The [voter registration] process started last December and, so far, around 22 percent of the 320,770 Afghans who signed up to vote are women. Up to 10 million people are estimated to be eligible to register to vote in the country.

That, and Kabul Television recently broadcast the first images of a woman singing in more than 12 years

Source:

Number Of Afghan Women Registered To Vote Increases. UN Wire, July 13, 2004.

Afghans lift TV ban on women singers. Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters, January 13, 2004.

What a Difference a War Makes for Women in Afghanistan is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Oweiye was arrested in 1999 in connection with a drug bust that turned up 20 kilograms of heroin in a Lahore hotel room. Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force argued that Oweiye headed up a drug-trafficking ring that included at least five other individuals.

The heroin was going to be smuggled out of Pakistan and sold in other countries. Since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, poppy production in that country has exploded, making it lucrative once again to smuggle heroin through Pakistan for distribution elsewhere in the world.

Source:

Pakistan death sentence for woman. The BBC, May 7, 2003.

Woman Drug Trafficker Sentenced to Death in Pakistan is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Reuters ran a story in April noting that of the 17 people who graduated from Kabul University’s first certificate program in networking skills, 6 were women. Reuters quoted 18-year-old Nabila Akbari saying, “My personal goal is to share this knowledge with other Afghans, especially Afghan women.”

Rita Dorani, 23, another graduate of the certification program added,

My message for all Afghan women is to try as much as possible to learn about computers, because it is essential for every man and woman to be aware of this global technology. Men should allow women to learn this technology.

No, the U.S./Northern Alliance war in Afghanistan did not turn the country into a democratic paradise overnight where women have the same sort of rights they enjoy in the West — in fact, as Reuters notes, some rural areas of Afghanistan have reimposed Taliban-style limitations on women. But even with that in mind, there’s still no doubt Afghanistan is a much brighter place for women today than it was prior to the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban.

Source:

Afghan Women Usher in IT Age. Reuters, April 8, 2003.

Afghan Women Training for Role in Information Technology is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Wendy McElroy first raised concerns about RAWA back on October 23, 2001 when she questioned what was happening to money that the Feminist Majority Foundation and others were raising and giving to RAWA.

Noting that RAWA had clearly done some very good things, McElroy nonetheless questioned the wisdom of involvement with a group that had appeared to have close ties with Pakistan’s Communist Party. Moreover, the group had almost no accountability with only a P.O. box in Pakistan as an address and the routine use of false names in interviews. McElroy conceded that some secrecy was warranted due to fear of retaliation by the Taliban, but most groups like RAWA at least have some sort of open political structure (even terrorist groups generally have some sort of open, above ground representatives) and urged RAWA to pursue openness.

RAWA did not take that advice. And then on April 20, 2002 a very odd thing happened. As well-chronicled by The American Prospect’s Noy Thrupkaew, on that date Elizabeth Miller, a U.S.-based supporter of RAWA, posted a letter attacking Ms. magazine on a listserv run by RAWA. Ms. had run a special insert on the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Afghanistan campaign which profiled women working at the United Nations and a number of other similar “behind the scenes”-style looks, but failed to mention RAWA. For this, it was attacked as being a “mouthpiece of hegemonic, U.S.-centric, ego driven, corporate feminism.”

The letter also attacked Sima Sama, who was at the time Afghanistan’s interim minister of women’s affairs. Miller claimed that Samar “was a member of the leadership of one of the most notorious fundamentalist factions Hezb-e Wahdat.” As Thrupkaew puts it,

Some probing, however, finds little evidence that Samar has anything to do with Hezb-e Wahdat. Rather, what comes to light is a pattern of RAWA-led smear campaigns against other Afghan women who rise to prominence.

In The American Prospect article, Thrupkaew documents a persistent habit of RAWA attacking Afghan women with absurd charges. In each case the real crime committed by the women is that they have risen to a prominence that RAWA apparently feels threatened by.

The Feminist Majority Foundation comes across as genuinely shocked by RAWA’s reckless charges. FMF’s Jennifer Jackman lamely tells Thrupkaew that FMF did refute the attacks, but did not do so publicly. Which, of course, gives the impression to the casual observer that FMF does not disagree with RAWA’s absurd charge.

Which takes us back to McElroy’s earlier comments on the group’s links to Pakistan’s Communist movement. Because, of course, we have seen RAWA-style tactics before. In fact, reading through the back and forth petty feuds and accusations is like reading some old account of internal conflict at a gathering of Trotskyists.

