On September 27, 1996, the Taliban, an extremist militia, seized control of the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, and violently plunged the occupied territories of Afghanistan into a brutal state of gender apartheid in which women and girls have been stripped of their basic human rights.
Upon seizing power, the Taliban instituted a system of gender apartheid, effectively thrusting the women of Afghanistan into a state of virtual house arrest.Under Taliban rule, women have been banned from working or attending school, and are prohibited from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. When they do go out, they must wear a burqa, an oppressive garment that covers the entire body, with a small piece of mesh through which to see and breathe. Women have been brutally beaten, flogged and even killed for violating Taliban decrees.
Led by the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid has brought together over 180 leading human rights and women's organizations in the U.S. and around the world to demand that the human rights abuses against women and girls in Afghanistan must end. The Campaign has helped stop the U.S. and United Nations from officially recognizing the Taliban until women's human rights have been restored.
Gender Apartheid -- The Consequences
- A woman who dared to defy Taliban orders by running a home school
for girls was shot and killed in front of her husband, daughter,
and students.
- A woman caught trying to flee Afghanistan with a man not related
to her was stoned to death for adultery.
- An elderly woman was brutally beaten with a metal cable until
her leg was broken because her ankle was accidentally showing
from underneath her burqa.
- Women have died of treatable ailments because male doctors were
not allowed to treat them.
- Many women, now forcibly housebound, have attempted suicide
by swallowing household cleaner, rather than continuing to live
under these conditions.
- 97% of Afghan women surveyed by Physicians for Human Rights
exhibit signs of major depression.
Taliban Law Is In Opposition To Islam
Prior to the Civil War and Taliban control, especially in Kabul,
the capital, women in Afghanistan were educated and employed: 50%
of the students and 60% of the teachers at Kabul University were
women, and 70% of school teachers, 50% of civilian government workers,
and 40% of doctors in Kabul were women.
The Taliban claim to follow a pure, fundamentalist Islamic ideology,
yet the oppression they perpetrate against women has no basis in
Islam. Within Islam, women are allowed to earn and control their
own money, and to participate in public life. The 55-member Organization
of Islamic Conference has refused to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's
official government. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, regarded by
many as an ultraconservative organization, has denounced the Taliban's
decrees.
Who Supports the Taliban
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980's the United
States through a CIA covert operation based in Pakistan supplied
billions of dollars to support insurgent militia forces called the
mujahideen (soldiers of God). Following the Soviets' withdrawal
in 1989, factions of the mujahideen fell into a civil war and in
1994, the Taliban emerged as a dominant force. The Taliban is comprised
of young men and boys of Afghan descent who have hardly lived in
Afghan society. They were raised in refugee camps and trained in
ultraconservative religious schools (madrasahs) in Pakistan. In
addition, thousands of Pakistanis and hundreds or Arabs fight alongside
the Taliban. Pakistan is the primary source of support to the Taliban,
supplying military aid and personnel; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and known terrorist organizations provide the Taliban with
financial support. Additionally, Afghanistan is the one of the world's
two largest producers of opium and a major drug-processing center;
almost all areas of poppy cultivation are occupied by the Taliban.
But perhaps the biggest potential for financial support lies in
the petroleum industry.
U.S. Corporate Interests and the Taliban
International oil interests are in fierce competition to build
pipelines through Afghanistan to link Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves
to Central and South Asia. California-based UNOCAL, a US energy
company, led the CentGas consortium that planned to build an oil
and gas pipeline through Afghanistan. The Taliban stood to gain
over $100 million a year from this pipeline. UNOCAL announced it
was suspending the project at the end of 1998, citing in part, pressure
from feminist organizations protesting the company's involvement
with the Taliban. Other US and international corporate interests
are vying for business in the country. Recently, Telephone Systems
International (TSI), a New Jersey-based telecommunications firm,
reached an agreement with the Taliban to install a satellite-based
system throughout Afghanistan. Corporate investment under current
conditions could mean billions of dollars to shore up the Taliban
regime without regard for women's rights.
There are many ways you can help the women and girls in Afghanistan!
- Join the Feminist Majority's Stop Gender Apartheid Campaign
- Join the Back to School Campaign, which helps support Afghan girls' schools and recruit scholarships for Afghan women at U.S. colleges and universities.
- Buy an Afghan craft, handmade by Afghan women refugees living in Pakistan. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of all items will go back to the Afghan women who made them.
- Wear a symbol of remembrance - a small swatch of mesh material representing the burqa. The symbol is only $5 - half the proceeds go to the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid and half will go directly to fund humanitarian assistance for the Afghan women and girls in refugee camps.
- Take Action!
Urge President Bush to Oppose Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan!
Other organizations working on this issue:
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
