As the International Women’s Day approaches the suffering women of Afghanistan continue to be killed brutally, tormented inhumanely, humiliated and live in agony under the US occupation and domination of Jehadi and Taliban killers, reactionary clerics and the puppet government. In the current disastrous situation not only is no door open for the escape of women but the most anti-women, medieval-aged creatures, the Taliban, are set to be imposed on them by the US and its lackeys under the guise of women’s rights defenders.
The deafening slogan of “women’s rights” has been given for the past nineteen years but as was known from the very first day of the US and NATO occupation, the situation of the ill-fated Afghan women has not seen any positive change. In a statement published on March 8, 2002 shortly after the US’s military invasion when the White House imposed the rabid Jehadi hyenas upon our people and was speaking of the complete annihilation of the Taliban, RAWA stated:
“One fundamentalist band cannot be fought by siding with and supporting another. In its war on the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, the US has taken the "Northern Alliance" into service through wooing and arming certain infamous warlords. By so doing, the US is in fact abetting the worst enemies of our people and is continuing the same tyrannical policy against the people and the destiny of Afghanistan which successive US administrations adopted during the past two decades. The Taliban and the al-Qaeda cannot be eradicated through military and financial might alone. War on the Taliban and the al-Qaeda is not only a war on the military and financial fronts, it is a war on the ideological front too. Until such time as mindsets and thoughts characteristic of the Taliban and Osama & Co. remain, it is inevitable that we shall witness their trademark barbarism erupt yet once again, be it in Afghanistan or in any other part of the world. The den of these evil criminals in Afghanistan is under siege. Democratic and anti-fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan need to fight the Taliban, the al-Qaeda and their fundamentalist brethren relentlessly and resolutely until total eradication of terrorism and fundamentalism in all its forms in our country. Only with the taking root of democracy in Afghanistan with the unreserved support of the international community can final victory over terrorism and fundamentalism be achieved.”
At the time, people accused RAWA of “negativism” but unfortunately these predications have come true today. Afghanistan is burning in the inferno of terrorism, crimes, misogyny, blasts and domination of mafia and corruption more than ever before. The US is relying on Zalmai Khalilzad, the godfather and supporter of these criminals and enemies of our people, to continue its old treacherous policy and is bringing back the murderous Taliban under the deceptive name of “peace” into its puppet government. But now even our children know that these deceptive acrobatics can never amount to peace in our country.
The US and Arab, Pakistani, and Iranian reactionary wouldn’t have dared to create the Taliban, ISIS and Fatimions if our women had realized their tremendous strength and stood against the Jehadi criminals at the beginning of their dog-eat-dog fighting and if the men of our traditional society raging about honor had become outraged by seeing and hearing of the gang-rape of women by Jehadi commanders and watching childbirth on the streets, selling of girls to Arabs by Sayyaf, Gulbuddin’s acid attacks and hundreds of other such cases, and had joined hands with them against the Nazi-like domination of the Jehadis. Today, neither would have Farkhunda, Tabasum, Shukria and thousands of other women be brutally oppressed, nor would have filthy beings like Mullah Baradar, Mullah Abbas Stanekzai, Mullah Suhail Shahin, Mullah Salam Zaeef, Mullah Shinwari, Mullah Naqeeb, and others regained their strength.
Since 2001, the US and its puppets have given money, power and position to a few Fulbright scholars and unconscionable women like Fawzia Koofi, Shahrzad Akbar, Zainab Mohed, Aseela Wardak, Jamila Afghani, Laila Jaffari, Adila Raz, Nahid Farid, Nahid Sarabi, Moqadesa Yorish, Ghezal Haris, Habiba Sarabi, Munira Yousofzada, Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, Mari Akrami, and others. It has poured millions of Dollars for their endeavors and created hundreds of NGOs and organizations that worked under banners such as “empowerment”, “capacity building”, “defending women’s rights” and viciously exploited our women’s illiteracy. In return for the money and power granted by the US and its Afghan puppet government, these women have stooped so low that they fell at the brutal Taliban’s feet in Doha, Moscow and Islamabad and shamelessly spoke of “change in Taliban” and “Taliban’s good plans”.
RAWA has repeatedly stated that the suffering Afghan women should rise to destroy their enemies instead of killing themselves and turn into a glorious destructive force against internal fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist killers and their foreign masters. Our escape from the multifold oppression lies in a resilient struggle against its perpetrators. There is no other solution! We have to take inspiration from the shining examples of Meena, Leila Qasim, Monica Artel, Rosa Luxemburg, Shirin Alam Hooli and tens of women strugglers and revolutionaries from around the world, to struggle and build an independent, free and democratic society
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
March 8, 2020