- Email: [email protected]
Fundamentalism, Misogyny and the War on Women's Rights
Fundamentalism, Misogyny atid the War on Women’s Rights The Ghosts of Afghanistan Sue Silvermarie Bused in part on the testimonygiven byzarghuna Wazari at the UN Tribunal eve of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
When 1 couldn’t breathe when I lifted a corner of the heavy burqa when I exposed my mouth and nose desperate to gulp air, they beat me unconscious When they beat us again with whips and metal cables while we waited in the hospital when the sick babies in their mothers’ arms fell on the floor, my will to live began to tremble. In the summer of 96 we laughed. I can’t remember the sound. Before that September when the Taliban came we were no different than you Now we are the ghosts of Afghanistan The women and the girls of a whole country under house arrest. For trying to go to work, my sister was beaten For leaving her home alone, my neighbor was tortured For showing her ankle as she rode behind her husband on a bike my girlfriend was shot dead on the street. My children are shrinking before my eyes but 1 am banned from receiving food from the World Food Programme. In the orphanage are girls who have never seen the sun or trees My sons are being taught a man should beat a female who is seen even through the windows of a home or a bus. 12
in December
1998, on the
1 view the world through a patch of mesh in a voluminous tent that pulls me to stooping The garment gates me, takes mobility and voice When the burqa descends over my tender head I am invisible, a living woman who can’t be seen or heard My woman’s will to live can strengthen only on the thread that connects me to you. Poem reprinted from www.rawa.org
Reproductive
Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
Statement on Attacks in the USA Women Living Under Muslim Laws, International Solidarity Network, 21 September2001 HE network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) wishes to extend its deepest condolences to the aggrieved, their families and the people of America following the crimes against humanity that were committed on 11 September 200 I. Our sorrow is particularly heartfelt because many of those linked through the WLUML network have directly experienced terror and the devastation that goes with it. And also because of our links of solidarity with allies in the women’s movements and other progressive people in the US. We know that indiscriminate violence and terrorism by state and non-state actors are a global phenomenon. We are particularly aware of the human cost of terrorism and war frequently perpetrated in the name of religion or belief systems. However we regard all of these as assaults on the principle of respect for civilian life.
T
Vengeance is not justice We urge the US and their allies not to pursue fruitless retaliation with military force. The world must focus on transparent investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice under the principles of international law through an appropriate forum such as an International Criminal Court (ICC). Violence cannot eradicate terrorism. Many people in our communities are deeply distressed by these events but many are at the same time also angered by the poverty and deprivation, injustice and exploitation they experience; they are also angered by domestic and foreign policies that they perceive to be hypocritical. All of this can fuel extreme and violent attitudes. Ending terrorism requires addressing the roots of global inequality. Misguided retaliation? It is WLUML’s experience that terrorism in the name of Islam is a trans-national force. Politico-religious movements across the world are reinforcing each other through funding, military training, educational exchanges, joint
international lobbying, etc. The profound impact on women can be seen, for example, through restrictions on access to education and limitations imposed on freedom of movement as well as changes in family laws that severely curtail women’s legal rights. And yet the current focus of retaliation is against one person and one country. If the US is talking about taking action against “those harbouring terrorists” it should consider that the US and the UK have both become safe havens for those who openly advocate violence against those who do not share their opinions. For example, Anouar Haddam, a leader of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, is currently seeking asylum in the US and numerous politico-religious extremists are operating out of the UK. Human rights concepts such as freedom of expression have been misused by some international human rights organisations as well as manipulated by governments and coopted by politico-religious extremists, thereby giving unwarranted space and credibility to such views. Also Saudi Arabia has been bankrolling extremist Madrassahs in Pakistan where many Taliban supporters are being trained. It should be remembered that Bin Laden and the Taliban emerged in the context of Cold War confrontation and the vacuum of its aftermath. Global reaction should not be determined by US political and economic interests alone. We are concerned that legitimate grief is being exploited as a cover for increased military spending - weapons that are aimed mainly at civilian populations. Such military action will cause further suffering to civilians elsewhere. After 20 years of war, Afghanistan is already destroyed while the intended ‘targets’ have fled. Furthermore, Bin Laden and the Taliban are not Afghanistan. The consequences The demonising of ‘the other’ has already increased, resulting in violent attacks on innocent individuals. Talk of ‘crusades’ is buying into the agenda of the perpetrators, at the risk of world 13
fundamentalism,
Women and War
Already the situation has given public expcIsure to previously unheard of fringe groups. And already there have been moves towards swee‘ping restrictions on civil liberties under the guisf: of this crisis. In those countries which will bear the brunt of any military action, the space for altemative positions will vanish. People may find themselves forced to make choices which they had no say in formulating. Any military
war.
