Fw: Situation of Women in Afganistan

[Acsady Judit]

>From: "Németh László" <hohma at mail.datanet.hu>
>To: "Koltayné Éliás Zsuzsa" <ksczsuzsi at mail.matav.hu>,
>        "Zolnay Janó" <ZolnayJ at mail.matav.hu>,
>        "Wells Noémi" <npwells at mail.matav.hu>, "Ulicska László"
<szfk at cspc.hu>,
>        "Tausz Katalin" <tauszsp at ludens.elte.hu>,
>        "Szikra Zorka" <toth.tamas at autonomia.telnet.hu>,
>        "Sinkó Eszter" <sinkesz at emk.sote.hu>,
>        "Rakar Natasa" <nrakar at mail.datanet>, hu at relay.datanet.hu,
>        "Pordán Ákos" <kezenfogva at c3.hu>,
>        "Nyilas Mihály" <Nyilassp at ludens.elte.hu>,
>        "Némethy Szabolcs" <ddora at osi.hu>,
>        "Neményi Eszter" <enemenyi at mail.datanet.hu>,
>        "Mózer Péter" <tgt at mszp.hu>, "Lökkös Attila"
<lokkosa at freemail.c3.hu>,
>        "Ligeti György" <ligetigy at c3.hu>,
>        "Kun Zsuzsa" <Kun at nograd.hungary.net>, "Kovács Petra"
<kovacsp at osi.hu>,
>        "Kósa Eszter" <ekosa at dhv.hu>,
>        "Komáromi Robert" <robkomaromi at hotmail.com>,
>        "Kende Ági" <kendea at mail.datanet.hu>,
>        "Girán János" <Giran at btk.jpte.hu>,
>        "Ferge Zsuzsa" <fergesp at ludens.elte.hu>,
>        "Debreczeni Erzsébet" <pamlag at freemail.c3.hu>,
>        "Czike Klára" <K.Czike at bris.ac.vic>, "Czike Klára" <Czike at yahoo.com>,
>        "Berki Péter" <bence68 at ludens.elte.hu>,
>        "Bartal Attila" <bartal at freemail.c3.hu>,
>        "Bak Zsófia" <bakzs at maganiskolak.hu>,
>        "Acsády Judit" <Ajutka at caesar.elte.hu>,
>        "Kaposvári Anikó" <h11397bor at ella.hu>
>Subject: Fw: Situation of Women in Afganistan
>Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 16:55:43 +0100
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3
>
>      ----Eredeti  &uuml;zenet----
>Felad&oacute;: Milfait M&aacute;<ifiobuda at c3.hu>
>C&iacute;mzett:  <weber at mgx.hu><ditzendy at mgx.hu>; N&eacute;meth 
>L&aacute;szl&oacute;<hohma at mail.datanet.hu>
>D&aacute;tum:  1999. janu&aacute;r 30. 19:16
>T&aacute;rgy: Situation of Women in  Afganistan
>
> Dear friends,
>
>some of you might have already received this letter of  protest, but those
>who didn't: please read and
>sign!
>
>Kind regards  to all of you,
>
>Marta
>
>Subject: Taliban (a petition of  protest)
>
>The Taliban's War on Women:
>  
>If you receive this list with more than  50 names on it, please email a copy
>of it to
>"sarabande at brandeis.edu"
>Even if  you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not kill  the
>   It is
>best to copy rather than  forward the petition.
>Melissa Buckheit
>Brandeis University
>
>  The situation
>is  getting so bad that one person in an editorial of the times compared  the
>treatment of women there to
>the treatment of Jews in pre-holocaust  Poland.
>Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua  and
>have been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper  attire,
>even if this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of  their
>  One woman was beaten to DEATH by an angry mob of  fundamentalists for
>accidentally exposing her arm
>  Another was stoned to death for trying to leave the
>country  with a man that was
>not a relative.
>Women are 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 jobs and stuffed
>into their homes, so that
>depression is  becoming so widespread that it has reached emergency levels.
>There is no way  in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide
>rate with certainty,  but relief workers are estimating that the suicide
>rate among women, who  cannot find proper medication and treatment for
>severe depression and would  rather take their lives than live in such
>  Homes where a woman is present
>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
>  Because they cannot
>work, those without male  relatives or husbands are either starving to death
>or begging on the  street,
>  There are almost no medical  facilities
>available for women, and relief
>workers, in protest, have  mostly left the country, taking medicine and
>psychologists and other  things
>necessary to treat the skyrocketing level of depression among  women.
