Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Interview with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Established in 1977, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an independent women's organisation fighting for human rights and social justice in Afghanistan. RAWA opposed the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan from 1979-89, aswell as the subsequent Mujahaden and Taliban governments, running underground schools for Afghan girls, publishing a journal and setting up humanitarian projects.
Mariam Rawi a member of RAWA's foreign relations committee, answer's Peace News's questions about the current US-led occupation of Afghanistan.
1) In 2001 President Bush claimed the United States invaded Afghanistan to fight for "progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom". Why does RAWA think the United States invaded and continues to occupy Afghanistan?
The US invaded Afghanistan to fulfil its geo-political, economic and regional strategic interests and to change Afghanistan into a strong military base in the region. Since Afghanistan is the heart of Asia, it would serve as a strong base for controlling surrounding countries like Pakistan, China, Iran and above all the Central Asian Republics. Additionally, as a superpower, it continues to occupy Afghanistan to combat rising powers like Russia and China, who are becoming greater rivals for the US in the economic, military and political fields.
Many argue today that the 2001 invasion was planned before 9/11, but it gave the war-mongers in the White House and Pentagon a golden opportunity to advance its agenda in the region. In the words of Tony Blair "to be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11..."
Getting hold of the multi-billions drug business was another reason for invading Afghanistan and in the past few years we clearly see that the US and its allies changed Afghanistan into the opium capital of the world. Opium production increased more than 4400%, with 93% of world illegal opium produced in Afghanistan. Narcotics is said to be the third greatest trade commodity in cash terms after oil and weapons. There are large financial institutions behind this business and the control of the routes of narcotics was important for the US government and now they have reached their goal.
Furthermore, Afghanistan holds a rich source of gas, copper, iron and other minerals and precious stones and the big powers are of course interested in looting it the way they are doing in poor African countries. In the past few years there have been exploration efforts of our natural resources. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates there are about 700 billion cubic meters of gas and 300 million tonnes of oil across several Northern provinces of Afghanistan. Also the world's second-biggest unexploited copper deposit is located in our country with an estimated 11 million tonnes of copper. So besides routing the oil and gas from the Central Asian Republics through Afghanistan, the US is interested in exploiting Afghanistan's resources too.
The "war on terror" and "liberation of Afghan women" were mere lies to cover the above and many other hidden agendas of the US in Afghanistan. Our peoples' dreams for liberation were shattered in the very first days after the invasion when they witnessed that the war criminals and Northern Alliance murderers and rapists who destroyed Afghanistan, were backed and brought back to power by the US and its allies after the fall of the Taliban regime. When infamous criminals like Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Yunus Qanooni, Mullah Rakiti, Atta Muhammad, Rashid Dostum, Ismail Khan, Haji Almas, Hazrat Ali and many more were decorated by the US as champions of freedom and were installed in power, everyone knew that Afghanistan had once again become the centre of a chess game of the US and its allies who made the slogans of "democracy" and "human rights" into painful jokes for our nation.
2) Can you describe what life is like for women in Afghanistan today? Is it better or worse than life under the Taliban Government?
Despite many a hue and cry about "women's rights" and the "liberation of Afghan women", Afghanistan still faces a women's rights catastrophe.
There is no tangible change in the conditions of Afghan women; in certain parts of the country the life is worse than under the Taliban. The rate of kidnappings, rapes, selling of girls, forced marriages, acid attacks, prostitution and self-immolation by young girls and women has reached a record high, even compared to the Taliban regime.
Due to forced marriages and domestic violence, self-immolation by women aged between 18 and 35 is becoming an epidemic in Afghanistan. There have been hundreds of such cases reported mostly in the provinces of Herat, Farah, Ghor and Badghis. Where there is non-existent rule of law and legal support for women, they have no other option but to get rid of their misery by burning themselves.
Due to severe poverty which affects over 80 percent of Afghanistan's population, life for hundreds of thousands of war widows and poor women is disastrous and in many parts of Afghanistan the level of prostitution and begging in the streets has risen to an unprecedented level. There have been many reports of parents being forced to sell their children as they can't feed them. In the western province of Herat alone 150 cases of the selling of children, especially girls, were officially reported in 2008 -- the actual numbers are much higher.
There are many more that are not reflected in the news as the media is strongly stifled under the shadow of guns and threats of the warlords.
In the past few years only some cosmetic changes were made in regard to women's rights. For example, the Women's Ministry and 68 women members of parliament was trumpeted as a big success. Meanwhile the Ministry has done nothing for women and is just a showcase. The majority of women in the parliament are pro-warlord and cannot represent Afghan women as they themselves are part of the problem.