14
action will de-stabilise an already unstable iand nuclearised region. Women in Muslim count ries and communities in ‘particular may suffer the direct impact of militarisation and a poten tial backlash from politico-religious movements. Reprinted with kind permission of WLV ‘ML Ied www.wluml.org/english/new-archiz. wtc/wluml-statements.htm
from:
Reproductive
Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
News Reports from Afghanistan Misery brings down bride price in northern I Taliban seeking ‘fatwa’ to enforce dress code Afghanistan, UN for non-Muslims Islamabad, 22 June 2001 - Misery caused by Islamabad, 2 1 May 200 1 - Afghanistan’s Talidrought and conflict has brought the bride ban regime was considering a separate dress price down in northern Afghanistan, a United code for the minorities to distinguish them Nations office in Islamabad said Friday. Famifrom Muslims, a report said. Maulawi Mohamlies in Balkh and Baghlan provinces are having mad Wali, in charge of the ministry for fostera hard time finding enough to eat and are ing virtue and suppressing vice was quoted as ‘giving away their daughters at greatly reduced ~ telling the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that nonbride prices and at a young age’, the office of Muslims should wear dress which can identify the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan said in a ~ them easily. His ministry was seeking a ‘fatwa’ statement. ‘Some of these families have coped or religious edict for that purpose from Islamic as long as they can. Now, they are simply at the scholars, the agency said.. . Under the proposed end of their rope. People are suffering because legislation non-Muslim Afghan citizens would of war, drought and widespread poverty that is, have a distinct badge or stitch a cloth of speciitself, an outcome of the deepening crisis. He fied colour onto their dress to identify their called for ‘immediate action’ by the aid religion, he said. The aim was to spare noncommunity. (Deutsche Presse Agentur) Muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs, when religious police squads force people to close Taliban stage lashing of unwed couple their shops at the time of prayers and herd accused of having sex them to mosques, AIP said. Wali said the TaliKabul, 22 May 2001 - Afghanistan’s fundaban had assigned the yellow colour for Hindus mentalist Taliban regime Tuesday staged public living in the militia’s southern stronghold of lashing of an unmarried couple accused of Kandahar a few years ago but its implementahaving sex, witnesses said. Fazl Rahman and a tion remained partial. ‘We now want to prepare woman identified as Nadia were given 100 ~ a uniform policy so that distinction between lashes each at the Kabul sports stadium in front Muslims and non-Muslims becomes easy in all of thousands of spectators, mostly from the Afghan cities,’ he said. He said non-Muslims ruling Taliban militia, they said. Taliban had ‘no right’ to worship in open areas, but officials said a local court found the couple ~ should do so at places assigned for this purguilty of having sex three months ago. ‘Adult- ~ pose. Claiming that his ministry was bringing cry is a big sin, which brings about corruption the people to the right path, he defended the and chaos to the society, according to the Taliban regime’s ban on music and restrictions Koranic reasons,’ a Taliban official said as on Muslims not to trim their beards. AIP said religious fighters sporting turbans thronged the he dismissed the possibility of any relaxation city’s rocket-scarred stadium. Around 30 of the tough Taliban rules. ‘Our policies are in women, fully covered in the mandatory ‘burqas’, accordance with Islamic tenets,’ he was quoted also watched the flogging in a segregated secas saying. (Agence France Presse) tion of the stadium. Rehman, in his early 20s initially stood up to the lashes, but later as he ~ Taliban close Italian hospital in Kabul, beat was about to collapse, Taliban soldiers were i staff and take away three employees seen trying to hold him upright. The woman sat Kabul, 18 May 2001 - An Italian-funded hospion the grass as the judge lashed her on the back tal treating war victims in Afghanistan has and on the legs. The Taliban militia who seized closed indefinitely after a raid by the Taliban Kabul in 1996, have enforced strict interpreta- i religious police who beat staff and took away tion of the Islamic Sharia law in the areas they ~ three local employees, hospital personnel said on control. They execute murderers, chop off the : Friday. ‘The hospital is closed after the incident. hands of thieves and stone to death married We have discharged all of the patients and don’t adulterers. (Agence France Presse) know when it will be reopened,’ a hospital guard 15
Fundamentalism,
Women and War
told Reuters. Other employees said armed members of the religious police forced their way into the hospital during lunch on Thursday and beat staff members after accusing them of dining with women. The dining hall of the new hospital was segregated by a curtain and men and women were not mixed, they said. The 120bed surgical hospital, called Emergency, was opened this year to treat victims of 2 1 years of war in Afghanistan.. . The religious police, formally the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, act directly under the order of the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar . . . In 1997, they raided the office of a French non-governmental organisation, arresting foreign and local staff for dining and watching TV with local women employees. Those arrested were released after months in jail and some were given lashings. Foreign-funded organisations, from the United Nations and private groups, provide most of the basic social services in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban have frequently had conflicts with them, especially over the movement’s restrictions on women. (Reuters)
Taliban hang convicted prostitutes Kabul, 23 February 2001 - More than 1,000 people watched as two women convicted of prostitution and ‘corrupting society’ were hanged Friday in the sports stadium in southern Kandahar, their faces hidden behind the all-encompassing burqa, the Taliban-run Radio Shariat said. Two other women were publicly lashed for adultery. One also was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the other to two years, according to the radio report, monitored in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Ten men convicted of adultery also were lashed and sentenced to prison terms.. . Murder, adultery and blasphemy can carry the death penalty, and the limbs of thieves are amputated.. . Many Islamic scholars say the Taliban’s version of Islamic law reflects tribal traditions rather than Islamic tenets. (Associated Press) Some tragic figures on children in Afghanistan 25 October 2000 - In Afghanistan more than 250,000 children are reported dying every year of malnutrition. Every three hours a child is blown up as a result of more than ten million landmines planted all over Afghanistan. One-
Child’s drawing of war, BangMesh, 1972 16
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Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
