What a peculiar response! Chris ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: [log in to unmask] (Wojtek Zakrzewski) Subject: Re: (Fwd) women's rights in Afghanistan To: [log in to unmask] Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 13:56:47 +0000 (GMT) I agree with the aim of the message but I do not want to let the US goverment know what I think it should be doing. This should be sent to the UN! Wojtek > We have already added our names to this previously, and sent it to a > batch of people then - but why don`t you sign now? Chris > > ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- > Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 18:11:13 -0500 > Reply-to: Health Promotion on the Internet <[log in to unmask]> > From: David Burman <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: women's rights in Afghanistan > To: [log in to unmask] > > This is for a very serious cause that touches humanity, mainly women. > Please take few minutes and give full consideration. > Please sign at the bottom to support, and include tour town. Then copy > and e-mail to as many people as possible. If you receive this list with > more > than 50 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to: > [log in to unmask] > Even if you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not kill > the > petition. Thank you. It is best to copy rather than forward the > petition. > Melissa Buckheit Brandeis University > TEXT: > The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. The situation > is > getting so bad that one person in an editorial of the times compared the > treatment of women there to the treatment of Jews in pre-Holocaust > Poland. Since the Taliban took power in 1996, > women have had to wear burqua and have been beaten and stoned in public > for not having the proper attire, even if this means simply not having > the mesh covering in front of their eyes. > One woman was beaten to DEATH by an angry mob of fundamentalists for > accidentally exposing her arm while she was driving. Another was stoned > to death for trying to leave the country with a man that was not a > relative. Women are not allowed to work or even go out > in public without a male relative; professional women such as > professors, translators, doctors, lawyers,artists and writers have been > forced from their jobs and stuffed into their homes, so that depression > is becoming so widespread that it has reached emergency levels. > There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide > rate with certainty, but relief workers are estimating that the suicide > rate among women, who cannot find proper medication and treatment for > severe depression and would rather take their lives than live in such > conditions, has increased significantly. > Homes where a woman is present must have their windows painted so that > she can never be seen by outsiders. They must wear silent shoes so that > they are never heard. Women live in fear of their lives for the > slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot work, those without male > relatives or husbands are either starving to death or begging on the > sreet,even if they hold Ph.D.'s. There are almost no medical facilities > available for women, and relief workers, in protest, have mostly left > the country,taking medicine and psychologists and other things necessary > to treat the sky-rocketing level of depression among women. > At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still,nearly > lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their > burqua, unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything, but slowly wasting > away. Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in corners, > perpetually rocking or crying, most of them in fear. One doctor is > considering, when what little medication that is left finally runs out, > leaving these women in front of the president's residence as a form of > peaceful protest. It is at the point where the term 'human rights > violations' has become an understatement. Husbands have the power of > life and death over their women relatives, especially their wives, but > > an angry mob has just as much right to stone or beat a woman, often > to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending them in the > slightest way. > David Cornwell has told me that we in the United States should not judge > the Afghan people for such treatment because it is a 'cultural thing', > but this is not even true. Women enjoyed relative freedom, to work, > dress generally as they wanted, and drive and appear in public alone > until only 1996 -- the rapidity of this transition is the main reason > for the depression and suicide; women who were once educators or doctors > or simply used to basic human freedoms are now severely restricted and > treated as sub-human in the name of right-wing fundamentalist Islam. It > is not their tradition or 'culture', but is alien to them,and it is > extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule. > Besides, if we could excuse everything on cultural grounds, then we > should not be appalled that the arthaginians sacrificed their infant > children, that little girls are circumcised in parts of Africa, that > blacks in the deep south in the 1930's were lynched, prohibited from > voting, and forced to submit to unjust Jim Crow laws.Everyone has a > right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim > country in a part of the world that > Americans do not understand. If we can threaten military force in > Kosovo in the name of human rights for the sake of ethnic Albanians, > Americans can certainly express peaceful outrage at the > oppression, murder and injustice committed against women by the Taliban. > **************************************************** > STATEMENT > In signing this, we agree that the current treatment of women in > Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves support and action > by the people of the United States and the U.S. Government and that the > current situation overseas will not be tolerated. Women's Rights is not > a small issue anywhere and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1998 to be > treated > as sub-human and so much as property. Equality and human decency is a > RIGHT not a freedom, whether one lives in Afghanistan or the United > States.***** > 1) Leslie London, Cape Town, South Africa > 2) Tim Holtz, Boston, MA > 3) Joyce Millen, Cambridge, MA > 4) Diane Millen, Falls Church, Va. > 5) Bill Millen, Falls Church, Va. > 6) Milt Eisner, McLean VA > 7) Harriet Solomon, Springfield, VA > 8) Arlene Silikovitz, West Orange, NJ > 9) Erica J. Lippitz, South Orange, NJ > 10) Joyce Nussbaum, Highland Park, NJ > 11) Deborah Silverman, Coral Gables, FL > 12) Shira Silverman, Lancaster, PA > 13) Judy Shenk, Landisville, PA > 14) Joan Wachstein, Wilmington, De. > 15) Judith O. Rosenkranz, Tampa, FL > 16) Gail Bernucca, Tampa, FL > 17) Ilayne Finkelstone, Coral Springs, FL > 18) Marilynn Rothstein, Coral Springs, FL > 19) Michelle Rothstein, Oxford, MS > 20) Deborah Siegel, Ann Arbor, MI > 21) Melanie Egorin, San Francisco > 22) Julia Owens, San Francisco > 23) Sarah K. Peterson, Santa Cruz, CA > 24) Sheila P. Youngblood, Butte, MT > 25. Sallie Bowen Ulsher, Butte, Mt. > 26. Elsie D. Popkin, Winston-Salem, NC > > 27. Amy Funderburk, Winston-Salem, NC > 28) Dani Dorresteyn, Norfolk, VA > 29) Di Molloy Merseyside UK > 30) Arsinee Donoyan, Montreal, QC, Canada > 31) Gabriel Bluteau, Montreal, QC Canada > 32) Damien Francoeur, Montr=E9al, QC, Canada > 33) Michel Beluet, Valcourt, QC, Canada > 34) David Burman, Toronto, ON, Canada > 35) Chris Birt, Worcestershire, UK > 36) Angela Thein, Worcestershire, UK > -- Wojtek J. Zakrzewski Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE UK tel (44) 191 3742382 fax (44) 191 3747388 email [log in to unmask]