Thrupkaew notes that RAWA’s behavior has fueled rumors that the group is really controlled by a group of men who are Maoists or Communists, and certainly their behavior is exactly the sort of rigid thinking characterized by such groups.

Either way, the Feminist Majority Foundation should be ashamed of itself for keeping its refutation of RAWA’s attacks “within the family.” It is interesting that the FMF emphasizes the fact that it does not gloss over the Northern Alliance’s failings, but it is apparently more than willing to do so when it comes to the highly questionable actions of an Afghan feminist group. When Eleanor Smeal finally wakes up and realizes there’s something wrong with that sort of double standard, we’ll actually be getting somewhere.

Sources:

What do Afghan women want? Noy Thrupkaew, The American Prospect, August 5, 2002.

Afghan Women’s Group Raises More Questions Than Answers. Wendy McElroy, IFeminists.Com, October 23, 2001.

The Silence Surrounding RAWA. Wendy McElroy, IFeminists.Com, August 20, 2002.

Raising Questions about RAWA is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Back in June 2000, Steinem lent her support to a “Statement Of Support For The
Declaration Of The Essential Rights Of Afghan Women” prepared by a Paris-based Afghan women’s group called NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan. According to that statement, which Steinem and others signed,

On June 28, 2000, at the initiative of NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan, a Paris-based Afghan women?s association, several hundred Afghan women from all segments of the Afghan nation, assembled in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to draft and promulgate a “Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women” (see elsewhere in this web site). With this document, the Afghan women affirm and demand for themselves the inalienable rights that had been assured for them by the Constitution of Afghanistan. The Afghan women reject the false assertions of the Taliban militias that these rights are in contradiction with the religion, culture and traditions of Afghan society and nation.

. . .

This statement in support of the Afghan women?s Declaration is part of an international campaign by NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan with the goal of five million signatures to be presented to the United Nations by NEGAR and a delegation of Afghans and their world-wide women and men supporters.

Congress, the US Mission to the UN and other US policy-making entities must support:

1. The integration of this Declaration as a part of the process for a just, honorable and durable peace for the legitimate country of Afghanistan for eventual inclusion in the Constitution,
2. Pressure on Pakistan to end its military, political, and financial support which renders the Taliban militias possible,
3. The denial of recognition of the Taliban militias.

History has demonstrated that supremacist and totalitarian regimes such as the Taliban militias maintain themselves in power only if the rest of the world remains silent.

This week, however, Steinem apparently changed her mind. This time around she was listed as a signer of a statement, “We won’t deny our consciences,” which was published in the British newspaper The Guardian. That statement said, among other things, that,

The signers of this statement call on the people of the US to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world.

We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers.. . .

We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do – we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to resist the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.

. . .

In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime.

. . .

President Bush has declared: “You’re either with us or against us.” Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say not in our name. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed.

Apparently after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Taliban were no longer religious totalitarianism, but rather a brave movement standing up to U.S. coercion. Steinem was apparently prepared to sign any number of declarations against the Taliban, but how dare those patriarchal forces in the White House actually get rid of the Taliban without clearing it with Steinem first? (And presumably, women in Iraq

To paraphrase a famous Steinem-ism, women in Afghanistan needed Steinem like a fish needs a bicycle.

Note that in addition to Steinem, Eve Ensler, Barbara Kingsolver, Stephanie Coontz, Starhawk, and Alice Walker also added their support to giving the Taliban a free hand in Afghanistan “free from military coercion by great powers.”

Sources:

We won’t deny our consciences. The Guardian, June 14, 2002.

Statement Of Support For The
Declaration Of The Essential Rights Of Afghan Women. June 28, 2000.

Steinem’s Taliban Hypocrisy is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

According to the duo, “our war against the Taliban … highlights the need to more fully understand the ways in which our own cultural ‘uncovering’ of the female body impacts the lives of girls and women everywhere.” Their op-ed continues,

Taliban rule has dictated that women be fully covered whenever they enter the public realm, while a recent US television commercial for “Temptation Island 2″ features near naked women. Although we seem to be winning the war against the Taliban, it is important to gain a better understanding of the Taliban’s hatred of American culture and how women’s behavior in our society is a particular locus of this hatred. The irony is that the images of sleek, bare women in our popular media that offend the Taliban also represent a major offensive against the health of American women and girls.