third of Afghanistan’s landmine victims are in Kabul said Monday. Macmakin, who is in her estimated to be children (UNOCHA 1999). . . late’ 60s is director of Physiotherapy and ReMore than one quarter of Afghan babies do not habilitation Support for Afghanistan. She was see their fifth birthday (UNESCO, 1997). arrested on Sunday along with 15 Afghan According to UNICEF’s State of the World’s nationals, including seven women, said aid Children Report, Afghanistan has the fourth ~ workers, who did not want to be identified for worst record in under-five child mortality, the fear that it would get them into trouble.. . A infant mortality rate being 152 per 1,000 live Taliban security guard at a minimum security births. More than a quarter of a million chilprison usually used to house juvenile offenders dren under five die each year, many more than confirmed the arrest.. . Since taking control of those caught in armed conflict or killed by Kabul in 1996 the Taliban have banned women mines.. . According to a survey conducted by from working and girls from attending the UN High Commission for Refugees in 1997, school.. . in the 90 per cent of the country they there are an estimated 28,000 street children in rule. Macmakin’s organization provided assisKabul, 20 per cent of whom are girls. However tance to poor Afghan women, much of it conwith the increase in the number of displaced fined to home-based industries. She sought to persons in the country, the figure has risen to provide women, particularly widows, with work more than 35,000. These children are either at home to help them earn an income to feed involved in begging or working on the streets their families. There are an estimated 28,000 as shoe polishers, or car washers to support widows in Afghanistan. Ravished by poverty their families. (Arshad Mahmood, Frontier Post) and war, the majority of the 750,000 people living in Kabul depend on international aid. 95% of Afghan children do not go to school Many of the Taliban’s Islamic edicts are directed Peshawar, 22 July 2000 - The sources of the at women. The Taliban require women to wear UN have estimated that over 95 per cent of the all-encompassing burqa and require women Afghan children do not go to school, which to travel outside their home accompanied by a depicts the total collapse of the education male relative. Women are beaten for defying the system in the war-ravaged country. According orders. (Times of1rzndia, AP) to reports as a result of 21 years of war an entire generation of Afghan children is Taliban ban women from working for aid growing up without education. Girls are most groups affected as they are prevented from going to Islamabad, 10 July 2000 - Afghanistan’s ruling school while boys have also suffered as a Taliban has issued orders telling all nonsignificant proportion of qualified teachers, in government organisations (NGOs) to sack all major cities such as Kabul, Herat and Mazar-efemale staff working in Afghanistan, a PakistanSharif, used to be women. Until 1996, 70 per based Afghan news agency reported on Monday. cent of the teachers in Kabul were women, The Afghan Islamic Press said the order was 8,000 women were enrolled at Kabul Univerissued by the Taliban’s Planning Ministry to shy, 40 per cent of the children enrolled at the NGOs operating in the capital Kabul. An official Afghan capital’s 63 schools were girls... Now at one NGO confirmed the order but said it was teachers are unable to work and are gradually not known how strictly it would be enforced. leaving Afghanistan.. . The United Nations has ‘We hope it is not a big deal as they have said estimated female literacy to be at 15 per cent this before,’ the official said. ‘We are still hoping and 32 per cent for males. (DAWN) it will die down.’ Other aid workers said they believed the order was directed at local women Taliban arrest US aid worker for employing working for the NGOs and not international women staff.. . The lslamabad-based head of the UN Kabul, 11 July 2000 - An elderly US aid worker, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Mary Macmakin, was arrested by Afghanistan’s Assistance to Afghanistan will travel to KandaTaliban rulers because she employed Afghan har on Wednesday to discuss the order with Taliwomen, a crime according to the Taliban’s strict ban officials, a UNOCHA spokesman said.. . Aid interpretation of Islam, international aid workers is a key part of the economy for Afghanistan, 17
Fundamentalism,
Women and War
ravaged by more than two decades of war, and this year also hit by its worst drought in more than 30 years. The treatment of women by the Taliban movement has drawn strong intemational criticism, and caused some groups to withhold aid. The hardline Taliban movement, which wants to create the world’s purest Islamic state, placed restrictions on women’s employment, travel and education, and enforced a strict dress code for them soon after taking over Kabul in 1996... The order comes about three months after the United Nations said that the Taliban had softened its stringent attitude on women’s access to education and health. (Scott McDonald, Reuters) Taliban stone woman for adultery Kabul, 1 May 2000 - Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban religious rulers stoned a woman to death in northern Afghanistan on Monday after she was found guilty of committing adultery. The woman was said to have confessed to adultery, a capital offense in this war-ravaged nation. The radio did not say what happened to the man involved.. . The stoning was carried out at a sports stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan before a crowd of several thousand spectators, according to the radio report. The last execution of a woman in Taliban territory was last November, when a woman was shot three times by a Taliban soldier after she was found guilty of killing her abusive husband with an ax. She was the mother of seven children. (Associated Press) Taliban lay off thousands, all female Kabul, 13 April 2000 - Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has laid off thousands of civil servants including all female employees and teachers, officials and workers said Thursday. The ruling militia had already stopped paying female civil servants their monthly wages before the layoff, they said. There was no sign the Taliban had any immediate plans to help the laid-off staff find substitute means of livelihood, they added. faliban ministers were reluctant to give figures, hut civil servants said the redundancies were up to 50 per cent in some ministries, including all female staff. Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel tried to downplay the move, saying they had only terminated those staff who were 18
not working. He conceded, however, that female staff would not be paid their wages. ‘As far as I know, they all have been laid off from those departments where there were no facilities or need to work,’ he said, when asked if all female teachers and workers were among those laid off. ‘We do not have any immediate plans to give jobs to those who have been laid off. But they can find themselves jobs enjoying their free lives,’ Mutawakel said. If job opportunities came up in future the laid-off staff would be given the first chance of employment, he said. ‘There are 35 to 50 per cent redundancies in every ministry,’ said a senior official who did not want to be named. ‘Around 50 per cent of staff have been made redundant in the Ministry of Education, including all female teachers, officials said. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that 2,800 people had been laid off there, whereas officials in the Justice Ministry said 40 per cent of their staff had been made redundant. Taliban officials claimed the drive was to end over-employment caused by previous governments creating unnecessary jobs. Women have been barred from work outside the home and in education and they have to cover themselves from head to toe when they venture out. In September 1996 when the Taliban captured Kabul, their Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a decree that women workers should stay at home, but promised to keep paying them regularly. Female personnel, most of them teachers and administrative staff, came to their offices once or twice a month to sign their names and to receive the equivalent of five US dollars as monthly wages. Many families are headed by widows in Afghanistan, which has been in a state of war for 20 years since the 1979-1989 Soviet invasion. The number of female beggars is on the rise while families migrate to neighbouring Iran and Pakistan to seek a living as labourers and vendors.. . Last Friday, the UN Security Council threatened to impose more sanctions on the Taliban to force it to end fighting. It also blasted them for unabated violence and worsening humanitarian conditions in the country. (Agence France Presse)
Reprinted from www.rawa.org
Reproductive
Health
Matters,
Vol. 9, No.
