petition Aghani women's right

[Acsady Judit]

>From: "Jonge Sla" <jongesla at xs4all.nl>
>To: "Marieke Smits" <wwmas at westerpark.amsterdam.nl>,
>        "womenmail" <womenmail at dds.nl>, "antoine verbij" <verbij at groene.nl>,
>        "maja mischke" <vbos4 at antenna.nl>,
>        "Lillian van Wesemael" <vbos3 at antenna.nl>,
>        "marianne cense" <transact at antenna.nl>,
>        "Loeke Pam/Marc Rakers" <tiloma at xs4all.nl>,
>        "Ferdows Kazemi" <sytse at casema.net>,
>        "Marian Stoffer" <svk at worldonline.nl>,
>        "Stasa Zajovic" <stasazen at EUnet.yu>,
>        "leon sonnenschein" <sonco at xs4all.nl>,
>        "=?us-ascii?Q?Sasja_B=F6kkerink?=" <sasja- at pi.net>,
>        "refugiado" <refugiado at antenna.nl>,
>        "joost divendal" <redactie at trouw.nl>,
>        "roberta cowan" <rcowan at xs4all.nl>,
>        "Hady-jane Guds" <popguds at yahoo.com>, "Mojdeh/on file"
<onfile at dds.nl>,
>        "mug" <mug at xs4all.nl>, "maaike miedema" <miedema at antenna.nl>,
>        "nina meilof" <meilof at dds.nl>, "marianna moianna" <mbvdmeer at wxs.nl>,
>        "Mark van Kollenburg" <markko at xs4all.nl>,
>        "marjolein l'ortye" <m.lortye at wxs.nl>,
>        "Marc de Leeuw" <M.deLeeuw at uvh.nl>,
>        "Anneke Camstra" <lachbeer at xs4all.nl>,
>        "Jennifer Riria" <kwft at arcc.or.ke>, "kit uitgeverij"
<kitpress at kit.nl>,
>        "ineke van kessel" <Kessel at rulfsw.fsw.LeidenUniv.nl>,
>        "Kamran" <kamran at noord.bart.nl>, "jan ter laak" <jtl at worldaccess.nl>,
>        "Ghassemi, Kobra" <K.Ghassemi at arbeidsbureau.nl>,
>        "ivana balen" <ivana at eyfa.org>, "Vereniging INZET" <inzet at xs4all.nl>,
>        "ineke z." <iniek at dds.nl>, <hom at euronet.nl>,
>        "hannah mishkovska kajevska" <hannah at eyfa.org>,
>        "G. Keller" <grietje at xs4all.nl>,
>        "anne graumans" <graumans at mailexcite.com>,
>        "F. Valianpour (DIVG)" <F.Valianpour at AMC.UVA.NL>,
>        "eveline" <evel at xs4all.nl>, "Ellen Kole" <ekole at xs4all.nl>,
>        "lieke ruijgers" <eba at antenna.nl>, "Dea Dacquin"
<dea at mail.dotcom.fr>,
>        "cecile landman" <cile at zzz.it>,
>        "chudi victor ukpabi" <ChudiUkpabi at compuserve.com>,
>        "colette harris" <charris at antenna.nl>,
>        "Balkan Peace Team" <bpt_bg at EUnet.yu>, "marion"
<bliek.burger at wxs.nl>,
>        "jos van beurden" <beurden at nwsbank.nl>, "ali wezel"
<awezel at minszw.nl>,
>        "Annet van Lier" <avanlier at globalxs.nl>,
>        "Annette Schautt" <asfnlb at worldonline.nl>,
>        "anne van schaik" <annemvs at dds.nl>, "Cybergrrl!" <aliza at cgim.com>,
>        "Mehdi  Amineh" <amineh at bs19.bs.uva.nl>,
>        "judith ascady" <ajutka at caesar.elte.hu>,
>        "adil" <af.kit at worldonline.nl>, <A.van_de_Zande at BvdU.LeidenUniv.NL>,
>        "annet planten" <A.Planten at inter.NL.net>
>Subject: petition Aghani women's right
>Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 10:18:36 +0100
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>
>
>
>>>  Please read and if you share my concern, sign at the bottom and  include
>>>your town.
>>>>
>>>>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  petition. Thank you.
>>>>
>>>>It is best to copy rather than forward the  petition.
>>>>
>>>>Melissa Buckheit
>>>>Brandeis  University
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>TEXT:
>>>>
>>>>  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
>eyes. One woman was beaten to DEATH by an  angry mob of fundamentalists for
>accidentally exposing  Another was stoned todeath for trying to 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
> 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 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 conditions,
>has increased  significantly. Homes where a woman is present must have their
>windows  painted so that she can never be seen by  They must wear  silent
>shoes so that they are never heard.
>Women live in fear of their  lives for the slightest misbehavior.
>Because they cannot work, those  without male relatives or husbands are
>either
>starving to death or  begging on the street, even if they hold Ph.D.'s.
>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 sky-rocketing
>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  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 is left finally runs out,  leaving these women in
>front of the president's residence as a form of  peaceful protest. It is at
>the poin t where the term 'human rights  violations' have become an
>understatement. 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'.  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
>depression and suicide; women who were  once educators
>or doctors or simply used to basic human freedoms are now  severely
>restricted and treated as sub-human in the name of  right-wing
>fundamentalist Islam.
>
>It is not their tradition  or 'culture'.  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 the1930's
>were lynched, prohibited from voting.  Everyone has a right to a  tolerable
>human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country .  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 commited against women by  the Taliban.
>>>>
>>>>STATEMENT:
>In signing this, we agree  that the current treatment of women in
>Afghanistan is completely  UNACCEPTABLE and they deserve support and action
>by the people of the  United States and the U.S. Government Women's Rights
>is not a small issue  anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1999 to
>be treated as  sub-human 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
>>>>  Boston MA, USA
>>>>8)  D. Paul Robinson, Columbia, MO, USA
>>>>9) Holly Oswald, Columbia, MO,  USA
>>>>10) Angela Soiferman, Tampa, FL, USA
>>>>11) Tracy Church, Chapel  Hill, NC, USA
>>>>12) Kelly Beatty, Cary, NC, USA
>>>>13) Sara March  Barber, Winston Salem, NC, USA
>>>>14) Debbie Allison, Pfafftown, NC  USA
>>>>15) Lisa Clark, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
>>>>16) Jen Algire,  Winston-Salem, NC, USA
>>>>17) Debra Benfield, Winston-Salem,  NC,USA
>>>>19) Karen Hills, Greensboro, NC, USA
>>>>19) Miriam de Lyon,  Newbury Park, CA, USA
>>>>20) E. Hirsch, Westlake Village, CA USA
>>>>21)  Faith Mischel, Northridge, CA USA
>>>>22) Amy Reichbach, Sherman Oaks, CA  USA
>>>>23) Tom Henschel, Sherman Oaks, CA USA
>>>>24) Margaret Perry,  Crestline, CA, USA
>>>>   USA
>>>>26) Steve Wilson, Fremont, CA USA
>>>>27) Robert Rothrock, Alameda  CA USA
>>>>28)Mark Routhier, San Francisco, CA
>>>>29)J.D. Kay, San  Francisco, CA
>>>30)Paul Brill, NYC
>>>31)Barrett Heaton, Chicago, IL
>>>32)  Kimberley Campisano, San Francisco, CA, USA
>>>33) Heather Cassell, San  Francisco, CA USA
>>>34) Miranda Thompson, Los Angeles, CA  USA
>>>35) Halleh Ghorashi, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
>>>36) Nies Medema, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
>
>