Rosa Luxemburg Foundation: Meena Keshwar Kamal (Meena) was a revolutionary political activist, poet, feminist, and founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). She was born in Kabul on February 27, 1957. Living among a Pashtun middle-class elite in urban Kabul initially provided Meena with protection and social educational opportunities denied to many other Afghan women. According to the World Bank, the literacy rate for women aged 15 and older was 5% in 1979. Those who did not live in urban centers in particular had few opportunities for education. more...

The U.S. used the slogan of democracy and “war on terror” to promote an imperialist occupation and a corrupt U.S. -backed government for 20 years and to force this government on the Afghan people. The U.S. has shown that it can make peace with the Taliban when it is in its interest. All these governments use the very real need for humanitarian aid to justify diplomatic recognition of the Taliban. more...

Towards Freedom: From the U.S. military intervention launched under the banner of democracy and human rights to restored warlords and the resuscitated Taliban regime, Afghan women have never stopped fighting for their rights.When Taliban forces entered Kabul on August 15, appearing to have taken control of Afghanistan two weeks before the United States was set to complete its troop withdrawal, shock and fear for women’s fate under the Islamist group’s repressive rule quickly multiplied inside the country and globally. more...

Organization Upgrade: The fall of the Afghan puppet government of Ashraf Ghani was inevitable. US military and government officials knew for years the extent of the corruption inside the Afghan government, military, and security forces. It was just a matter of time.As Taliban insurgents surgically carved their way through Afghanistan, toppling one provincial capital after another, the US mainstream media from the left and the right slammed President Joe Biden’s response as a “failure of intelligence.” In fact, the CIA raised the possibility of a swift Taliban takeover following the collapse of the Afghan government, but one thing above all else is true – Biden was 100% correct: the troops needed to be withdrawn. more...

RAWA: Afghan Women’s Mission has been in touch with RAWA to address their needs at this urgent time. In this brief Q&A with AWM Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar, RAWA explains the unfolding situation on the ground as they see it. more...

Komun: Women in Afghanistan have been affected by wars and occupation of their country for decades. The plight of Afghan women has often been instrumentalized by imperialist forces, in particular the USA, to justify and legitimize their war-mongering policies in the region. However, women have been at the forefront of fighting both, imperalist and fundamentalist forces in their county. more...

Global Research: “Whoever sits in the White House will continue to serve the 1% and spread wars across the world, to maintain the US hegemony. Many corporations, arms manufacturers and corporate-employed mercenaries, benefit from the war itself, or from extravagant reconstruction opportunities the war destruction creates. The increase in the number of US troops is not to secure the country or annihilate the US creations, the Taliban and ISIS, but rather a show of US power to rivals, Russia, China and Iran.” more...

Şûjin: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) sent a message to Kurdish women on the occasion of Newroz. “Erdoğan’s reactionary and fascist regime may create serious obstacles for the Kurdish people and put the Kurdish pioneers into prison, but we know that the rotting regime is condemned to death in the presence of the resistance of the Kurdish people, in particular women.” more...

RAWA.org: RAWA representative, Mariam Rawi, traveled to Germany in November 2015 for a 20-day tour. She participated in several events in Germany from 3rd to 18th November, 2015. These different events were organized by anti-war, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, feminists, progressive and democratic activists. The main event was a one-day conference on 7th November titled “Towards Afghan Spring– One day of exchange with grassroots activists from Afghanistan”, which was attended by hundreds of people. more...

Rising Kashmir: No veil, no dupatta, not even a scarf, Heela Faryal (not her real name), in her early twenties, came wearing a buttoned Purple long sleeved Kurta and straight black pants with silver slippers. Curious Karachi college girls went up to Heela- Afghanistan’s lone woman participant in a conference on women, but the latter swiftly turned, avoiding any selfies with the excited girls. It was not for her to exchange phone numbers or emails. She remained quiet even as her glowing face with a halo of dark curly hair on her shoulders failed to hide her youthful enthusiasm. more...

PRAVDA.Ru: The CIA has a long history of being involved in global drug trade in all parts of the world under the control of the US or where it has considerable influence. While a few cases have been investigated and exposed by journalists, the issue continues to remain in the shadows. more...