18, November
2001
Women, Sexuality and Social Change in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Statement: Women for Women’s Human Rights Meeting, September 30, 2001
N
INETEEN women, academicians, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organizations from Algeria, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen gathered in Istanbul from 28-30 September 2001 for a conference on “Women, Sexuality and Social Change in the Middle East and the Mediterranean” organized by Women for Women’s Human Rights - New Ways. Using their experience and the results of research conducted in their countries, participants confronted some of the pressing issues that directly affect the lives of women in this region, such as: l l l l l l l l l l
l l
sexuality and the politics of power virginity laws and sexuality sexual harassment violence against women honour crimes female genital mutilation (FGM) sexual norms, values and behaviours freedom of mobility reproductive and sexual health and human rights desire and pleasure political movements and sexuality.
Participants called for the recognition of the right of individuals, women and men, to enjoy a sexual life in accordance with their values and with respect for others. This entails not only the right to determine one’s sexual behaviour, but also the right to seek sexual pleasure. Sexuality is not only a personal and private issue, but it is also linked to systems of power politics and domination in society. Means to control sexuality are institutionalized not only in cultural and social norms and customs, but also in legal policy and practice. For instance, various legal systems sanction crimes committed against women, such as early and forced marriage, virginity tests, discriminatory divorce laws, FGM,
and even reduction of sentence for murders committed in the name of ‘family honour’. Participants felt that during periods of militarisation and war, oppression of sexuality is exacerbated, because such systems promote rigid notions of masculinity and femininity and perpetuate a culture of aggression and intolerance. Peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is a state of equality and social justice. Signed, l Dr Ahlem Belhadj, Association Tunisienne des Femmes Democrats, Tunisia l Aida Touma Sliman, Women Against Violence, Palestine Amal Basha, Sisters Arabic Forum for Human l Rights, Yemen l Canan Ann, The Purple Roof Foundation, Turkey l Caroline Brat de la Perrier, Christine Buttin and New Ways - International Alliance for Social Innovation l Prof Evelyne Accad, Lebanon l Istanbul Bar Association Women’s Rights Enforcement Center, Turkey l Leila Hessini, Algeria l Dr Leyla Gtilgtir, Turkey l Dr Margot Badran, Egypt / USA l Prof Marie Therese Khair Badawi, Bahithat (Lebanese Association of Women Researchers), Lebanon l Dr Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling, Palestine l Najia El Boudali, Morocco l Nawal Yaziji, Syria l Shazia Premjee, Aahung, Pakistan l Pinar Ilkkaracan and Women for Women’s Human Rights - New Ways, Turkey l Zoya Rouhana, Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women, Lebanon
19
Fundamentalism, Women and War
The Millennium Peace Prize N 8 March 2001, International Women’s Day, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and International Alert awarded the Millennium Peace Prize for Women. The Peace Prize is a part of the Women Building Peace Campaign, organized by International-Alert, a global effort to raise global awareness of women’s experiences and perspectives of peace and conflicts and support the active participation of women in all levels of peace building.
0
Six prizes were awarded to individuals organizations: l
l
and
Dr Flora Brovina, the Kosovar Albanian humanitarian, peace and human rights campaigner imprisoned in 1999 by Serbian authorities; Veneranda Nzambazamariya, posthumously awarded for her role in promoting peace and reconciliation and helping women rebuild
Millennium
their lives in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide; * The human rights activists and lawyers Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, who have risked their lives in defence of women and minorities in Pakistan; l Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency for its cross community work for peace during and after the nine year war between Bougainville rebels and the Papua New Guinea military; l Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, a nationwide coalition that campaigns for peace in Colombia and helps to create alternative peace proposals at a community level; l Women in Black, a worldwide network of women against war, violence and militarism. For further information on the Peace Prize and UiVIFEM’s work in the area of peace and security for women in conflict areas, see www.unifem.undp.org
Circle, sculpture
by Edwina
Sandy
Reproductive
Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
I Stand by Your Ear Unseen Sue Silvermarie Bedi Begum was murdered by flogging at the order of the Taliban in July 1999, one of 60 women to die as a result of flogging that year. This poem combines the elements of true stories about several Afghan women.
I stand by your ear unseen. Before the flogging they buried me to my waist in mud One hundred times and one, they beat me with a cane Because I was wearing a burqa the mullah was spared the sight of my blood When my family took me home I was unconscious They were forbidden to seek treatment When I died the next morning no one was surprised. It was three days after my 18th birthday. I stand by your ear unseen. When I was 14 I wanted to be a teacher. I remember laughing with my friends on the way home from school I remember writing poems about the future daydreaming at the window into velvet sky Impossible, then, to believe what would come after the Taliban took our town. I stand by your ear unseen. When I was 15 they came. The wide world choked shut Collapsed to a point of fear, hunger. Constant My sisters and I ate what brothers left. Little. They could leave the house for classes, for work My mother’s office job was taken away When my uncle would accompany her shetook her turn wearing a neighborhood burqa so she could look for food. She sold our books. I stand by your ear unseen. Three years. My youngest sister sickened My father carried her to the hospital but they told him to throw her away. She died at the door That’s when my anger endangered all of us In her name I started a secret school. To read