Afghan women have been badly betrayed in the past seven years under the US occupation. Their plight was used to justify the occupation of Afghanistan, but not only were no steps taken to heal their wounds, rather the worst enemies of women's rights were empowered, supported and installed in key posts.
When the entire nation lives under the shadow of warlords, Taliban, drug-lords, occupation forces and a corrupt, puppet and mafia government, how can its women enjoy the most basic rights?
3) Barack Obama, the new President of the United States, has pledged to institute a "surge" in Afghanistan, increasing American troop levels by 30,000. Does RAWA support this?
Considering Obama's plans for Afghanistan, we can clearly see that there is no difference between Obama and Bush for our country. Both are following a wrong and devastating strategy which has so far pushed Afghanistan and the region towards disaster and deeper conflicts.
Even if the US deployed hundreds of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, they will not be here to bring "peace", "freedom" and "democracy" for the people of Afghanistan. They will only serve the US's regional interests and help the warlords, drug-lords and other US agents who are in power in our country; but for our suffering and war-stricken people, it will have a ruinous outcome.
Freedom, democracy and justice cannot be enforced at gunpoint by a foreign country; they are the values that can be achieved only by our people and democracy-loving forces through a hard, decisive and long struggle. Those who claim to donate these values to Afghan people through force will only push our country to slavery.
The very first outcome of the "surge" for Afghan people will be an increase in the number of civilian casualties which have already sparked protests and opposition from Afghan people. In the past seven years thousands of innocent people have been killed or wounded by the US/NATO bombardments. In the past few weeks under Obama's rule, around 100 Afghan civilians have been killed.
Today many people in Afghanistan ask for the withdrawal of troops and regard them as useless to do any good for Afghanistan. The surge in troops will result in a surge in protests against the US/NATO in Afghanistan and it will also push more people towards the Taliban and other terrorist groups as a reaction to occupation forces and their mistreatment of people.
The troop surge will also give reasons for the insurgency to increase their operations and attacks which in return will intensify the conflict in Afghanistan.
We think the 30,000 extra troops will only serve the US regional strategy in changing Afghanistan into its military base -- it will do nothing to the fight with terrorist groups as they claim. The US and allies are playing a two-faced game in Afghanistan: on the one hand they are increasing troops, and on the other hand, they are supporting the fundamentalist terrorists of the Northern Alliance, and initiating talks with the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to share power with these brutal and criminal forces.
So now it is an open secret that the US is not interested in fighting terrorists. In fact no one can believe that a superpower is really incapable of defeating a small, medieval-minded and ignorant force such as the Taliban. Actually the US government needs an excuse to stay in Afghanistan for longer, so the presence of the Taliban and other terrorist groups give them an excuse for the Tom and Jerry game to continue for years -- the UK have already announced that it will stay in Afghanistan for over three decades.
There are even some suspicions that the foreign troops provide some supplies and arms to the Taliban. Last March the Afghan media and local authorities in Arghandab district of Zabul province reported that NATO helicopters dropped three large containers full of supplies and ammunitions to a Taliban commander. In another move, a Taliban criminal commander named Mullah Abdul Salam, responsible for a massacre in 1998, was appointed as the governor of Musa Qala district in the Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy growing region.
A few months ago, an infamous terrorist from Gubuddin Hekmatyar's party called Ghairat Baheer was released from the US prison at Bagram airbase. Recently media reports uncovered that he is engaged in secret talks to pave the way for a sharing of power with Hekmatyar who is on the US's terrorist list. According to information revealed to Al Jazeera, Hekmatyar would be offered asylum in Saudi Arabia, after which he would be allowed to return to Afghanistan with immunity from prosecution.
These are just few of the examples that show the US's double standards towards dangerous terrorist bands: whenever the terrorists are ready to work in accordance with its policies, they are regarded as friends of the US, no matter how many crimes and brutalities they have committed and continue to commit against Afghan people.
4) What solutions does RAWA propose to end the fighting in Afghanistan?
RAWA strongly believes that the withdrawal of foreign troops should be the first step, because today, with the presence of thousands of foreign troops from many countries in Afghanistan, the majority of our people are suffering from insecurity, killings, kidnapping, unemployment, rape, acid throwing on schoolgirls, hunger, lawlessness, lack of freedom of speech and many more awful disasters. Peace, security, democracy and independence can only be achieved by our own people. It is our responsibility to become united as an alternative against the occupation, to rise up, to resist and to organize our people.