Whew. Who knew the Taliban were on to something in their extreme misogyny? Islamist parties in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have often demanded the abolition of women’s sports on the grounds that sports are unfeminine and tend to showcase women’s bodies in a lurid manner (Muslim extremists in Kuwait, for example, were horrified at the sexually provocative outfits worn by women’s soccer teams during the 2000 Olympics). Many women’s activists in the Middle East pay a high price for fighting such views, only to have feminists like Brumberg and Jackson mimic the conservative argument that, as they put it, “…American girls and women have been stripped bare by a sexually expressive culture…”

Brumberg and Jackson go on to indict media images for contributing to “eating disorders, teen smoking, drinking, and the depression and anxiety disorders that can occur when one does not measure up…” For good measure they also endorse the American Medical Association’s unwarranted assertion that there is a link between “violent images on the screen and violent behavior among children.”

Brumberg and Jackson’s finish their op-ed with a flourish that is as absurd as it is audacious,

Whether it’s the dark, sad eyes of a woman in purdah or the anxious darkly circled eyes of a grail with anorexia nervosa, the woman trapped inside needs to be liberated from cultural confines in whatever form they take. The burka and the bikini represent opposite ends of the political spectrum but each can exert a noose-like grip on the psyche and physical health of girls and women.

Source:

The burka and the bikini. Joan Jacobs Brumberg and Jacquelyn Jackson, November 23, 2001.

Are Bikinis Just as Bad as Burkas? is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Lerner notes that last year Osman gave a speech at the United Nations in which she said that the only place in the world where military force might be justified would be to overthrow the Taliban. But with such a war actually underway, Osman had a change of hart. She told Lerner,

I said it, but I was just making a point. This predicament is a test for feminists. We have seen our worst nightmare — women being dehumanized and shot in public — and it makes us more radical. It makes us angry enough to entertain the idea of war. But do I support war? No. No. No. War is not OK under any circumstances. The whole thing simply breaks my heart.

Which, of course, is precisely what people who hang prostitutes in stadiums filled with thousands of people (as the Taliban did) want to hear.

Meanwhile, the article also quotes Susan Sontag who wrote a controversial New Yorker criticizing the war against Afghanistan. Sontag tells Lerner that, “I continue to wish with all my heart for the [Taliban] regime to be overthrown; I just don’t think the U.S. military can do it.” Apparently military analysis is not exactly Sontag’s forte.

Source:

What women want. Sharon Lerner, The Village Voice, October 31 – November 6, 2001.

Sisterhood is Powerful — Unless You Happen to be Stuck in Afghanistan is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Holmes notes that NOW did put out a press release a few days ago quoting NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives saying, “In this time of national and global turmoil, the reasons we celebrate Coming Out Day are more visible and more important than ever,” but aside for demanding more money for Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan, NOW is silent about the U.S. attack on Afghanistan.

Which is weird since if you search on “Afghanistan” in NOW’s web search engine, you will find numerous press releases condemning the Taliban, including on urging the world to Stop the Abuse of Women and Girls in Afghanistan! But now that a Republican president is actually attempting to end the Taliban regime, there’s not a peep.

Holmes contrasts this with Eleanor Smeal and the Feminist Majority Foundation which maintains that “the United States has a unique obligation to end the Taliban’s atrocities toward women” and explicitly calls for the United States to remove the Taliban and replace it with a constitutional democracy which will guarantee the rights of women in Afghanistan. Though that may not be possible — although the Northern Alliance, the main threat to the Taliban, is certainly an improvement over the Taliban, they are hardly a group of liberal democratic constitutionalists.

Holmes doesn’t mention it, but the obvious question is whether or not NOW would maintain this weird silence over the war in Afghanistan had it been prosecuted by Bill Clinton or Al Gore. The few things NOW has released related to the terrorism attacks are meshed in with NOW’s theme of fighting George W. Bush and the Right. I suspect that for NOW giving Bush credit for trying a government run by misogynistic religious fanatics simply wouldn’t mesh very well with their theme that Bush is “like a vampire who will suck our rights away” as Patricia Ireland described him last October.

Source:

Feminism goes to battle. Amy Holmes, The Washington Post, October 14, 2001.

Feminists and the War Against the Taliban is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Where was this intense level of coverage when the Taliban was stripping women of their basic human rights? When the Taliban executed several prostitutes recently, it garnered only a small mention in foreign newspapers and went largely unreported in the United States. Perhaps if the prostitutes could have somehow transformed themselves into statutes or works of art, Western media outlets would have found their story compelling.

The destruction of Buddhist religious icons is certainly deplorable, but so is the media’s habit of giving readers and viewers more information about the destruction of inanimate objects than the murder of human beings.

Source:

UN condemns statue destruction. The BBC, March 7, 2001.

Statues vs. Women is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Women in Afghanistan is a post from: EquityFeminism

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.