to write, five little girls and I risked our lives I would do it again. It was a way for ghosts to have hands and voices for awhile. I stand by your ear unseen. When another decree was issued, that houses with women have all windows painted black, we had no funds My father was gone, forced into the militia My mother had nothing left to sell They marched in to bully us found the hidden school slates behind my bed Hauled to the mullah, I told nothing He shut the door and raped me. I stand by your ear unseen Famine and depression make periods scant I didn’t know about the baby at first My aunt had the right herb in a hidden pot on her roof She stayed while my baby bled out A new decree, forbidden to make sound when we walk, caught her when she left. She didn’t have shoes that were silent They beat her on the street until her accompanying son in his panic tried to shield her by sacrificing me. The mullah learned everything. I stand by your ear unseen. He announced my offense of having an abortion which proved I was promiscuous My crimes cloaked his and no one could do anything but pray I might survive That prayer was not mine. I was ready to depart I do not ask for persona1 mourning. Twelve million living women and girls require your outrage Lift your veil! Open your ear. Poem reprinted
from
www.rawa.org 21
When 1 couldn’t breathe when I lifted a corner of the heavy burqa when I exposed my mouth and nose desperate to gulp air, they beat me unconscious When they beat us again with whips and metal cables while we waited in the hospital when the sick babies in their mothers’ arms fell on the floor, my will to live began to tremble. In the summer of 96 we laughed. I can’t remember the sound. Before that September when the Taliban came we were no different than you Now we are the ghosts of Afghanistan The women and the girls of a whole country under house arrest. For trying to go to work, my sister was beaten For leaving her home alone, my neighbor was tortured For showing her ankle as she rode behind her husband on a bike my girlfriend was shot dead on the street. My children are shrinking before my eyes but 1 am banned from receiving food from the World Food Programme. In the orphanage are girls who have never seen the sun or trees My sons are being taught a man should beat a female who is seen even through the windows of a home or a bus. 12
in December
1998, on the
1 view the world through a patch of mesh in a voluminous tent that pulls me to stooping The garment gates me, takes mobility and voice When the burqa descends over my tender head I am invisible, a living woman who can’t be seen or heard My woman’s will to live can strengthen only on the thread that connects me to you. Poem reprinted from www.rawa.org
Reproductive
Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
Statement on Attacks in the USA Women Living Under Muslim Laws, International Solidarity Network, 21 September2001 HE network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) wishes to extend its deepest condolences to the aggrieved, their families and the people of America following the crimes against humanity that were committed on 11 September 200 I. Our sorrow is particularly heartfelt because many of those linked through the WLUML network have directly experienced terror and the devastation that goes with it. And also because of our links of solidarity with allies in the women’s movements and other progressive people in the US. We know that indiscriminate violence and terrorism by state and non-state actors are a global phenomenon. We are particularly aware of the human cost of terrorism and war frequently perpetrated in the name of religion or belief systems. However we regard all of these as assaults on the principle of respect for civilian life.
T
Vengeance is not justice We urge the US and their allies not to pursue fruitless retaliation with military force. The world must focus on transparent investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice under the principles of international law through an appropriate forum such as an International Criminal Court (ICC). Violence cannot eradicate terrorism. Many people in our communities are deeply distressed by these events but many are at the same time also angered by the poverty and deprivation, injustice and exploitation they experience; they are also angered by domestic and foreign policies that they perceive to be hypocritical. All of this can fuel extreme and violent attitudes. Ending terrorism requires addressing the roots of global inequality. Misguided retaliation? It is WLUML’s experience that terrorism in the name of Islam is a trans-national force. Politico-religious movements across the world are reinforcing each other through funding, military training, educational exchanges, joint
international lobbying, etc. The profound impact on women can be seen, for example, through restrictions on access to education and limitations imposed on freedom of movement as well as changes in family laws that severely curtail women’s legal rights. And yet the current focus of retaliation is against one person and one country. If the US is talking about taking action against “those harbouring terrorists” it should consider that the US and the UK have both become safe havens for those who openly advocate violence against those who do not share their opinions. For example, Anouar Haddam, a leader of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, is currently seeking asylum in the US and numerous politico-religious extremists are operating out of the UK. Human rights concepts such as freedom of expression have been misused by some international human rights organisations as well as manipulated by governments and coopted by politico-religious extremists, thereby giving unwarranted space and credibility to such views. Also Saudi Arabia has been bankrolling extremist Madrassahs in Pakistan where many Taliban supporters are being trained. It should be remembered that Bin Laden and the Taliban emerged in the context of Cold War confrontation and the vacuum of its aftermath. Global reaction should not be determined by US political and economic interests alone. We are concerned that legitimate grief is being exploited as a cover for increased military spending - weapons that are aimed mainly at civilian populations. Such military action will cause further suffering to civilians elsewhere. After 20 years of war, Afghanistan is already destroyed while the intended ‘targets’ have fled. Furthermore, Bin Laden and the Taliban are not Afghanistan. The consequences The demonising of ‘the other’ has already increased, resulting in violent attacks on innocent individuals. Talk of ‘crusades’ is buying into the agenda of the perpetrators, at the risk of world 13
fundamentalism,
Women and War
Already the situation has given public expcIsure to previously unheard of fringe groups. And already there have been moves towards swee‘ping restrictions on civil liberties under the guisf: of this crisis. In those countries which will bear the brunt of any military action, the space for altemative positions will vanish. People may find themselves forced to make choices which they had no say in formulating. Any military
war.