Right now our people are sandwiched between three enemies. From one side we have the Taliban, from the other side are the US air strikes, and from another side are the Northern Alliance warlords in different provinces. With the troop withdrawal our people will at least get rid of one of these enemies.
The justice-loving people of the US and its democratic-minded allies should continue to pressure their government to change its fundamentalists-fostering policy and work for the disarmament of armed groups who are in the pay of the US.
We think the peace-loving people around the world should support democratic-minded individuals and forces of Afghanistan who are being suppressed and weakened by the US and its fundamentalist stooges. Only the emergence of a powerful democratic movement can lead Afghanistan towards independence and democracy.
Afghan people are deeply fed up with their current conditions and are on the verge of rising up against it. We have already seen protests and rising up of people in the face of threats and terror in a number of provinces of Afghanistan. In the future this wave will without a doubt gain momentum. With the emergence of a third front whose slogan is "Neither Occupation Nor Taliban - Freedom and Democracy," Afghans will rise up to get their rights with their own power. This is a long and painful process, but the only option to lead Afghanistan toward peace and prosperity.
Afghanistan's bravest woman brings her message to UK Five assassination attempts have failed to silence a woman determined to defend Afghans from warlords, drug lords and the Taliban
It is a year since I last saw Malalai Joya. She was at Stansted airport preparing to return to Afghanistan: a tiny figure clutching a large holdall and a gold-coloured trophy. It was the Anna Politkovskaya Award for human rights campaigning and Ms Joya was the second recipient. Some might say the trophy brings with it a curse. It was created in memory of the Russian journalist gunned down outside her Moscow apartment in 2006. The first recipient, Natalya Estimerova, was murdered last week in the Chechen capital. As Ms Estimerova passed on the trophy to her in 2008, her message was blunt: "Malalai, be brave."
Having survived five assassination attempts, if there is one thing the Afghan woman is, it is brave. Her story is inextricably linked to the recent history of her country. Through her own determination she has become part of its legend; first as a teacher in the refugee camps of Pakistan, then as an activist covertly running schools for girls in Herat during the Taliban years. Politicised beyond her years she was elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005 as its youngest member.
Today she lands in Britain. She has a new book to promote, Raising My Voice, but she is also here to deliver an unequivocal and uncomfortable message that Nato troops are not wanted in her country. "Afghans are more than just a handful of warlords, Taliban, drug lords and lackeys," she says. "I have a country full of people who know what I know and believe what I believe; that we Afghans can govern ourselves without foreign interference."
From her first controversial speech in the National Assembly in 2003, at the age of 23, to the day she was suspended from parliament for allegedly insulting other MPs, Ms Joya has never been one to mince her words. Her message is unlikely to be well received by Gordon Brown or Barack Obama.
When I first met her in Kabul two years ago, the rendezvous followed several changes of vehicle as well as body, camera and baggage searches. Her life had already been threatened so burqas and bodyguards were de rigeur for even the shortest journey.
We were together one day when news broke that three British soldiers had been killed in Helmand. Ms Joya didn't want Nato troops in her country, but she expressed sorrow for the parents and families who, like so many Afghans, had lost loved ones. Grief, the universal leveller, was something she has always understood. As the "Wootton Bassett effect" reminds Britons of how much the war in Afghanistan is costing in human terms, she says: "There can never be lasting peace if the lives of Afghans are not valued as much as the lives of Western soldiers. Every death is a tragedy, but too often the Afghan victims of this war are merely nameless 'collateral damage' reported in the media as having been killed by 'mistake'."
The Ministry of Defence publishes a rolling toll of service casualties a grim reminder of the daily cost of the war. A man who has earned Ms Joya's heartfelt gratitude for trying to honour Afghanistan's anonymous dead in the same way is Professor Marc Herold who has established a memorial website for her countrymen. It makes sobering reading. "Civilian killings are entering into thousands whereas the Taliban death toll might not even reach hundreds,"Ms Joya says.
As the British media goes into overdrive about helicopter numbers, boots on the ground and exit strategies, she cuts to the quick. Her assessment of the past seven years is seen in purely human terms. "Along with the terror from the sky, there is terror in the ground. The fields and roadsides of Afghanistan are still riddled with unexploded landmines from as far back as the Soviet occupation like the kind that cost my father his leg."
