fought back against everyone who tried to force her to submit to a traditional Muslim woman's life and how she became a voice of reform.
"Born in Somalia and raised Muslim, but outraged by her religion's hostility toward women, Hirsi Ali escaped an arranged marriage to a distant relative and fled to the Netherlands. There, she learned Dutch, worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelters for battered women, earned a college degree, and started a career in politics as a Dutch parliamentarian. In November 2004, the violent murder on an Amsterdam street of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, with whom Hirsi Ali had written a film about women and Islam called Submission, changed her life. Threated by the same group that slew van Gogh, Hirsi Ali now has round-the-clock protection, but has not allowed these circumstances to compromise her fierce criticism of the treatment of Muslim women, of Islamic governments' attempts to silence any questioning of their traditions, and of Western governments' blind tolerance of practices such as genital mutilation and forced marriages of female minors occurring in their countries."
Zoya's Story, An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom
By Zoya with John Follain and Rita Cristofari
(HarperCollins Publishers, NY: 2002)
Dedication: "To the women of Afghanistan, the victims of inhuman suffering inflicted by fundamentalism"
Excellent and inspiring -- a moving account.
With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
By Anne E. Brodsky
With a foreword from RAWA
With All Our Strength chronicles the history of RAWA and their battle for women's rights in Afghanistan. Through interviews with more than 100 members and supporters of RAWA, Brodsky reveals the principles behind their enormous success. With All Our Strength tells how RAWA's innovative structure and strong spirit of community have allowed this remarkable organization to survive. With All Our Strength is an ode to the resilience of Afghan women and a model for all human rights organizations. As RAWA says in their foreword, "This is the only book that uses firsthand experiences to accurately portray Afghan women not as silent victims under the burqas but warriors who have bravely resisted all oppressive regimes and have changed their lives and the lives of many others."
Arundhati Roy writes:
"Anne Brodsky's book gives us a ring side view of this extraordinary women's movement that is as doggedly committed to democracy as it is to dreaming of another, better world. Each of us needs a little RAWA."
Katha Pollit says:
"Anne Brodsky goes behind the headlines to look closely at a unique organization that according to popular stereotypes of Afghan women should not exist."
Ahmed Rashid calls it "A powerful story."
With All Our Strength is available in bookstores throughout the U.S., through a link on RAWA's website, from Amazon.com, and in English language bookstores throughout the world.
All author proceeds go directly to RAWA
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Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Mailing Address: RAWA, P.O.Box 374, Quetta, Pakistan
Mobile: 0092-300-8551638
Fax: 001-760-2819855
E-mail: rawa@rawa.org
Home Page: http://www.rawa.org
Mirror site: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net
Routledge, NY, 2003
Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
By Cheryl Benard
The story of RAWA with interviews of these dedicated women and their supporters. We hear the voices of women who for decades have resisted oppression and worked for the liberation of the Afghan people.
Random House, NY, 2002
Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan, The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
By Melody Ermachild Chavis
With a foreword by Alice Walker
A moving and fascinating account of the founder of RAWA.
All of the author's proceeds from this book will be donated to programs sponsored by RAWA.
St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 2003
Women for Afghan Women
Edited by Sunita Mehta
Contributor chapters by Murwarid Abdiani, Mikele Aboitiz, Rina Amiri, Sara Amiryar, Freshta Amirzada, Fevziye Rahzogar Barlas, Zohra Yusuf Faoud, Atia Gaheez, Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, Riffat Hassan, Felicity Hill, Esther Hyneman, Angela E. V. King, Andrea Labis, Arline J. Lederman, Irena Lieberman, Homaira Mamoor, Weeda Mansoor, Sunita Mehta, Ruth Messinger, Sanaa Nadim, Fariba Nawa, Lina Pallotta, Zohra Rasekh, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Masuda Sultan, Fahima Vorgetts, Sima Wali, and Batya Swift Yasgur.
Palgrave Macmillan, NY, 2002
The Storyteller's Daughter, One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland
By Saira Shah
Saira Shah lives in London and is a freelance journalist. She was born in Britain of an Afghan family, the daughter of Idries Shah, a writer of Sufi fables. She first visited Afghanistan at age twenty-one and worked there for three years as a freelance journalist, covering the guerilla war against the Soviet occupiers. Later, working for Britain's Channel 4 News, she covered some of the world's most troubled spots, including Algeria, Kosovo, and Kinshasa, as well as Baghdad and other parts of the Middle East. Her documentary Beneath the Veil was broadcast on CNN.
Random House, Inc., NY, 2003
Websites
http://www.meydaan.com/English/wwarchive.aspx
The objective of this campaign is to change the Islamic Penal Code of Iran such that stoning will neither be issued as a sentence nor be practiced as a punishment ever again.
Arab Women's Court: http://www.arabwomencourt.org/
The Permanent Arab Court To Resist Violence Against Women is a symbolic popular court that aims at fighting all forms of violence practiced against women in Arab societies.
National Council of Women - Egypt: http://www.ncw.gov.eg/new-ncw/english/index.jsp
NCW aims to enhance the status of all Egyptian women and to maximize their contribution to the growth and development of Egypt. The focus is on narrowing existing socio-economic gender gaps and addressing women's strategic needs including social, economic and political empowerment.
Iran:
Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran
E-ZAN VOICE OF WOMEN AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM IN IRAN
Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran is committed to promote a greater awareness of the challenges women face living under the fundamentalist regimes like Iran. Our tasks ranges from raising public awareness, conducting research projects, initiating outreach programs, to policy discussions and analysis. We firmly believe the political presence, participation and leadership of women are the essential elements in achieving social, political and economic equality. We are a group of individuals concerned with the growing threat of fundamentalism worldwide. We submit to the definition of fundamentalism explained in the comparative study of religions, as embodiment of backwardness in its host cultures or religion .Our primary area of focus is the Islamic Fundamentalism in Iran, established as a form of government in 1979. For more information, please visit http://www.wfafi.org
National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran
The National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran is a non-profit organization advocating since 1990 on behalf of women's rights in Iran. NCWDI was formed to fill the vacuum of a women's organization devoted specifically to monitoring and promoting women's rights in Iran. Our tasks range from accurate reporting, to public appearances, to engaging in discussion and exchange with relevant authoritative bodies.
Afghanistan:
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
"RAWA was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. RAWA's objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women's human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political
Iraq:
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq / Equality in Iraq
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) - a women's a women's political organisation working in Iraq, advocating Iraqi women's rights and setting up women's shelters etc. Publishes a regular newsletter. http://www.equalityiniraq.com/
1940 Calvert Street, NW
Washinton, DC 20009-1502
phone: 202-265-6707
email: allen [at] wifp.org
www.wifp.org