RAWA's Standpoints On women's rights
As Afghanistan finds itself strangled within the grip of religious
fundamentalism of all shades, human rights across the nation are being grossly
violated. In fact, the present conditions are even worse than those of the
Soviet occupation period. The nature and range of crimes perpetrated against
Afghan women by fundamentalists has no precedence in modern history. Afghan
fundamentalists and particularly Taliban treat women as degraded souls whose only function is to satiate
men's lusts and reproduce! Had we women been facing civilized opponents, we
might have convinced them of our rights through logic and words of reason. But
as fundamentalists continue to rampage in Afghanistan, RAWA holds that our women
can never achieve their rights through the 'kindness' of the fundamentalists. To
attain meaningful freedom, our women must continue their hard, long
struggle against fanaticism and carry it through to the end. We are of the
opinion that any collaboration with the fundamentalists will only lead to
further ravaging of Afghanistan by these bandits.
RAWA believes that the United Nations has not been able to address the problem
properly. If the UN can send a large number of peace-keeping forces to places
like Cambodia and Bosnia, why should it not be adopting a similar policy in
Afghanistan? It is all the more important to have large peace-keeping forces in
Afghanistan where most fundamentalist groups owe their power to the support of
foreign countries. It is very unfortunate that UN activities are limited only to
negotiating with fundamentalists, and it is very apparent that the UN is not
willing to take any steps that would annoy them. We advocate that the UN view
Afghanistan as the homeland of the Afghan people, and not as the property of a
few armed militia. The UN should take into account the will of the people of
Afghanistan and must not proceed according to the whims of the fundamentalists.
As a matter of principle, RAWA is not a monarchist organization. However,
the majority of Afghan people whole-heartedly support the former king. That is
why RAWA prefers Zahir Shah to the other self-styled jehadi and Taliban leaders.
RAWA sees the presence and activities of armed fundamentalist bands as the
root cause of the current disaster in Afghanistan. Therefore, we believe that
the only way to restore stability and find a solution to the Afghan crisis is by
fully disarming all the armed groups and their accomplices. This is possible
only by a peace-keeping force not including troops from countries that have
involved themselves in the Afghan infighting and that might support any bandit
groups. The same peace-keeping force should supervise the convening of the Loya
Jirga (Grand Assembly) and the formation of a government based on democratic
values and comprised of neutral personalities. This government should be
assigned the task of holding free and fair elections within a period not
exceeding one year. It is only upon the completion of this task and the
establishment of a national security force free from the clutches of
fundamentalists that the job of peace keeping would be over.
Our concept of government in Afghanistan is very simple: It should be based on
democratic values and it should ensure freedom of thought, religion and
political expression while safeguarding women's rights. It is an obvious fact
that fundamentalists of all types use the name of Islam to justify and
legitimize their violent madness. Therefore, RAWA stands for a separation of
religious and political processes in Afghanistan. Though the fanatical groups
label secularism as a 'communistic' idea and term it a 'faith of the infidels,'
RAWA firmly believes that only a government with secular orientation can thwart
the nefarious designs of these reactionaries from the Dark Ages. It is only a
secular government that can prevent the religion of Islam from being used as a
retrogressive tool in the hands of fanatics. The people of Afghanistan have been
Muslims for the past several centuries and will not allow gangs of rapists,
murderers and traitors to teach them their faith with a stick once again.
We believe that aside from their inhuman misogynistic ideas,
Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan have no plans for socioeconomic
reconstruction. Nor do they have a decent concept for the country. Therefore,
since their seizure of power, the fundamentalists have had to employ a fig leaf
of irrelevant and artificial issues such as the "Islamic veil," put
forward as vital priorities. Like every other oppressive means by which they
wish to achieve their aims, the fundamentalists want to use the Koran as a
bogey, even though wearing the veil has not been explicitly commanded in the
Koran. |