Afghanistan: No Peace without Justice

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

If you are freedom-loving and anti-fundamentalist, you are with RAWA.

RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977.

Afghanistan needs troops—but it needs troops of doctors, troops of teachers, troops of Peace Corps volunteers, and troops of farmers to go and replant the fruit orchards.
~ Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women

I concur with the observation of Kavita Ramdas. Afghanistan is in need of doctors, teachers, and much more, primarily due to the United States abandoning the people of Afghanistan following their liberation from the oppression of the Taliban so that the Bush administration could enact its private vendetta against Saddam Hussein—does anyone remember him?—in Iraq.

The Taliban still exist and remain connected with the terrorists of Al-Qaida. From what I read, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda remain potent both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, always ready to impose their masculine subjection of women as if women were property with even fewer rights than animals: 

1- Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses were allowed to work in some hospitals in Kabul.

2- Complete ban on women's activity outside the home unless accompanied by a mahram (close male relative such as a father, brother or husband).

3- Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.

4- Ban on women being treated by male doctors.

5- Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution

6- Requirement that women wear a long veil (Burqa), which covers them from head to toe.

7- Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or of women unaccompanied by a mahram.

8- Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.

9- Public stoning of women accused of having sex outside marriage. (A number of lovers are stoned to death under this rule).

You can find many additions to the above list HERE.

Afghan Woman Being Prepared for Execution by Stoning

You may not agree, but here is my baseline: I consider myself a peacemaker; I do not like war. However, when appeasement results in oppression and injustice by such fanatics as the Taliban and Al-Qaida, then I believe the world has the obligation to protect and liberate the victims.

Therefore, I support the decision of President Barak Obama to increase our military presence in Afghanistan. We must no longer live in a world that turns its back on oppression and injustice.

I appreciate your comments on this post.