Global Research: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), is the oldest women’s organization in Afghanistan that fights for freedom, democracy, social justice, and secularism. RAWA’s founder was Meena who formed this group at a young age in 1977, with the help of some other female university students in Kabul. more...

RAWA.org: I am a member of RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), which is the oldest organisation in Afghanistan that fights for the rights of women, social rights and freedoms while taking a stand against the Afghan fundamentalists and their international backers. We work in all parts of Afghanistan, but face enormous difficulties. more...

Truthdig: With very little fanfare and barely any major news coverage, U.S. Army units have begun leaving Afghanistan. The drawdown signals the wrapping up of what became—officially at least—the United States’ longest war. A few thousand American troops will stay indefinitely. And, says “Reena,” a spokeswoman for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), the U.S. is leaving Afghanistan worse off than when the Taliban was in power. more...

Astra: “From the killing of my father and other male members of my family, the tragedy has always accompanied my life. For this reason, my only dream is a secure, safe life for my children: a boy of 14 and a girl of 4. I want very little. I don’t care about success.” Maryam Rawi (it’s a nick-name for security reasons) was born 38 years ago in Kabul. She works for RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan)... more...

Second Council House of Virgo: Almost universally known by just her first name, Meena Keshwar Kamal was born in 1957, two years before Afghan women gained the right to appear unveiled in public. Women rights in Afghanistan were in the ascendancy with women gaining the right to vote in five years later, as increasing educational opportunities became available for girls and women. more...

Democracy Now: It was 10 years ago today when former President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the war on Afghanistan. It has now has become the longest-running war in U.S. history and there is no end in sight. The Taliban remains in control of major parts of the nation. Peace talks have collapsed. Civilian and troop casualties continue to mount. more...

RAWA News: Ten years ago, when the terrorist attacks took place on September 11th, 2001, my colleagues and I in the Afghan Women’s Mission watched in shock and horror as thousands of innocent people lost their lives. We knew right away however, that retaliation would be aimed at Afghanistan and that all Afghans, including the women of the underground organization RAWA who we worked in solidarity with, would become targets of American bombs. more...

NB Media Co-Op: On Saturday, March 19, about 60 people gathered at the artist-run gallery, Gallery Connexion in Fredericton, to support the work of the Revolutionary Association of the Women in Afghanistan (RAWA). RAWA began in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1977 under the leadership of Meena, a health worker and activist who was assassinated with two of her family members. more...

WISA: Tuesday March 8 is International Women’s Day’s centenary and WISA will be joining women all across the world, to celebrate this significant landmark, remembering the advances that have been made and recognising the work that’s still to be done for women’s rights. WISA invites you and your friends to join us on this very special day for an evening of unique and inspiring stories of women’s empowerment... more...

AlterNet: After the July Time magazine cover of the noseless Afghan woman was exposed as a fake (it turns out that the woman’s nose wasn’t removed by the Taliban, as Time reported, but by her husband three years earlier – see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abdulhadi-hairan/times-aisha-story-is-fake_b_692123.html), I decided it was impossible to get an accurate view of the war in Afghanistan from any US source. Which led me to consult the website of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (www.rawa.org) for the first time in several years. more...

During Taliban rule, RAWA ran secret girls’ schools and filmed the state killings of women using cameras hidden under their burqas, creating footage that helped to fuel international outrage against the regime. Members are careful to regularly move their meetings to different houses, and no one keeps any incriminating materials in their home. more...

I was talking about Afghanistan the other day and it was pointed out that the USA has an obligation to stay in Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s religious fundamentalism and atrocious treatment of women.... women of Afghanistan want freedom and human rights. In fact they have been fighting for them for a long time.... RAWA continued to stand for democracy, human rights, and secular values. more...

On the 14th of November 2009 a solidarity fund raiser was held to support the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). The fund raiser was held as part of the ‘Edinburgh Anti-Militarist’ week long event to oppose the Annual General meeting of NATO which took place in Edinburgh between the 13th to the 17th of November this year. more...

RAWA, the nation’s oldest and most illustrious feminist group, opposes the U.S. occupation. RAWA argues that the real enemy of women’s rights in Afghanistan is religious fundamentalism.... RAWA sees the U.S. occupation entrenching a regime stuffed to the gills with fundamentalists, reactionaries, misogynists, criminals, and warlords. more...

