Afganistan`s Apartheid
Beginning on September 27, 1996, an
extremist militia group known as the Taliban
seized control of Kabul, the
capital of Afghanistan. Upon seizing control, the
Taliban has instituted
a system of gender apartheid, which has placed women into
a state of virtual
house arrest. Since that time the women and girls of
Afghanistan have
been stripped of all human rights including their voice,
visibility and their
mobility. The Campaign to stop Gender Apartheid, led by the
Feminist
Majority Foundation, has brought together numerous human right and
women’s
organizations around the world to demand an end to the abuses of the
women in
Afghanistan. In the 1980’s when the Soviet Union occupied
Afghanistan,
the United States gave billions of dollars, through a secret CIA
operation,
to revolutionary militia forces called the mujahideen (soldiers of
God).
Unfortunately, in 1989 when the Soviet Union pulled out, groups of
the
mujahideen entered into a civil war and in 1996 the Taliban emerged as
the
controlling force. The Taliban is actually made up of young men and boys
who
were raised in refugee camps and trained in ultraconservative religious
schools
in Pakistan. The primary support system of the Taliban is from
Pakistan, they
provide military aid and personnel, Saudi Arabia provides the
financial support.
In addition, Afghanistan is one of the world’s two
largest producers of opium,
which in turn makes it a huge drug-processing
center. Finally, the biggest
potential for financial support comes from the
wealth of the petroleum industry.
The Taliban claim to follow a pure,
fundamental Islamic ideology, except the
oppression they place upon women has
no foundation in Islam. Within Islam, women
can earn, control and spend their
own money; they can also participate in public
life. Both the Organizations
of the Islamic Conference and the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt have
refused to recognize the Taliban as an official
government in Afghanistan.
Prior to the Taliban seizing control, women led very
different lives. Many
were educated and employed, 60% of the teachers at Kabul
University were
women as were 50% of the students. 70% of schoolteachers, 50% of
civilian
government workers and 40% of doctors were all women. Just recently,
a
United Nations Reporter, Radhika Coomaraswami, voiced her shock of
the
violations she found in Afghanistan. She reported, " widespread,
systematic
violation of Taliban areas of Afghanistan." She said she had never
seen as
much suffering as she witnessed in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban
militia took
control, women have been forced to beg on the streets to simply
feed their
children because only a tiny percentage of women are allowed to
work. Girls have
been banned from attending school after the age of eight and
women can not leave
their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative.
If and when a woman
does leave, she must be covered from head to toe with
only a small opening to
see and breath through. Medical access is extremely
limited because male doctors
cannot treat women and there are very few female
physicians. Finally, the
Taliban has required women to paint their
windows opaque so that the women
inside cannot be seen from the street. These
rules are forcing women to lead a
life worse than the depths of hell. There
are many severe and even deadly
consequences for disobeying the Taliban’s
rules. An elderly woman was
critically beaten with a metal cable until her
leg was broken because her ankle
was accidentally showing. A woman caught
trying to flee Afghanistan was stoned
to death because the man she was with
was not a relative. Many women have died
of treatable illnesses because there
was no doctor who would treat them. A high
number of women, have attempted
suicide by swallowing household cleaner rather
than continuing to live under
these appalling and ghastly circumstances.
Ninety-seven percent of women
who were surveyed by Physicians for Human Rights
showed signs of major
depression. Since the Taliban has taken control of the
government very few
refugees have been able to flee the country to the United
States. One
woman, Nazira Karimi, fled the country one year ago after a long
drawn out
process to be exiled. Karimi was a journalist who spoke out against
the
Taliban’s actions and a death warrant was placed on her and every friend
and
family member. After and initial denial from the United Nations
High
Commissioner for Refugees, she sought help from the Feminist
Majority. Finally,
after several more death threats and the kidnapping and
torture of family
members, emergency action was put into place and she was
exiled to the United
States. Just recently, 16 of her family members
arrived safely at National
Airport with help from the Department of State
and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. In 1996 and 1997 no
refugees were allow to enter, in
1998, 88 refugees entered. This year
with the help of the Feminist Majority
Foundation, the Department of
State will allow approximately 1500 women and
children to enter the United
States to be saved from the deadly actions of the
Taliban. Currently,
many national and international rights organizations are
asking the United
States and the United Nations to not recognize the Taliban as
a legitimate
government. Recently, the United States and the United Nations
have
threatened to impose sanctions against the Taliban if they do not turn
over
Osama bin Laden, a multimillionaire terrorist extremist. The
Feminist Majority
Foundation has appealed to the United States and United
Nations to also include
the brutal gender apartheid policies and human rights
violations as part of the
sanction conditions. President Clinton acknowledged
the Talibans horrible
treatment of women and pledged not to recognize the
militia group until all
human rights are restored. I, personally, am not a
big fan of allowing
immigrants and refugees into our already overcrowded and
problematic country,
but after researching this paper my views have changed.
I still believe we
should restrict how many refugees are allowed into the
United States, but in
times of such dreadful and deadly actions of the
Taliban we need to do something
to protect these women and children. After
looking at pictures and reading about
the disgusting cruelty, I emailed
government and UN officials from the Feminist
Majority web-site. As I sit
and type this paper, women are being beaten and
killed for no reason what so
ever, except for the fact that they are female. I
believe for once our nation
needs to work quickly to help stop these brutal acts
of human rights
violations. People are urged to email the Secretary of State and
the
President to urge him to impose sanctions of the Taliban and not
recognize
their appalling form of government.