Hallo, Saya baru dapat berita di bawah ini... Yang hendak saya tanyakan, benarkah berita di bawah ini? Maklum, saya tidak mengikuti berita tentang Afghanistan, sehingga membaca surat di bawah ini, saya terpana, tidak percaya bahwa di saat seperti ini ada negara yang masih memperlakukan wanita seperti yang tertulis di bawah ini. Ada yang bisa mengkonfirmasi ulang? ---------- The Taliban's War on Women: 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, 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 conditions, has increased 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 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 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 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 U.S. Government and that the urrent 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 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, MA 3) Joyce Millen, Cambridge, MA 4) Diane Millen, Falls Church, Va. 5) Bill Millen, Falls Church, Va. 6) Milt Eisner, McLean VA 7) Harriet Solomon, Springfield, VA 8) Arlene Silikovitz, West Orange, NJ 9) Susanna Levin, New Rochelle, NY 10) Ruth Slater, New Rochelle,NY 11) Elisabeth Keane, Westport, CT 12) Mercedes Lopez-Morgan, Chappaqua, NY 13) Pete Morgan, Chappaqua, NY 14) Aaron Cela, Chappaqua, NY 15) Michelle Lee, San Francisco, CA 16) Karen Muiter, San Mateo, CA 17) Nate Walker, North Hills, CA 18) Jasmyn Hatam San Jose, CA 19) Brigette Young, Los Angeles, CA 20) Rebecca Kniss, Chico, CA 21) Sarah Hayman, Whittier, CA 22) Kendra Dole-Stoll, Salem, OR 23) Robert L. Tolar, Portland, OR 24) Lisa Cramer, Providence, RI 25) Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, Minneapolis, MN 26) Charmaine Crockett, Brooklyn, New York 27) Anne Hemenway, New York, New York 28) Ned Rothenberg. Brooklyn, NY 29) Richard Wesley Nance, Birmingham, AL 30) Melissa Buckheit, Brandeis University 31) Lisa Cramer, Senior Research Officer, x 7395 32) Guy Van Belle, Gent, Belgium 33) Brenda Byl, Gent, Belgium 34) Kathleen Van Heule, Gent, Belgium 35) Kris Decleer, Gent, Belgium 36) An Cliquet, Gent, Belgium 37) Wim Cliquet , Tremelo , Belgium 38) Sven Devriese, Wijnegem, Belgium 39) Gunter Cieters, Zele, Belgium 40) Peter Van Mele, Zwijndrecht, Belgium 41) Leen Willaert, Leuven, Belgium 42) Scholts Stijn, Leuven Belgium 43) Frank Peeters, Antwerpen Belgium 44) Artemis Stai, Athens, Greece = 45) Saumya Uma, Mumbai, India 46) Nabiha Zain Muhamad, Jakarta, Indonesia 47) Lenah susianty, London, UK 48) Yenni Kwok, Hong Kong **** 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 50 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 than copy it. Artemis Stai - = [EMAIL PROTECTED]
