>>>The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. 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 her arm while >>she >>>was driving. 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, trans-lators, 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 conditions, has in-creased significantly. 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 fear of their lives for the slightest misbehavior. Because they >>>cannot work, those without male rela-tives 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 burqua, unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything, but 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 women in front of the president's residence as a form of >>>peaceful protest. It is at the point where the term 'human rights >>>violations' has 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 thing', but this is not even >>>true. 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> sub-human in the name of right-wing fundamentalist Islam. >>It >>>is not their tradition or 'culture', but is alien to them, and it is >>>extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule. >>>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 laws. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> 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 understand. 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 out-rage 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 other countries and >>>their Governments and that the current situation in Afghanistan 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 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) Joyce Millen, Cambridge, MA >>>>>>> 3) Arlene Silikovitz, West Orange, NJ >>>>>>> 4) Ariel Yan, NYC >>>>>>> 5) Larissa Yocum, Washington, D.C. >>>>>>> 6) Lisette de Boer, Delft, The Netherlands >>>>>>> 7) Dirk Jan Dullemond, Wageningen, the Netherlands >>>>>>> 8) Ulla Hoyer, Copenhagen, Denmark >>>>>>> 9) Ingrid von Essen, London, UK >>>>>>> 10) Maj-Britt Rosenbaum, M.D., New York, USA >>>>>>> 11) Gail Harvey, NYC >>>>>>> 12) Sumeet Caberwal, NYC >>>>>>> 13) Meeta K. Malhi, Berkeley CA >>>>>>> 14) Francina Lozada Nur, Stanford, CA >>>>>>> 15) Michael Glick, Philadelphia, PA >>>>>>> 16) Scott Burris, Philadelphia, PA >>>>>>> 17) Robert Heimer, New Haven, CT, USA >>>>>>> 18) Samuel R. Friedman, Highland Park, NJ, USA >>>>>>> 19) Sten H. Vermund, Birmingham, AL >>>>>>> 20) Susan A. Allen, Birmigham, AL >>>>>>> 21) Eric Hunter, Birmingham, AL >>>>>>> 22) Julia P. Stout, Birmingham, AL >>>>>>> 23) Susan Muska, New York, NY >>>>>>> 24) Greta Olafsdottir, New York, NY >>>>>>> 25) Jane Dekrone, New York, NY >>>>>>> 26) Mina Albergo, New York, NY >>>>>>> 27) Bianca Bob Miller , New York, NY >>>>>>> 28) Maria Jimenez, Amsterdam, The Netherlands >>>>>>> 29) Joerg Hacker, Frankfurt, Germany >>>>>>> 30) Alex Schaefer, Frankfurt, Germany >>>>>>> 31) Olaf Heine, Hamburg, Germany >>>>>>> 32) Michael K. Grusche, Hamburg, Germany >>>>>>> 33) Henning Ahrens, Bremen, Germany >>>>>>> 34) Philipp Styra, Bremen, Germany >>>>>>> 35) Carlos Fleischmann, Bremen, Germany >>>>>>> 36) Tanya L=FCbber, Bremen, Germany >>>>>> 37) Jan Jaedike, Berlin, Germany >>>>>> 38) Vique Martin, Huntington Beach, CA, USA >>>>> 39) David Allen, Leeds, England >>>>>>> 40) Nicky Waterson, Leeds, England >>>>>> 41) boris bulatovic, belgrade,serbia, yugoslavia >>>>>> 42) Kevin Zelko, Seattle, WA, USA >>> 43) jake landrau, nyc >44) Patti Kim, Toronto ON >45)Marissa Mandell, CA > > > > > >>>>>>> Please sign to support, and include your town.Then copy and e-mail >>>>>>> to as many people as possible. If you receive this list with more >>>>>than >>>>>>> 150 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to: >>>>>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>>>> >>>>>>> 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 > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