14
action will de-stabilise an already unstable iand nuclearised region. Women in Muslim count ries and communities in ‘particular may suffer the direct impact of militarisation and a poten tial backlash from politico-religious movements. Reprinted with kind permission of WLV ‘ML Ied www.wluml.org/english/new-archiz. wtc/wluml-statements.htm
from:
Reproductive
Health Matters, Vol. 9, No. 18, November 2001
News Reports from Afghanistan Misery brings down bride price in northern I Taliban seeking ‘fatwa’ to enforce dress code Afghanistan, UN for non-Muslims Islamabad, 22 June 2001 - Misery caused by Islamabad, 2 1 May 200 1 - Afghanistan’s Talidrought and conflict has brought the bride ban regime was considering a separate dress price down in northern Afghanistan, a United code for the minorities to distinguish them Nations office in Islamabad said Friday. Famifrom Muslims, a report said. Maulawi Mohamlies in Balkh and Baghlan provinces are having mad Wali, in charge of the ministry for fostera hard time finding enough to eat and are ing virtue and suppressing vice was quoted as ‘giving away their daughters at greatly reduced ~ telling the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that nonbride prices and at a young age’, the office of Muslims should wear dress which can identify the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan said in a ~ them easily. His ministry was seeking a ‘fatwa’ statement. ‘Some of these families have coped or religious edict for that purpose from Islamic as long as they can. Now, they are simply at the scholars, the agency said.. . Under the proposed end of their rope. People are suffering because legislation non-Muslim Afghan citizens would of war, drought and widespread poverty that is, have a distinct badge or stitch a cloth of speciitself, an outcome of the deepening crisis. He fied colour onto their dress to identify their called for ‘immediate action’ by the aid religion, he said. The aim was to spare noncommunity. (Deutsche Presse Agentur) Muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs, when religious police squads force people to close Taliban stage lashing of unwed couple their shops at the time of prayers and herd accused of having sex them to mosques, AIP said. Wali said the TaliKabul, 22 May 2001 - Afghanistan’s fundaban had assigned the yellow colour for Hindus mentalist Taliban regime Tuesday staged public living in the militia’s southern stronghold of lashing of an unmarried couple accused of Kandahar a few years ago but its implementahaving sex, witnesses said. Fazl Rahman and a tion remained partial. ‘We now want to prepare woman identified as Nadia were given 100 ~ a uniform policy so that distinction between lashes each at the Kabul sports stadium in front Muslims and non-Muslims becomes easy in all of thousands of spectators, mostly from the Afghan cities,’ he said. He said non-Muslims ruling Taliban militia, they said. Taliban had ‘no right’ to worship in open areas, but officials said a local court found the couple ~ should do so at places assigned for this purguilty of having sex three months ago. ‘Adult- ~ pose. Claiming that his ministry was bringing cry is a big sin, which brings about corruption the people to the right path, he defended the and chaos to the society, according to the Taliban regime’s ban on music and restrictions Koranic reasons,’ a Taliban official said as on Muslims not to trim their beards. AIP said religious fighters sporting turbans thronged the he dismissed the possibility of any relaxation city’s rocket-scarred stadium. Around 30 of the tough Taliban rules. ‘Our policies are in women, fully covered in the mandatory ‘burqas’, accordance with Islamic tenets,’ he was quoted also watched the flogging in a segregated secas saying. (Agence France Presse) tion of the stadium. Rehman, in his early 20s initially stood up to the lashes, but later as he ~ Taliban close Italian hospital in Kabul, beat was about to collapse, Taliban soldiers were i staff and take away three employees seen trying to hold him upright. The woman sat Kabul, 18 May 2001 - An Italian-funded hospion the grass as the judge lashed her on the back tal treating war victims in Afghanistan has and on the legs. The Taliban militia who seized closed indefinitely after a raid by the Taliban Kabul in 1996, have enforced strict interpreta- i religious police who beat staff and took away tion of the Islamic Sharia law in the areas they ~ three local employees, hospital personnel said on control. They execute murderers, chop off the : Friday. ‘The hospital is closed after the incident. hands of thieves and stone to death married We have discharged all of the patients and don’t adulterers. (Agence France Presse) know when it will be reopened,’ a hospital guard 15
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told Reuters. Other employees said armed members of the religious police forced their way into the hospital during lunch on Thursday and beat staff members after accusing them of dining with women. The dining hall of the new hospital was segregated by a curtain and men and women were not mixed, they said. The 120bed surgical hospital, called Emergency, was opened this year to treat victims of 2 1 years of war in Afghanistan.. . The religious police, formally the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, act directly under the order of the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar . . . In 1997, they raided the office of a French non-governmental organisation, arresting foreign and local staff for dining and watching TV with local women employees. Those arrested were released after months in jail and some were given lashings. Foreign-funded organisations, from the United Nations and private groups, provide most of the basic social services in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban have frequently had conflicts with them, especially over the movement’s restrictions on women. (Reuters)
Taliban hang convicted prostitutes Kabul, 23 February 2001 - More than 1,000 people watched as two women convicted of prostitution and ‘corrupting society’ were hanged Friday in the sports stadium in southern Kandahar, their faces hidden behind the all-encompassing burqa, the Taliban-run Radio Shariat said. Two other women were publicly lashed for adultery. One also was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the other to two years, according to the radio report, monitored in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Ten men convicted of adultery also were lashed and sentenced to prison terms.. . Murder, adultery and blasphemy can carry the death penalty, and the limbs of thieves are amputated.. . Many Islamic scholars say the Taliban’s version of Islamic law reflects tribal traditions rather than Islamic tenets. (Associated Press) Some tragic figures on children in Afghanistan 25 October 2000 - In Afghanistan more than 250,000 children are reported dying every year of malnutrition. Every three hours a child is blown up as a result of more than ten million landmines planted all over Afghanistan. One-
Child’s drawing of war, BangMesh, 1972 16
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third of Afghanistan’s landmine victims are in Kabul said Monday. Macmakin, who is in her estimated to be children (UNOCHA 1999). . . late’ 60s is director of Physiotherapy and ReMore than one quarter of Afghan babies do not habilitation Support for Afghanistan. She was see their fifth birthday (UNESCO, 1997). arrested on Sunday along with 15 Afghan According to UNICEF’s State of the World’s nationals, including seven women, said aid Children Report, Afghanistan has the fourth ~ workers, who did not want to be identified for worst record in under-five child mortality, the fear that it would get them into trouble.. . A infant mortality rate being 152 per 1,000 live Taliban security guard at a minimum security births. More than a quarter of a million chilprison usually used to house juvenile offenders dren under five die each year, many more than confirmed the arrest.. . Since taking control of those caught in armed conflict or killed by Kabul in 1996 the Taliban have banned women mines.. . According to a survey conducted by from working and girls from attending the UN High Commission for Refugees in 1997, school.. . in the 90 per cent of the country they there are an estimated 28,000 street children in rule. Macmakin’s organization provided assisKabul, 20 per cent of whom are girls. However tance to poor Afghan women, much of it conwith the increase in the number of displaced fined to home-based industries. She sought to