The Talibans' war on women

[Chris Sinha]

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copy
and
e-mail to as many people as possible. If you are the 50th, 100th,
150th
signature, please e-mail 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, please send a copy of it to sarabande at brandeis.edu.

Thank you.  It is best to copy rather than forward the petition.

TEXT:
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  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,
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. 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.


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
current 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
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) Jenny Frazee, Milpitas, CA
20) Marisa Wessler, Fontana, CA
21) Elaine Stewart, Fort Lauderdale, FL
22) Linda D. Whitman, Pompano Beach, FL
23) Marda L. Zimring, Boca Raton, FL
24) Judith A Weinstein, New York, NY
25) Sarah Booth, NYC, NY
26) Rachel Kaberon, Brooklyn, NY
27) Myrna Stevens, LIC, NY
28) Nadine Newlight, Hong Kong, SAR, PRC
29) Lisa Hopkinson, Hong Kong, SAR, PRC
30) Ivy Ning, Hong Kong, SAR, PRC
31) Michael Ma, Singapore.
32) Miles Taylor, Edinburgh, Scotland
33) Michala Palethorpe, Singapore
34) Judi Kelly, Hong Kong
35) Geri Clisby, Hong Kong
36) Marion E. Jones, Regina, Sk, Canada
37) Michelle S. Mood, Gambier, Ohio, USA
38) Jane Duckett, York, UK.
39) Chris Torrens, Shanghai, China.
40) Liza Lort-Phillips
41) Droma Sangmu, New York
42) Alison Joyner, Lhasa
43) Caragh Coote, Dublin
44) Monica Gorman, Dublin
45) Brian Cumiskey, Ennybegs, IRL
46) Franck Derrien, Paris
47) Francoise Gaillard, Brive, France
48) Francois Requier, Brive, France
49) Maria Grazia Calasso, Siena, Italia
50) Marco Todeschini, Milano, IT
51) Giacomo Todeschini, Trieste, Italia
52) Maria Michela Marzano, Paris, Francia
53) Luca Parisoli, Paris, Francia
54) Michela Pereira, Siena
55) Dino Buzzetti, Bologna
56) Irene Rosier-Catach, Paris
57) Lia Formigari, University of Rome
58) Susan Petrilli, University of Bari
59) Jesper Hoffmeyer, University of Copenhagen
60) Robert Zachariae, University of Aarhus
61) Chris Sinha, Aarhus
***************************************************************

Chris Sinha
University of Aarhus
Department of Psychology
Asylvej 4
DK-8240 Risskov
Tel. direct +45 89 42 49 87
Tel. switchboard +45 89 42 49 00
Fax +45 89 42 49 01
E-mail Chris at psy.au.dk