>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
>
>(Remark from n°28-Olivier Houdas : the talibans got there thanks to US
>military aid... they were supposed to be better than communists)
>
>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, trans-lators, doctors, lawyers,artists and writers have
>been forced from their jobs and stuffed into their homes, so that
>depress
>ion
>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 street, 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
>w
>ay.
>
>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
>thin
>g',
>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 for
>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
Carthaginians
>
>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 out-rage 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 other countries and their
>Governments and that the current situation in Afghanistan 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 (USA)
>3) Joyce Millen, Cambridge, MA (USA)
>4) Carmelo Vazquez, Madrid (Spain)
>5) Jesus Martin, Madrid (Spain)
>6) Belen Lopez Celada, Madrid (Spain)
>7) Laura Malefakis, Madrid (Spain)
>8) Mariangeles Fernandez (Spain)
>9) Daniel J. Bustelo Elicabe-Urriol (Spain)
>10) Ana Maria Sanchez Duran, Madrid (Spain)
>11) Anna Ramirez Galvan, Barcelona (Spain)
>12) Alberto Fernandez Liria, Madrid (Spain)
>13) Lina Rodriguez Rodrigo, Madrid (Spain)
>14) Jose Maria Gomez Ros (Spain)
>15) Sandro Onori, Rome (Italy)
>16) Piergiorgio Cerello, Torino (Italy)
>17) Valeria Cappa, Torino (Italy)
>18) Laura Pastore, Torino (Italy)
>19) Carlo Bruschi, Torino (Italy)
>20) Silvia Trini Castelli, Torino (Italy)
>21) Luciano Gaido, Torino (Italy)
>22) Carlo Ricchiardi, Torino (Italy)
>23) Gabriele Ricchiardi, Torino (Italy)
>24) Barbara D'Anna, Torino (Italy)
>25) Arnaud Leroy, Paris (France)
>26) Jean-Daniel Richerd, Montreal (Canada)
>27) Vincent Dubois, Taipei (Taiwan RoC)
>28) Olivier Houdas, Paris (France)
>29) Vivian Ng, Singapore
30) Linda Lim, Singapore
31) Max Wang, Singapore
32) Steven .B
33) John (Singapore)
34) Saji R, Kerala (INDIA),
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