FEMMES EN MARCHE POUR L'AFGHANISTAN Only international pressure
can stop Taliban oppression of women
Letter
to the Editor Following
my participation in the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women, held
in Beijing in 1995, I created the 100 Heroines Project to recognize and support
women around the world who are putting themselves at risk on behalf of women's
rights.
Through
this global project I realized that, while women are oppressed in many countries,
nowhere is the situation so extreme as in Afghanistan. Not only are Afghan
women prevented by the Taliban from exercising their most basic rights to
education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement, but the Taliban
regime is instituting this denial of human rights into law. I know
from personal experience the extreme measures Islamic militants will use to
achieve their goals. In December,
1998, I was among a group of 16 tourists taken hostage by the Aden Abyan Islamic
Army in Yemen. Four of our group were shot dead and two badly wounded by gunfire.
Like these Yemenis militants, the Taliban use violence and a distorted interpretation
of Islam to force their ideology on others. In Dushanbe,
Tajikistan, on June 27-28th, 2000, I personally witnessed a gathering of more
than two hundred Afghan women who gave testimony to the terrible conditions
imposed on them in Afghanistan. These women also drafted their Declaration
of the Fundamental Rights of Afghan Women to reaffirm the rights they enjoyed
before the Taliban regime. In support
of this Declaration, we non-Afghans who were present at the Dushanbe Conference
composed the Call for Action [eds: see below] document to help bring world
attention to the human rights tragedy currently being indicted on Afghan women
by the Taliban and by their Pakistan supporters. The Taliban can only persist
in suppressing the human rights of Afghan women if the international community
stands by and allows it to happen. Dr. Mary
P. Quin (signed) *************** Call for Action by WORFA
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 28 June 2000
We, a
group of 45 people, of whom 43 are women of various nationalities (Algerian,
French, American and Spanish) have come to Dushanbe on June 27th and 28th
2000, as individuals or representatives of women's organizations. Women on
the Road for Afghanistan (WORFA) is part of the Worldwide March of Women taking
place five years after the Beijing Conference on Women. Here in Dushanbe,
we met with more than two hundred Afghan refugee women who have fled the war
in Afghanistan. They came to this meeting to give witness to and write up
their "Declaration of the Fundamental Rights of Afghan Women." After
hearing the direct testimonies of these women and taking into consideration
the reports made by international organizations investigating the war in Afghanistan,
we hereby state that we consider the vicious oppression of women in Afghanistan
to be as serious an issue as the training of terrorists or drug trafficking. Therefore,
WE THE UNDERSIGNED, DENOUNCE: * The
barbaric acts and massive attacks on fundamental rights committed against
the women of Afghanistan by the Taliban regime. * The
suppression of freedom to move about, to work and to access healthcare. * The
attacks on woman's dignity and invasion of private and family life, attacks
that cause irreparable physical and mental damage and are international crimes
against humanity. * The
cynical pretense of the Taliban regime that claims to subscribe to the international
laws protecting the rights of women and men. * The
international drug traffic by the Taliban representing 80% of the world production
of heroin. * The
fact that the zones controlled by the Taliban have become an epicenter generating
international terrorism which has become a threat to democracies. * Pakistan's
active alliance in providing logistics and arms support to the Taliban regime. * The
"neutrality" of the international community, international organizations
and world states which in effect constitutes complicity with the criminal
acts of the Taliban. WE THE
UNDERSIGNED SUPPORT:
In relation
to the above, we, acting as individuals and representatives of organizations
solemnly call upon:
1. To
publicly support the Afghan Women's Declaration of Rights written in Dushanbe
on June 28th, 2000, by the Afghan women meeting there. 2. To
urgently carry out actions that will favor the establishment of a democratic
system in Afghanistan. For more
information, contact: Shoukria Haidar, NEGAR, Association, B.P. 10, 25770
Franois, France, Tel/Fax 011-33-1-48-350-756.
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