It has been twelve years since the US started its ‘war on terror’ with claims of securing ‘women’s rights’, ‘human rights’, ‘justice’ and ‘stability’ in Afghanistan; and that too by relying on fundamentalists such as Sayyaf, Qanouni, Fahim, Khalili, Abdullah, Mohaqiq, Atta, Ismail, Khuram, Almas, Rabbani, Dostum, Sherzoy, Farooq Wardak, Arghandiwal, and others, who are misogynist in nature and the most brutal and corrupt creatures in the world. In this period of occupation by more than forty plunderer countries and dominance of vicious fundamentalists, contrary to the claims of the bogus propaganda by the Western media, Afghan women have not been able to achieve even the most basic rights. Rather, their sufferings and hardships have been treacherously misused for promoting the colonial policies of the US and West.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) declared in a statement a few months after the occupation of Afghanistan by the US and western countries:
“Afghan women have not been liberated… RAWA has emphasized repeatedly that no power can or will help us, except for our own people. History has not shown us a country that has freed a nation, especially if that country was responsible for the misfortune of (the invaded country’s) people at the hands of the fundamentalists.” – (March 8, 2001)
The last decade proves the truth in our prediction. Today Jehadi criminals, overindulged in Dollars and power given to them by their US masters, rape, insult, threaten, commit violence, sexually assault, and even kill women like ownerless property, and are not held accountable, prosecuted, or punished, according to the ‘law’ set by B-52. The dominant patriarchal culture which is promoted and supported by the puppet government and its fundamentalist-blighted bodies, endorses women as half of men and worthless creatures, and discriminates against them. Unfortunately, our oppressed women get no justice in the face of all this.
While Afghan women are already burning in a blazing inferno, the US and Karzai’s obedient puppet apparatus have rolled their sleeves in a bid to give a share of power to the acid-throwing Gulbuddin who has a long history of misogyny, and Mullah Omar who is an emblem of misogyny. They even want to hand over the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court to them. The US is sacrificing our women once more for furthering its colonial policies. For the US what only matters is that these cancerous, traitorous and mercenary tumors, pave the way for the hegemony of the US and its allies. Indeed, these looter countries are in critically need such reactionary and treacherous elements and forces to maintain their bases.
A few dolled-up showpiece women in the government, parliament, and other official bodies, like Fawzia Koofi, Sima Samar, Shukria Barikzai, Zahra Nadiri, Hassan Bano Ghazanfar, Shinkai Karrokhail, Fawzia Sadaat, Fatima Gilani, Amina Afzali, Wazhma Forough, and others, whose mouths have been sweetened with money, luxuries and foreign that come with their official posts, do not want to speak a word about the bitter truth of the situation of women, let alone stand up against, stop and prosecute, the real perpetrators of the ongoing disaster in support of their fellow women. This handful of women who have found a position thanks to the occupation, are themselves the enemies of our women in their unison with the killers in power. Therefore, we cannot possibly view their presence in important posts as the cementing of the deserving position women are supposed to have.
These women, who can be regarded as prepared nutriment to feed the US propaganda, realize that the end of the current colonial system and the puppet Karzai regime means the end of their pompous lives. This is why they themselves back the current deplorable and tragic situation. Most of these women who are slaves of the reactionary elements and occupiers, are in the service of war criminals, and in the best-case scenario, just want a few useless reforms in the rotten Karzai apparatus. For this reason, intentionally or unintentionally, these women are at the service of and among the enemies of the women of Afghanistan. These women can never represent the majority women, who have been charred in Afghanistan’s hell.
We wrote on March 8, 2005:
“The persistence of the current instability and the West's support of the "Northern Alliance" terrorists in Afghanistan proves that the US and her allies pay no attention to human rights and women rights, but seek only their political and economical interests.”
Today, even the most optimistic people in our country, confess that Afghan women have not been liberated, and have become a commodity for the Western propaganda. Thanks to the presence of the US, women are gang-raped by warlords, are flogged in many Taliban-controlled areas, are preys of acid attaks, or are mercilessly stoned to death. But the US and its tail-wagging servants still show them a green signal and want them to join the puppet government. A considerable number of our women are forced into prostitution of beggary due to poverty and unemployment; the maternal and infant mortality rate of Afghanistan is the highest in the world.
In this country, laws are just pieces of paper that aid only in deceiving people, and are never practically applied. The law of Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) made by Karzai is a commendable document which has been set aside with no use. When criminal husbands, fathers, or brothers kill women under different contexts, they are never punished. In many cases, women are convicted by the judicial bodies and thrown into jails for the crime of ‘running away from home’, where they are further raped by the jail keepers.
In such a hostile situation, most women find self-immolation the only solution to free them from a slow torturous death. The suicide rates among our women has risen in an unprecedented manner. Here, blooming flowers like Sanobars, Saimas, Anisas, Zar Bibis, Gul Afrozes, Shakeelas, Nafeesas , Azizas, and hundreds of other innocent girls, have been blown to pieces by the filthy and blood-dripping hands of the fundamentalists. This is the agonizing reality of the life of a woman in Afghanistan, not the distorted image the false propaganda machine of the US gives to the people of the world to deceive them.
Women can never have even their basic rights in a country which is not independent, and whose people are captives in the chains of colonialism and despotism. The exit of foreign troops and our country’s independence, can be the first step in the path of the realization of values such as freedom and democracy, which are vital conditions for the emancipation of women. Our people might be able to breathe with relief without foreign troops, and their aid for fundamentalist criminals, and then labor for values like freedom, democracy with secularism, social justice and their prosperity. In the current situation, the US and NATO and its Afghan agents have suppressed the advocates of such values, and cannot indulge in their activities, as they would want to.
The women of Afghanistan should know that until they do not recognize that their rights have to be snatched with their own hands, they will not witness a better day with the slightest improvements in their condition. We women should get united and instead of burning ourselves, burn the very roots of oppression. Women in no country in the world have attained their rights with the blessings of others, without struggling themselves. We have been experiencing the gifted rights of the US and NATO for the past twelve years, and it has been nothing but enslavement and deception.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) congratulates all the justice-seeking and fighting women of the world on the International Women’s Day. We hope Afghan women will also celebrate this day in the near future in an Afghanistan free from the claws of the misogynist fundamentalists and occupiers, and on the path towards democracy and prosperity. Members and activists of RAWA pledge to fight tirelessly in this endeavor to achieve these great values.
Emancipation of women is only attainable through their own struggle!
Long live the struggle of the women and men of Afghanistan for independence, democracy, and social justice!
Down with fundamentalists, religious and non-religious criminals, and their foreign backers!
March 8, 2013