women in Afghanistan

[Jane A. Edwards]

> This e-mail was begun as a well-intentioned petition that got out of
> control. The content of the petition is accurate -- however, signing and
> passing on the petition will not do anything.  Because of the amount of
> e-mail that the petition generated, the e-mail address of the original
> sender (sarabande at brandeis.edu )was closed some months ago.  Sending e-mail
> to that address will result in a reply message to that effect, along with
> some information about Human Rights groups you can contact.  I just wanted
> to comment that the contents are not a hoax; however, the petition is
> currently just junk-e-mail with nowhere to go.

Well, well-intentioned or not, the message deceives people into thinking
they're signing a petition and then it doesn't deliver.  To me, that's
a hoax.

I'm not questioning the seriousness of the plight of Afghan women (though
it would be nice if they would give one specific reference we could look up),
but there are at least 2 political strategies which would be more effective
than e-petitions.  Why not use those instead?

Finally, e-petitions are extremely similar to chain letters: you add your
name to the bottom and are urged under fear of being "inconsiderate" to
not break the chain.  It's significant that chain letters are prohibited
in many places - due to their adverse effects on the net.

-Jane Edwards