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Afghanistan followed the same fate as dozens of formerly Soviet-occupied countries after the collapse of Moscow's Marxist government in 1991. Islamic factions, which had united to expel the Russian occupiers in 1992, began to fight among themselves when it became apparent that post-communist coalition governments could not overcome the deep-rooted ethnic and religious differences of the members. It was in this atmosphere of economic strife and civil war that a fundamentalist band of religious students emerged victorious. By 1996, this group, the Taliban, ruled 90 % of the country with a controversial holy iron hand. The other 10 % of the country is tenaciously held by minority opposition groups led by president Rabbani and military commander Ahmed Shah Massoud and aided by foreign Taliban adversaries. This Northern Alliance shares critics objections to the Taliban's extreme fundamentalist methods and especially scorns Pashtun ethnic chauvinism.
Today only Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate ruling party. The United Nations still considers Massoud head of State, the US advocates a broad based government and others favor Rabbani, Zahir Shah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or other opponents as rulers of Afghanistan. The Taliban claim to follow a pure, fundamentalist Islamic ideology, yet the oppression they perpetrate against women has no basis in Islam. Within Islam, women are allowed to earn and control their own money, and to participate in public life. The 55 -member Organization of Islamic Conference has refused to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's official government. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, regarded by many as an ultraconservative, fundamentalist organization, has denounced the Taliban's decrees.
Female employment and education is restricted or banned. Women must stay at home. If necessary, women who do leave the house must be accompanied by a male relative and cover themselves with a burqa (an ankle-length veil with a mesh-like opening in front of the eyes). Non-religious music, cassette tapes, TV and movies are all banned.
Multi-colored signs are prohibited. White socks are forbidden (either because they are considered a sexual lure or because they resemble Afghanistan's flag). Children cannot fly kites, play chess or play with the pigeons since it distracts them from their religious studies. Men must wear beards or face prison until their shaven whiskers grow back. Paper bags are banned since the paper might have been recycled from old Korans and lower level windows must be blackened to prevent males from inadvertently catching women in compromising states. In order to guarantee that men and women observe the new rules, the Taliban have employed a moral police force (Agents for the Preservation of Virtue and Elimination of Vice) to search for violators.
The purported brutal treatment of offenders by the moral police has led Amnesty International to classify the conduct a " reign of terror. " Prior to the Civil War and Taliban control, especially in Kabul, the capital, women in Afghanistan were educated and employed: 50 % of the students and 60 % of the teachers at Kabul University were women, and 70 % of school teachers, 50 % of civilian government workers, and 40 % of doctors in Kabul were women. Some examples of gender apartheid follow: A woman who dared to defy Taliban orders by running a home school for girls was shot and killed in front of her husband, daughter, and students. A woman caught trying to flee Afghanistan with a man not related to her was stoned to death for adultery. An elderly woman was brutally beaten with a metal cable until her leg was broken because her ankle was accidentally showing from underneath her burqa. Women have died of treatable ailments because male doctors were not allowed to treat them. Many women, now forcibly housebound, have attempted suicide by swallowing household cleaner, rather than continuing to live under these conditions. 97 % of Afghan women surveyed by Physicians for Human Rights exhibit signs of major depression.
The Taliban creates fallacies t maintain control. The following is an excerpt from newspaper in 199. The Taliban emerged in early 1994 from the Sunni religious schools (called madrassah) near Quetta, Pakistan, at a time when factional fighting and resulting lawlessness were at their height. Originally a small band of warriors from the majority Pashtoon tribe, their numbers swelled as they met with increasing success. Their take-over of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, in April 1994, was welcomed by its citizens, who had long suffered under corrupt and brutal mujahideen commanders. The Taliban (the name derives from the Arabic word for student) quickly established order in Kandahar, disarming all factions and the general population.
The Taliban leader of the faithful, amir ul-mosinee, Mohammed Omar, is a former mujahedin and is a mullah from Kandahar. A Pashtoon city, Kandahar has accepted the Taliban's version of sharia (Islamic law), which is more or less consistent with local traditions. Today it is peaceful. The Taliban subsequently swept through south-western Afghanistan, and arrived in Herat, close to the Iranian border, in September 1995. On 27 September 1996 the Taliban took control of Kabul. Little resistance was offered by retreating government forces.
The Taliban version of Islam is an interpretation of the Koran (i-sharif) and derived from Pashtunwali, the Pashtun tribal code. Initially welcomed Taliban has stopped the abuse of power, increasing dogmatism and gender apartheid, which was unchecked by the former so known Mujahid Warriors. Taliban-controlled areas appear to be relatively calm. Most Afghans give high marks to the Taliban for their ability to bring security to the sizeable territory under their control.
Checkpoints in Kabul, Local, and Partial Provinces are lightly manned and non-threatening; guns are not in evidence among the general populace in cities and villages. International oil interests are in fierce competition to build pipelines through Afghanistan to link Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves to Central and South Asia. California-based UNOCAL, a U. S. energy company, led the Cent Gas consortium that planned to build an oil and gas pipeline through Afghanistan. The Taliban stood to gain $ 100 million a year from this pipeline.
UNOCAL announced it was suspending the project at the end of 1998, citing in part, pressure from feminist organizations protesting the companys involvement with the Taliban. Other U. S. and international corporate interests are vying for business in the country. Recently, Telephone Systems International (TSI), a New Jersey-based telecommunications firm, reached an agreement with the Taliban to install a satellite-based system throughout Afghanistan. Corporate investment under current conditions could mean billions of dollars to shore up the Taliban regime without regard for womens rights.
I have compiled a few things individuals can do to help this situation. introduce RAWA and RAWA activities to individuals, groups, schools, organisations, and other congregations in your community stage protests, marches, demonstrations in support of RAWA and in solidarity with Afghan women organise gatherings, meetings, seminars, etc. to highlight the situation of Afghan women under the fundamentalists write to Pakistan authorities voicing your protest and support for RAWA in events of government or non-government violence against our organisation (assassination of our founding leader in Pakistan; and maltreatment of RAWA collaborator by Pakistani government secret service agents in Islamabad, April 28, 1997; by Taliban hooligans on RAWA demonstration, April 28, 1998; of RAWA and its etc. ) invite RAWA members to speak on its activities, situation of Afghan women, etc. give coverage to reports on Afghanistan and Jihadi and Taliban crimes in your publications, or somehow make people in your community aware of them (for those who know Persian, Pashtun or Urdu: ) translate RAWA writings and articles for us into major languages, particularly English sell our, (in Farsi, Push, Urdu and English) and audio of patriotic and revolutionary songs in your community against advance payment of price and postage costs to us help our with funds, any and all school supplies, etc. help our hospitals with funds, medicines and medical supplies donate computers and copiers for our publications and our training courses for refugee women and children donate films with revolutionary and anti-fundamentalist themes (preferably with sub-titles in Persian or, if not available, in English) and also books, reference books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, periodicals, etc. for our resource centre for anti-fundamentalist education donate funds to cover postage / freight costs of medicines, books and school supplies which friends in Europe and America have collected and donated to us but which we unfortunately cannot receive because postage / freight charges are not included donate camcorders, cassette duplicators, sound mixing equipment, CD recorders, special equipment for Rawa's documentation centre of Jihadi and Taliban crimes make other donors aware of the womens?
needs.
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