There is something you can do...

[nyork@verinet.com (Nancy York)]

From: Lw331@aol.com
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 18:15:37 EDT
Subject: There is something you can do...



FORWARDED MESSAGE:

Ignore it if you choose to, but please don't kill it. If you decide not
to forward this, please send it to
sarabande@brandeis.edu . This is an actual petition, and "signatures"
will be lost if you drop the line.

Dear Friends,

Please do not ignore this email. This is something that we as women and
essentially as human beings need to support - I don't know if this is
going
to help but take 3 minutes out of your life to do your part. Madhu, the
government of Afghanistan, is waging a war upon women. 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.

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 street, even if
they hold Ph.D.s. 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 is high. 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 If 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 lightest way. 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 subhuman in the name of
right-wing fundamentalist Islam. It is not their tradition or 'culture,'
but it is
alien to them, and it is extreme even for hose cultures where
fundamentalism is the rule.

Everyone has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are
women in a Muslim country. If we can threaten military force in Kosovo
in the
name of human rights for the sake of ethnic Albanians, citizens of the
world 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 action by the United

Nations 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 2000 to be treated as subhuman and so much as property.
Equality and human decency is a RIGHT not a freedom, whether one lives
in
Afghanistan or elsewhere.
1) Giuliana D. Black, Daly City, CA, USA
2) Mariam Nayiny, Palo Alto, CA, USA
3) Sunaina Gulati-Ruh, Palo Alto, CA USA
4) Megan McCaslin, Palo Alto, CA USA
5) Blake Hallanan, San Francisco, Ca. USA
6) Kit Henderson, Sacramento, CA USA
7) Kathryn Austin, Sacramento, CA USA
8) Joni Pitcl, Folsom, CA USA
9) Janet Marston-Hartwell, Key West, FL. USA
10) Hari Meyers, Sebastopol, Ca., U.S.A
11) Deborah Garrity, Littleton, CO, USA
12) Sandi Chambers, Portland, OR USA
13) Julie Guichelaar, Portland, OR USA
14) Marci Jensen, Breckenridge, CO USA
15) Diane Hledik, Norfolk NE USA
16) Sandy Nielsen, Norfolk, NE USA
17) Rhea Hochstein, Bennet, NE USA
18) Kay Edeal, Loomis, NE USA
19) Sandra Wimer, Hastings NE USA
20) Beverly Rader, Hastings, NE USA
21) Brenda Rader Mross, Fort Collins, CO  USA
22) L. Catherine Workman, Fort Collins, CO USA

PLEASE COPY this email on to a new message, add your name to the bottom
and forward it to everyone on your distribution lists. If you receive
this
list with more than 300 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to:
sarabande@brandeis.edu Even if you decide not to sign, please be
considerate and do not kill the petition. Thank you!

Ten Key Values of the Greens
     * Social Justice * Community-Based Economics * Nonviolence *
     * Decentralization * Future Focus/Sustainability * Feminism *
     * Personal and Global Responsibility * Respect for Diversity *
              * Grassroots Democracy * Ecological Wisdom *

    


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