persons in the country, the figure has risen to provide women, particularly widows, with work more than 35,000. These children are either at home to help them earn an income to feed involved in begging or working on the streets their families. There are an estimated 28,000 as shoe polishers, or car washers to support widows in Afghanistan. Ravished by poverty their families. (Arshad Mahmood, Frontier Post) and war, the majority of the 750,000 people living in Kabul depend on international aid. 95% of Afghan children do not go to school Many of the Taliban’s Islamic edicts are directed Peshawar, 22 July 2000 - The sources of the at women. The Taliban require women to wear UN have estimated that over 95 per cent of the all-encompassing burqa and require women Afghan children do not go to school, which to travel outside their home accompanied by a depicts the total collapse of the education male relative. Women are beaten for defying the system in the war-ravaged country. According orders. (Times of1rzndia, AP) to reports as a result of 21 years of war an entire generation of Afghan children is Taliban ban women from working for aid growing up without education. Girls are most groups affected as they are prevented from going to Islamabad, 10 July 2000 - Afghanistan’s ruling school while boys have also suffered as a Taliban has issued orders telling all nonsignificant proportion of qualified teachers, in government organisations (NGOs) to sack all major cities such as Kabul, Herat and Mazar-efemale staff working in Afghanistan, a PakistanSharif, used to be women. Until 1996, 70 per based Afghan news agency reported on Monday. cent of the teachers in Kabul were women, The Afghan Islamic Press said the order was 8,000 women were enrolled at Kabul Univerissued by the Taliban’s Planning Ministry to shy, 40 per cent of the children enrolled at the NGOs operating in the capital Kabul. An official Afghan capital’s 63 schools were girls... Now at one NGO confirmed the order but said it was teachers are unable to work and are gradually not known how strictly it would be enforced. leaving Afghanistan.. . The United Nations has ‘We hope it is not a big deal as they have said estimated female literacy to be at 15 per cent this before,’ the official said. ‘We are still hoping and 32 per cent for males. (DAWN) it will die down.’ Other aid workers said they believed the order was directed at local women Taliban arrest US aid worker for employing working for the NGOs and not international women staff.. . The lslamabad-based head of the UN Kabul, 11 July 2000 - An elderly US aid worker, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Mary Macmakin, was arrested by Afghanistan’s Assistance to Afghanistan will travel to KandaTaliban rulers because she employed Afghan har on Wednesday to discuss the order with Taliwomen, a crime according to the Taliban’s strict ban officials, a UNOCHA spokesman said.. . Aid interpretation of Islam, international aid workers is a key part of the economy for Afghanistan, 17
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ravaged by more than two decades of war, and this year also hit by its worst drought in more than 30 years. The treatment of women by the Taliban movement has drawn strong intemational criticism, and caused some groups to withhold aid. The hardline Taliban movement, which wants to create the world’s purest Islamic state, placed restrictions on women’s employment, travel and education, and enforced a strict dress code for them soon after taking over Kabul in 1996... The order comes about three months after the United Nations said that the Taliban had softened its stringent attitude on women’s access to education and health. (Scott McDonald, Reuters) Taliban stone woman for adultery Kabul, 1 May 2000 - Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban religious rulers stoned a woman to death in northern Afghanistan on Monday after she was found guilty of committing adultery. The woman was said to have confessed to adultery, a capital offense in this war-ravaged nation. The radio did not say what happened to the man involved.. . The stoning was carried out at a sports stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan before a crowd of several thousand spectators, according to the radio report. The last execution of a woman in Taliban territory was last November, when a woman was shot three times by a Taliban soldier after she was found guilty of killing her abusive husband with an ax. She was the mother of seven children. (Associated Press) Taliban lay off thousands, all female Kabul, 13 April 2000 - Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has laid off thousands of civil servants including all female employees and teachers, officials and workers said Thursday. The ruling militia had already stopped paying female civil servants their monthly wages before the layoff, they said. There was no sign the Taliban had any immediate plans to help the laid-off staff find substitute means of livelihood, they added. faliban ministers were reluctant to give figures, hut civil servants said the redundancies were up to 50 per cent in some ministries, including all female staff. Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel tried to downplay the move, saying they had only terminated those staff who were 18
not working. He conceded, however, that female staff would not be paid their wages. ‘As far as I know, they all have been laid off from those departments where there were no facilities or need to work,’ he said, when asked if all female teachers and workers were among those laid off. ‘We do not have any immediate plans to give jobs to those who have been laid off. But they can find themselves jobs enjoying their free lives,’ Mutawakel said. If job opportunities came up in future the laid-off staff would be given the first chance of employment, he said. ‘There are 35 to 50 per cent redundancies in every ministry,’ said a senior official who did not want to be named. ‘Around 50 per cent of staff have been made redundant in the Ministry of Education, including all female teachers, officials said. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that 2,800 people had been laid off there, whereas officials in the Justice Ministry said 40 per cent of their staff had been made redundant. Taliban officials claimed the drive was to end over-employment caused by previous governments creating unnecessary jobs. Women have been barred from work outside the home and in education and they have to cover themselves from head to toe when they venture out. In September 1996 when the Taliban captured Kabul, their Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a decree that women workers should stay at home, but promised to keep paying them regularly. Female personnel, most of them teachers and administrative staff, came to their offices once or twice a month to sign their names and to receive the equivalent of five US dollars as monthly wages. Many families are headed by widows in Afghanistan, which has been in a state of war for 20 years since the 1979-1989 Soviet invasion. The number of female beggars is on the rise while families migrate to neighbouring Iran and Pakistan to seek a living as labourers and vendors.. . Last Friday, the UN Security Council threatened to impose more sanctions on the Taliban to force it to end fighting. It also blasted them for unabated violence and worsening humanitarian conditions in the country. (Agence France Presse)
Reprinted from www.rawa.org
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2001
Women, Sexuality and Social Change in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Statement: Women for Women’s Human Rights Meeting, September 30, 2001
N
INETEEN women, academicians, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organizations from Algeria, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen gathered in Istanbul from 28-30 September 2001 for a conference on “Women, Sexuality and Social Change in the Middle East and the Mediterranean” organized by Women for Women’s Human Rights - New Ways. Using their experience and the results of research conducted in their countries, participants confronted some of the pressing issues that directly affect the lives of women in this region, such as: l l l l l l l l l l
l l
sexuality and the politics of power virginity laws and sexuality sexual harassment violence against women honour crimes female genital mutilation (FGM) sexual norms, values and behaviours freedom of mobility reproductive and sexual health and human rights desire and pleasure political movements and sexuality.