She kept diaries throughout her adolescence but she was initially resistant to the idea of writing a book. A quiet, self-effacing character, she dedicates her biography to women and children, the invisible casualties of conflict and oppression to whom she has given a voice in recent years: "The Bashiras, Rahellas, Bibi Guls, Pukhtanas and all my oppressed people whose sighs, tears and sorrows nobody sees."
Ms Joya is sceptical of the surge in the south of her country. "Helmand is not the whole of Afghanistan. Even if they annihilate Taliban there, they should not call it a success because Taliban are logistically and militarily stabilised in hundreds of other parts of Afghanistan ... and growing stronger as each day dawns."
She has often been accused of identifying problems but not offering solutions (the assumption being that if US and British troops pulled out, Afghanistan would descend into chaos, a bloody free-for-all). But she is unrelenting: "The current situation is already quite catastrophic, it cannot get any worse. The Taliban have taken over many districts and are nourished as each hour mounts."
"But it is the responsibility of our own people to fight for their rights, to achieve values like democracy and women's rights, human rights in our country. It's a prolonged struggle, it's a risky struggle full of hardships and challenges, but I trust in my people."
One of the most widely-cited advantages of Nato's intervention has been improved conditions for Afghan women. Ms Joya disagrees. "Just as the US air strikes have not brought security to Afghans, nor has the occupation brought security to Afghan women. The reality is quite the opposite. The now infamous 'Family Law' is but the tip of the iceberg of the women's rights catastrophe in our occupied country. The whole system, and especially the judiciary, is infected with the virus of fundamentalism and so, in Afghanistan, men who commit crimes against women do so with impunity."
Ms Joya is now 31 and married; she has the hopes and dreams of any young woman but her commitment to her cause is absolute. A deeply compassionate individual, she is as ruthless in her condemnation of Western "whitewash" as she is of the unpunished "war criminals" who sit in the Afghan parliament. "It is a shame that so much of Afghanistan's reality has been kept veiled by a Western media consensus in support of the 'good war'," she says.
Next month's elections offer little hope of change, she believes, and will be tainted by vote-rigging. "It is clear that the future president is already chosen in Washington. As in the proverb of our people 'Same donkey but with a new saddle!'"
So is she not tempted to return to politics, or even contest the presidency, as many have urged her to? Her answer is suitably gnomic. "I love my people and of course, if they wish, I will do that but let's see what's in the future."
In her own words: 'I'm not afraid of an early death'
"I am forced to live like a fugitive in my own country. A trusted uncle heads my detail of bodyguards and we move to different houses every night to stay a step ahead of my enemies. To hide my identity, I travel under the cover of the burqa, which to me is a symbol of oppression, like a shroud for the living. Even during the dark days of the Taliban, I could at least go outside under the burqa to teach girls in secret. But today I don't feel safe under it, even with armed guards to escort me. My visitors are searched for weapons and even the flowers at my wedding had to be checked for bombs... I know that because I refuse to compromise my opposition to the warlords and fundamentalists... then I may join... the long list of Afghans who have died for freedom. But you cannot compromise the truth. And I am not afraid of an early death if it advances the course of justice."
theres a good article about her in the australian green left
for those in london, shes speaking tonight;
Stop the War Public Meeting
Malalai Joya: "The bravest woman in Afghanistan"
Eye Witness in Afghanistan
with Malalai Joya, MP in the Afghan Parliament
Malalai Joya's new book Raising My Voice will be launched at this meeting.
Thursday 23 July 7pm
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square
London WC1
Speakers:
Malalai Joya, MP in the Afghan parliament.
Lindsey German, Stop the War's national convenor
Rose Gentle, Military Families Against the War
Tickets: £4 / £2 concessions
and as for all this waffle we hear about us advancing womens rights in afghanistan;
Malalai Joya:
'Under the present regime that has illegally banned me from parliament womens rights continue to erode. The rates of self-immolation and suicide due to forced marriages, domestic violence and poverty are now higher than ever. In the first six months of 2008, 47 cases of self-immolation among women have been recorded in a single hospital in the western city of Herat. Gang rapes of young girls are reported almost every day, especially in the northern part of Afghanistan where pro-US warlords have full power and a free hand . . .
. . . Sadly, the US seems to be giving a helping hand to these criminal warlords. In 2001 the US government invaded Afghanistan in the name of democracy, but it has betrayed our people by helping to power the bloodiest enemies of these values. The horrible regime of the Taliban was replaced by corrupt and brutal warlords and former Russian puppets'.
