Excerpting, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett
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. Because contrary to the aspirations of our people and expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban and Al-Qaida are again in power and generously supported by the U.S. government.... Afghan people will never forgive them for the crimes they committed along with the so-called older generation of the Alliance (i.e. Dostum, Khalili, Sayyaf, Rabbani, Gulbuddin, and others) while in power from 1992 to 1996. In Kabul alone, during these bloody years, 65,000 were killed. -"On the Situation of Afghan Women," Revolutionary women writing a year ago and repeated by Zoya in a Flashpoints a interview this week -
Seven years back the U.S. government and its allies were successfully able to legitimize their military invasion on Afghanistan and deceive the people of the U.S. and the world under the banners of 'liberating Afghan women,' 'democracy' and 'war on terror.'
Our people, who had been tormented and oppressed by the Taliban's dominance, were filled with hope but soon their dream of the establishment of security, democracy and freedom was shattered in the most painful manner.
By the installation of the puppet government of Karzai, the U.S. reused its creations and continued its deal with the Jehadi criminal warlords. From the very start, Mr. Karzai shunned the demands and trusts of the people and chose to compromise with the criminals of the 'Northern Alliance' and placed the filthiest faces in the key posts of the government. In contradiction to the shameless claims of the ministers and other treacherous and corrupt officials, our people feel more ill fated; the country has been turned into a mafia state; and self-immolation, rape and abduction of women and children has no parallel in the history of Afghanistan. ...
RAWA strongly believes that there should be no expectation of either the U.S. or any other country to present us with democracy, peace and prosperity.
Our freedom is only achievable at the hands of our people.
It is the duty of all the intellectuals, all the democratic forces and progressive and independence-seeking people to rise in a constant and decisive struggle for independence and democracy by taking the support of our wounded people as the independent force, against the presence of the U.S. and its allies and the domination of Jehadi and Taliban criminals.
Combating against the armed and alien forces in the country without being loud-mouthed against the Talibi and Jehadi enemies would mean welcoming the misfortunes of fascism and religious mafia. ...
Struggling against this enemy without fighting the military presence of the U.S., its allies and its puppet government would mean falling before foreign agents.
The path of the freedom fighters of our country, without doubt, will be very complex, difficult and bloody; but if our demand is to be free from the chains of the slavery of foreigners and their Talib and Jehadi lackeys, we should not fear trial or death to become triumphant. From RAWA's statement "Neither the U.S. nor Jehadies and Taliban - Long Live the Struggle of Independent and Democratic Forces of Afghanistan!" on the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, October 7, 2008, http://www.rawa.org/events/sevenyear_e.htm; http://www.rawa.org/index.php; October 26, Flashpoints, "...Leading Afghan women's activist, Zoya, debunks the myth that entrenching the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan will save women and children," Flashpoints, Monday, October 26th, 2009, Full quest on October 26 Flashpoints: Ahmed Habib, al-Jazeera reporter and spoken word poet; Jamal Jumaa, Stop the Wall Campaign in occupied Palestine; Zoya, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan; Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Network, Knight Report with Robert Knight, http://www.flashpoints.net/
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan self identifies
Established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan.
RAWA's original objective was to involve increasing numbers of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women's human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.
Before the Moscow-directed coup d'état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA's activities were confined to agitation for women's rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance. In contradistinction to the absolute majority of the vaunted Islamic fundamentalist 'freedom fighters' of the anti-Soviet war of resistance, RAWA from the outset advocated democracy and secularism. Despite the horrors and the political oppression, RAWA's appeal and influence grew in the years of the Soviet occupation and a growing number of RAWA activists were sent to work among refugee women in Pakistan.
For the purpose of addressing the immediate needs of refugee women and children, RAWA established schools with hostels for boys and girls, a hospital for refugee Afghan women and children in Quetta, Pakistan, with mobile teams. In addition, it conducted nursing courses, literacy courses and vocational training courses for women.
Demonstrations against the Soviet invaders and their stooges, and later against the fundamentalists, and unrelenting exposure of their treason and heinous crimes has been a hallmark of RAWA's political activities. In consequence of its anti-Soviet occupationist struggle and agitation RAWA was marked for annihilation by the Soviets and their cronies; the Islamic fundamentalists vented their wrath on [the] organization for [its] pro-democracy, pro-secularist and anti-fundamentalist stance. RAWA's uncompromising attitude against these two enemies of our people has cost us dear, as witnessed by the martyrdom of our founding leader and a large number of our key activists but we have unswervingly stood, and continue to stand, by our principles despite the deadly blows that we have been dealt." RAWA's founders were Afghan woman intellectuals led by Meena [http://www.rawa.org/meena.html] who was assassinated in 1987 in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then-KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
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It’s a "solution" that appears to be a major problem in Afghanistan, particularly among young women between the ages 13 and 25. In the first seven months of this year, medical staff at the Herat’s burns unit – the only one of its kind in the entire country – said they have seen 51 cases of female self-immolation. Only 13 have survived.
In 1981, RAWA launched a bilingual (Persian/Pashtu) magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Woman's Message) to propagate its views, aims and objectives, and to give Afghan women social and political awareness about their rights and potentialities. The publication is ongoing with issues in Urdu and English for non-Persian/Pashtu speakers.
Since the overthrow of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in 1992 the focus of RAWA's political struggle has been against the fundamentalists' and the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban's criminal policies and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan in general and their incredibly ultra-male-chauvinistic and anti-woman orientation in particular.
The U.S. 'War on terrorism' removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism, which is the main cause of all our miseries. By reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan, the U.S. administration is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. The U.S. government and Mr. Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.
RAWA believes that freedom and democracy cannot be donated. It is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values.
Under the U.S.-supported government, the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.
Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved. Today RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan.
We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world. http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html