RAWA: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

The US led forces have ousted the Taliban regime in major areas of Afghanistan, but has this changed the oppression of women? RAWA and Amnesty International say no, sexual crimes against women have skyrocketed since the fall of the Taliban regime. In fact, in the last month a majority of Afghanis polled said that they are very unhappy with the US led war against the fundamentalists in Afghanistan and with the current political situation. A majority said that if they do not see significant improvement in their lives within the next six months they will support putting the Taliban back into power.

There has not been any reliable demographic statistics on Afghanistan for the past two decades. Of the estimated 16 million Afghans at the end of the 70s, over two million were killed in the war against the Soviets and later on in the civil war unleashed by fundamentalist groupings enjoying the support of foreign powers. Another one and half million have been maimed by the war fallout, while nearly five million have been forced into refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan. The majority of the population left inside the country have been internally displaced as a result of the constant conflict and unrest of the past two decades and in particular of the fundamentalist in-fighting of the past eight years.

Radical Islamic fundamentalism looks upon women as sub-humans, fit only for household slavery and as infant incubators. This view became the offical public policy of the Taliban who came to power in Afghanistan in 1992. Under Taliban rule, womens access to full participation in social, economic, cultural and political life in Afghanistan was drastically curtailed and later cut off completely . The restrictions placed on women under Taliban rule include:

-all girls schools were shut down

- all women were ordered to remain in their houses and employers were threatened with dire consequences for hiring female employees

-no woman could venture out of the house alone and unaccompanied by a prescribed male member of the woman's immediate family

-no woman could see a male doctor

-family planning was outlawed

- women could not be operated upon by a surgical team containing a male member

- a woman's court testimony was worth half a man's testimony; a woman could not petition the court directly - this had to be done through a prescribed male member of her immediate family

-all women's recreational and sporting facilities had been banned

-women singers could not sing least their female voices 'corrupt' males and lead them to sin

-women could not show their faces in public to male strangers

-women could not wear bright coloured clothing or make up,

-women could only appear outside their houses clad head to foot in shapeless bags called burqas, they could not wear shoes with heels that click

- women could not travel in private vehicles with male passengers

-women were forbidden to raise their voices when talking in public, and they could not laugh loud as it lures males into corruption.

This shocking list is only a portion of the Draconian restrictions imposed upon the women of Afghanistan but even this list does not accurately portray the war against women that was waged by the Taliban. Beating up of women for 'disciplinary' reasons on the slightest pretext was a routine phenomenon in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Through such public beatings, which more often than not have resulted in death or disablement of the victim, the Taliban had cowed the civilian population into submission.Women are looked upon as war booty, their bodies are another battleground for belligerent parties. Atrocities in Bosnia pale when compared to atrocities in Afghanistan, but unfortunately for reason which it may not be appropriate to go into in this context, the world community neither heard nor cared about what goes on in Afghanistan, at least not until the tragedy of 9/11 and the connection of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queda to Afghanistan when the Bush administration used the Taliban's war on women as another justification for starting a war on Afghanistan. Since the Taliban had been in power for nearly ten years at the time of the 9/11 attack on NYC and the Taliban's war on women had been ignored by the West until that point the declarations that the US had a moral obligation to bring down the Taliban regime didn't exactly ring true.

But the story not often told is that the Northern Alliance, the US backed militant group who fought the Taliban for power and fought against Al-Queda, holds nearly the same view of women. With the NA's war-mongering mentality, and fanned by ethnic hatred and religious bigotry, all areas that come under their control are regarded as occupied land and the inhabitants are treated accordingly. Sexual crimes against women, gang raping, lust murders, abductions of young females, and blackmail of families with eligible daughters were commonplace during the rule of the pre-Taliban fundamentalists, who now once again have key positions in the transitional government of Hamid Karzai. Amnesty International's reported the abuses of women by the pre-Taliban and US backed fundamentalists in reports such as WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: A human rights catastrophe (March 1995) or AFGHANISTAN: International responsibility for human rights disaster (November 1995). The abuse and murder of women in Afghanistan is not only perpetrated by the Taliban, but by other fundamentalist groups as well, even the one that the US put into power. You may find many more such documents on the web site of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Apart from the above, you can find a number of eyewitness accounts of atrocities by the Taliban and their Jehadi brothers on the RAWA web site along with disturbing videos of public beatings and executions of women.