'it is a shame that so much of Afghanistan's reality has been kept veiled by a western media consensus in support of the 'good war.' Perhaps if the citizens of North America had been better informed about my country, President Obama would not have dared to send more troops and spend taxpayers' money on a war that is only adding to the suffering of our people and pushing the region into deeper conflicts.
A troop 'surge' in Afghanistan, and continued air strikes, will do nothing to help the liberation of Afghan women. The only thing it will do is increase the number of civilian casualties and increase the resistance to occupation.
To really help Afghan women, citizens in the U.S. and elsewhere must tell their government to stop propping up and covering for a regime of warlords and extremists'.
Mariam Rawi, of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, and Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission:
'the tired claim that one of the chief objectives of the military occupation of Afghanistan is to liberate Afghan women is not only absurd, it is offensive.
Waging war does not lead to the liberation of women anywhere . . .
. . . Under the Taliban, women were confined to their homes. They were not allowed to work or attend school. They were poor and without rights. They had no access to clean water or medical care, and they were forced into marriages, often as children.
Today, women in the vast majority of Afghanistan live in precisely the same conditions, with one notable difference: they are surrounded by war. The conflict outside their doorsteps endangers their lives and those of their families. It does not bring them rights in the household or in public, and it confines them even further to the prison of their own homes. Military escalation is just going to bring more tragedy to the women of Afghanistan . . .
. . . In our conversations arguing this point, we are told that the U.S. cannot leave Afghanistan because of what will happen to women if they go. Let us be clear: Women are being gang raped, brutalized and killed in Afghanistan. Forced marriages continue, and more women than ever are being forced into prostitution -- often to meet the demand of foreign troops.
The U.S. presence in Afghanistan is doing nothing to protect Afghan women. The level of self-immolation among women was never as high as it is now. When there is no justice for women, they find no other way out but suicide . . .
. . . Feminists around the world must refuse to allow the good name of feminism to be manipulated to provide political cover for yet another war of aggression'.
She'll be ignored by Brown and the rest because she represents the wrong attitude about Afghanistan. We need to continue to believe that it's nothing but a dust bowl filled with men in sheets shooting 50 yr old ak47s who grow heroin and blow up Buddhas in their spare time...
Malalai Joya - Afghan MP Calls for Troops out of Afganistan
The inspirational anti-war Afghan MP Malalai Joya was joined on the platform by Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, a serving British soldier who was speaking in public for the first time against the horror caused by the war in Afghanistan.
Malalai Joya really is one of the bravest women in Afghanistan. She told the 300-strong audience at Conway Hall in central London that shes survived five assassination attempts and is still not safe with personal security guards or by wearing a burkha to cover her identity. Yet she continues to campaign against foreign occupation and fundamentalist warlords, and for womens rights and education. She believes all NATO troops must leave Afghanistan immediately.
theres a documentary just about to start on more4 about malalai joya;
A Woman Among Warlords
On December 17th 2003, a 25-year-old woman called Malalai Joya stood up during the Afghan Grand Assembly and declared that many of those present were 'felons' and 'criminals' who had turned the country 'into the nucleus of national and international wars'.
It was an explosive entrance onto the Afghan national political scene and - as proved by the footage that kicks off this compelling documentary - it all took place in front of cameras.
As support for her spread she received countless death threats, becaming as much a hunted figure as a symbol for change in her war-torn country. As Joya reflects at the start of the film, 'even though so many women have taken off the burkha following my suggestion, now I have to wear it'.
By the time director Eva Malvad caught up with her, Joya had survived four assassination attempts, but was more determined than ever to make her political mark. The film subsequently follows her on the campaign trial for the 2005 Afghan parliamentary election - the first democratic election in 30 years.
As well as offering fascinating insights into a changing Afghan society, Malvad captures a portait of a remarkable personality.
Joya is revealed as a tough idealist, using every available opportunity to get her message across. Prepared to risk her life to speak to her people, she is passionate about changing the fate of Afghanistan and eloquent in the denunciation of those she thinks are destroying it.
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:53 pm Post subject: Bravery in Afghanistan
This woman shows what bravery is - she doesn't need a gun, tank or remote controlled murder drone like the fucking military 'heroes' we are constantly bombarded with in the media.
it appears that documentary 'A Woman Among Warlords' might also be called 'Enemies of Happiness' - which you can find on http://onebigtorrent.org
imdb has listings for it under both titles - both have the the same director, are same length, and the descriptions are the same for both - the only difference seems to be the release date, but i can only find torrents for it as 'Enemies Of Happiness'
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
theres also a great documentary about her called 'A Woman Among Warlords'