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is an underground women’s organization and one of the groups that predicted a long, deadly engagement. Zoya is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of RAWA and she joined us to talk about what would really be best for the women–and all the people–of Afghanistan. more...

Zoya, a 28-year-old member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), travels the world to speak out against the Northern Alliance, the Taliban, and the U.S./NATO occupation of her country. Representing RAWA’s Foreign Committee, Zoya spoke at the Des Moines Public Library on October 6. more...

Politics. Love. Sexuality. Oppression. These were the recurring themes in Andrea Gibson’s slam poetry performance last Thursday evening. Her performance, played before a nearly full house, was a benefit event for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). All of the ticket sales and donations from the evening supported RAWA. more...

The women of Afghanistan, after eight years of occupation, offer conflicting advice, depending on their position in society. If the women are in Kabul, are educated and affluent, and have family members in office or are part of the government, they sometimes say, “our safety is in danger if U.S. troops leave." If the women are in the countryside (and 90% are) they say, “get the troops out now. Our rights, our freedoms, our safety have not improved in eight years of occupation — and the occupation fuels the insurgency.” more...

The 2002 book “Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom” describes a life under the Taliban where women were largely confined to their homes and barred from working or going to school. .... Recently Zoya was in our area and VPR’s Steve Zind spoke with her. He began by asking her about the situation for women in Afghanistan today. more...

A few Sundays ago I attended a meeting at the Friends Meeting House in Amesbury. I listened to a talk by Zoya, an Afghani woman who is touring America as a representative of Revolutionary Association of Afghanistan Women (RAWA). Zoya spoke of the terrible conditions that prevail in her country, conditions such as gang rape, kidnapping, forced marriages, illiteracy, poor drinking water, lack of electricity, doctors and hospitals. more...

thepeoplesvoice.org: Afghan women reveal censored view of occupations, false liberations, tell U.S. and allies to get out of their country. The people of the world should know that though the disgusting, ludicrous and oppressive rule of Taliban was over in our ill-fated Afghanistan, this never means the end of the horrible miseries of our tortured women. more...

As the White House debates on how best to continue the war, an Afghan women’s rights activist who goes by the name Zoya, is touring the United States with the message that the occupation must end and that the US is not acting in the interests of ordinary Afghans. more...

Zoya, whose name has not been revealed in order to protect her identity, has been touring the United States in an effort to spread the message of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, a woman’s rights group. Women have traditionally been treated as a subclass in Afghanistan, and under Taliban rule, were denied access to many basic rights, such as education. more...

Open Media Boston: The keynote speech will be given by "Zoya" an Afghan activist from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). The Kabul based activist is on a bi-coastal speaking tour of the U.S. including Saturday’s Copley Square rally, Newton, MA on Sunday, Medford, MA and Portsmouth NH on Monday and then Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA. more...

CommonDreams: Brave New Foundation partnered with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which requested a total of $15,000 to ensure that every family in the refugee camp would receive oil, rice, sugar, and blankets. All funds went directly to RAWA. The funds were raised due to the generosity of Brave New Foundation members in a short period of two weeks. more...

Eight years following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the human rights situation has not improved, Zoya, a representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, said in a lecture in Carpenter hall on Tuesday. Zoya, who does not disclose her full name for security purposes, described how her organization seeks to promote peace, democracy and human rights in her lecture, “War and Reconstruction from the Perspective of Afghanistan’s Revolutionary Women.” more...

On the 8th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Her identity is hidden for her safety. Zoya, a young woman from Afghanistan spoke recently in Des Moines about the tragic situation in that country. She spoke on behalf of RAWA, The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Watch and listen to the passion, truth and courage of her message. No more troops. No more violence. No more war. more...

The Des Moines Register: As the young Afghan woman saw it, she had three choices in the face of the repression and violence ... She could flee to America to live with relatives. She could commit suicide, as so many other despondent young Afghans were doing. Or she could do what she did and take what she calls “the way of struggle,” by joining the resistance. more...

The Daily Iowan: Although she answers to “Zoya,” it is not her real name. As a speaker for Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, a group pushing women’s rights, she must keep her identity a secret. The 28-year-old spoke to a group of roughly 60 UI students and community members at the Pappajohn Business Building on Monday night. more...