>At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still,  nearly
>lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their  burqua,
>unwilling to speak, eat or do
>anything, but are slowly wasting  away.
>Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in corners, perpetually  rocking
>or crying, most of them in
>fear. One doctor is considering, when  what little medication that is left
>finally runs out, leaving these
>   
>It is at the point where the term 'human rights violations' have become  an
>  Husbands have
>the power of life and death over  their women relatives, especially their
>wives, but an angry mob has  just
>as much right to stone or beat a woman, often to death, for exposing  an
>inch of flesh or offending them
>in the slightest way. David Cornwell  has told me that we in the United
>States should not judge the  Afghan
>people for such treatment because it is a 'cultural thing,' but this  is not
>  Women enjoyed relative
>freedom, to work, dress  generally 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 now
>severely restricted and treated as
>  It is not  their
>tradition or 'culture,' but is
>alien to them, and it is extreme even  for those cultures where
>  Besides, if
>we  could excuse everything on cultural grounds, then we should not be
>appalled  that the Carthaginians
>sacrificed their infant children, that little girls  are circumcised in
>parts of Africa, that blacks in
>the deep south in the  1930's were lynched, prohibited from voting and
>forced to submit to unjust  Jim crow
>        
>Everyone has a  right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are
>women in a Muslim  country in a part of the world that Americans do not
>  If we  can threaten military force in Kosovo in the name of
>human rights for the  sake of ethnic Albanians, Americans can certainly
>express peaceful outrage at  the oppression, murder and injustice committed
>against women by the  Taliban.
>
>STATEMENT:
>In signing this, we agree that the current  treatment of women in
>Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves  support and action by
>the people of the United States
>and the US  Government and that the current situation overseas will not be
>tolerated.  Women's Rights is
>not a small issue anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women  in 1998 to be
>treated as subhuman and so much
>as property. Equality and  human decency is a RIGHT not a freedom, whether
>one lives in Afghanistan or  the
>United States.
>
>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) Elaine Alpert, MD,  Boston, MA USA
>7) Diane Morse, MD, Rochester, NY
>8) Mark Winsberg, MD,  Rochester, NY
>9) Elizabeth Hirsh, Rochester, NY
>10) Ellen Goldstein,  Rochester, NY
>11) Kathryn Fiske, Rochester, NY
>12) David H. Hunt, Seattle,  WA
>13) Dan Freeman, Kent, WA
>14) Sheryl Allen, Bellevue, WA
>15) Larry  Allen, Bellevue, WA
>16) Nancy Kahn, Seattle, WA
>17) Jim Ekberg, Olga,  WA
>18) Carol Summers, Seattle, WA
>19) Ken Jenkins, Petaluma, CA
>20)  Daniel B. Holeman, San Rafael, CA
>21) Griselda T. Yarbrough, Madera,  CA
>22) Rev Jack Bittler, St. Petersburg, FL
>23) Robyn Lee, New York,  NY
>24) Karen Murphy, New York, NY
>25) Elizabeth Scott, Toronto, ON,  Canada
>26) Judy Rebick, Toronto, ON, Canada
>27) Laura E. Asturias,  Guatemala City, Guatemala
>28) Anglica Gorodischer, Rosario, Argentina
>29)  Monique Altschul, Buenos Aires, Argentina
>30) Claudia Laudano, La Plata,  Argentina
>31) Jacqueline Friedman, Buenos Aires, Argentina
>32) Zulema  Palma, Moron, Argentina
>33) Alejandra Sard, Buenos Aires, Argentina
>34)  Kate Harrison, London, UK
>35) Tamsin Shelton, Oxford, UK
>36) Caroline  Knight, London, UK
>37) Ravi Mirchandani, London, UK
>38) Hannah Griffiths,  London, UK
>39) Lisa Darnell, London, UK
>40) Jill Waters, London, UK
>41)  Alan Houmann, Belgium
>42) Hannah Jones, Belgium
>43) Irmeli Karhio,  Belgium
>43) Bengt Persson, Hoeilaart
>44) Anke Bahl, Bonn, Germany
>45)  Hendrik Otten, Bonn, Germany
>  47)Marta Milfait, Budapest, Hungary
>
>