The people of the world should know that though the abusive, misogynist and oppressive rule of Taliban is over in Afghanistan, this does not mean the end of the horrible miseries of Afghanistans's tortured women. Contrary to the aspirations of Afghan people and expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance are again in power and generously supported by the US government. It has completely shattered the dream of the wounded Afghan people for liberation from the heavy chains of the Taliban tyranny, because the NA is nothing but a fragile coalition of a "batch of bandits" -according to the UN especial envoy- with a long list of crimes and brutalities against the Afghan people.

An Amnesty International report filed on October 6th, 2003 states that:

"Nearly two years on, discrimination, violence, and insecurity remain rife, despite promises by world leaders, including President Bush and US Secretary of Sate Colin Powell, that the war in Afghanistan would bring liberation for women.

An international NGO worker told AI:"During the Taliban era if a woman went to market and showed an inch of flesh she would have been flogged, now she's raped."

Two years after the ending of the Taliban regime, the international community and the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA), led by President Hamid Karzai, have proved unable to protect women. Amnesty International is gravely concerned by the extent of violence faced by women and girls in Afghanistan. The risk of rape and sexual violence by members of armed factions and former combatants is still high. Forced marriage, particularly of girl children, and violence against women in the family are widespread in many areas of the country. These crimes of violence continue with the active support or passive complicity of state agents, armed groups, families and communities. This continuing violence against women in Afghanistan causes untold suffering and denies women their fundamental human rights.

The Amnesty International report also highlights how women in Afghanistan have no access to justice. Despite the lifting of rules limiting their freedom of movement, women are prevented from seeking redress because of barriers in society and in the community in many areas. Even when a woman is able to approach the police or the courts, she faces extreme discrimination.

The new report outlines a number of immediate steps the Afghan government and international community should take to begin to deliver on its promise of ensuring justice for the women of Afghanistan. Foremost is the provision of security through an expansion of an international peace keeping force outside Kabul to create an environment in which the rule of law can be established.

Physical examination of women for virginity is carried out on many women detainees in Herat, Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif. The examination is carried out by medical forensic specialists, who are generally men. One young woman reported being tested against her will. Other women have little understanding of the process. Women may also be subjected to more than one test, if the outcome is doubtful. The process appears to be based on examining the hymen to establish whether it is intact.. Amnesty International considers such procedures as having no place as evidence in criminal proceedings. Medical specialists consider the state of the hymen as an unreliable indicator of virginity.

No safeguards are in place to protect women from sexual abuse while in police custody and in detention. No procedures exist for women to safely report abuse in custody. Amnesty International has received unconfirmed reports of sexual abuse of women prisoners in official detention centres in Herat, Mazar-e Sharif and Kabul. In Herat in early 2003, a riot by women prisoners was alleged to have been a response to sexual abuse by staff. Assaults by staff and incidents of members of armed factions being allowed to abuse women prisoners were reported in Mazar-e Sharif. Amnesty International is also concerned that safeguards are not in place to protect women in police custody.

Amnesty International was informed that when women are arrested for adultery in Jalalabad, they face the risk of sexual abuse and transfer to different police stations where they are repeatedly abused. One woman told Amnesty International: "If the commanders arrest a girl in a case of adultery when her case is going to the first district police station, they are sexually abusing her saying you had relations with a man so you should with us also. Then they transfer the woman from station to station." This case also highlights increased vulnerability to abuse owing to the involvement in some cases of commanders or members of armed factions with no formal status in the criminal justice system. The system in certain areas such as Jalalabad appears to be permeated by abuse. The general absence of oversight, accountability and police training contributes to the vulnerability of women in custody.

The women of Afghanistan are under constant threat of abuse, torture and death from warlords who have replaced the brutal Taliban, and RAWA's struggle will go on to eradicate this threat and restore basic human rights to Afghan women, but they need help. International television and radio programs have highlighted the ongoing struggle of women in Afghanistan but since the US led invasion have focused more on reporting the military and politica happenings more than the struggle for women's rights. The failure of the US invasion and disillusionment with the West puts Afghani women in a precarious position. A study in 2006 found that the majority of the Afghan people felt that if the current sitution did not dramatically improve within six months they would again support the rule of the Taliban, which would be disastrous for Afghan women. For information on how you can get involved go to the RAWA website: www.RAWA.org or visit Amnesty International at www.amnesty.org