Participants called for the recognition of the right of individuals, women and men, to enjoy a sexual life in accordance with their values and with respect for others. This entails not only the right to determine one’s sexual behaviour, but also the right to seek sexual pleasure. Sexuality is not only a personal and private issue, but it is also linked to systems of power politics and domination in society. Means to control sexuality are institutionalized not only in cultural and social norms and customs, but also in legal policy and practice. For instance, various legal systems sanction crimes committed against women, such as early and forced marriage, virginity tests, discriminatory divorce laws, FGM,
and even reduction of sentence for murders committed in the name of ‘family honour’. Participants felt that during periods of militarisation and war, oppression of sexuality is exacerbated, because such systems promote rigid notions of masculinity and femininity and perpetuate a culture of aggression and intolerance. Peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is a state of equality and social justice. Signed, l Dr Ahlem Belhadj, Association Tunisienne des Femmes Democrats, Tunisia l Aida Touma Sliman, Women Against Violence, Palestine Amal Basha, Sisters Arabic Forum for Human l Rights, Yemen l Canan Ann, The Purple Roof Foundation, Turkey l Caroline Brat de la Perrier, Christine Buttin and New Ways - International Alliance for Social Innovation l Prof Evelyne Accad, Lebanon l Istanbul Bar Association Women’s Rights Enforcement Center, Turkey l Leila Hessini, Algeria l Dr Leyla Gtilgtir, Turkey l Dr Margot Badran, Egypt / USA l Prof Marie Therese Khair Badawi, Bahithat (Lebanese Association of Women Researchers), Lebanon l Dr Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling, Palestine l Najia El Boudali, Morocco l Nawal Yaziji, Syria l Shazia Premjee, Aahung, Pakistan l Pinar Ilkkaracan and Women for Women’s Human Rights - New Ways, Turkey l Zoya Rouhana, Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women, Lebanon
19
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The Millennium Peace Prize N 8 March 2001, International Women’s Day, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and International Alert awarded the Millennium Peace Prize for Women. The Peace Prize is a part of the Women Building Peace Campaign, organized by International-Alert, a global effort to raise global awareness of women’s experiences and perspectives of peace and conflicts and support the active participation of women in all levels of peace building.
0
Six prizes were awarded to individuals organizations: l
l
and
Dr Flora Brovina, the Kosovar Albanian humanitarian, peace and human rights campaigner imprisoned in 1999 by Serbian authorities; Veneranda Nzambazamariya, posthumously awarded for her role in promoting peace and reconciliation and helping women rebuild
Millennium
their lives in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide; * The human rights activists and lawyers Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, who have risked their lives in defence of women and minorities in Pakistan; l Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency for its cross community work for peace during and after the nine year war between Bougainville rebels and the Papua New Guinea military; l Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, a nationwide coalition that campaigns for peace in Colombia and helps to create alternative peace proposals at a community level; l Women in Black, a worldwide network of women against war, violence and militarism. For further information on the Peace Prize and UiVIFEM’s work in the area of peace and security for women in conflict areas, see www.unifem.undp.org
Circle, sculpture
by Edwina
Sandy
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I Stand by Your Ear Unseen Sue Silvermarie Bedi Begum was murdered by flogging at the order of the Taliban in July 1999, one of 60 women to die as a result of flogging that year. This poem combines the elements of true stories about several Afghan women.
I stand by your ear unseen. Before the flogging they buried me to my waist in mud One hundred times and one, they beat me with a cane Because I was wearing a burqa the mullah was spared the sight of my blood When my family took me home I was unconscious They were forbidden to seek treatment When I died the next morning no one was surprised. It was three days after my 18th birthday. I stand by your ear unseen. When I was 14 I wanted to be a teacher. I remember laughing with my friends on the way home from school I remember writing poems about the future daydreaming at the window into velvet sky Impossible, then, to believe what would come after the Taliban took our town. I stand by your ear unseen. When I was 15 they came. The wide world choked shut Collapsed to a point of fear, hunger. Constant My sisters and I ate what brothers left. Little. They could leave the house for classes, for work My mother’s office job was taken away When my uncle would accompany her shetook her turn wearing a neighborhood burqa so she could look for food. She sold our books. I stand by your ear unseen. Three years. My youngest sister sickened My father carried her to the hospital but they told him to throw her away. She died at the door That’s when my anger endangered all of us In her name I started a secret school. To read
to write, five little girls and I risked our lives I would do it again. It was a way for ghosts to have hands and voices for awhile. I stand by your ear unseen. When another decree was issued, that houses with women have all windows painted black, we had no funds My father was gone, forced into the militia My mother had nothing left to sell They marched in to bully us found the hidden school slates behind my bed Hauled to the mullah, I told nothing He shut the door and raped me. I stand by your ear unseen Famine and depression make periods scant I didn’t know about the baby at first My aunt had the right herb in a hidden pot on her roof She stayed while my baby bled out A new decree, forbidden to make sound when we walk, caught her when she left. She didn’t have shoes that were silent They beat her on the street until her accompanying son in his panic tried to shield her by sacrificing me. The mullah learned everything. I stand by your ear unseen. He announced my offense of having an abortion which proved I was promiscuous My crimes cloaked his and no one could do anything but pray I might survive That prayer was not mine. I was ready to depart I do not ask for persona1 mourning. Twelve million living women and girls require your outrage Lift your veil! Open your ear. Poem reprinted
from
www.rawa.org 21