HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST WOMEN

Society Religion & Philosophy
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Women continue to suffer under Fundamentalist Islam; some on this Forum are quick to defend the fundamentalists and cite the news source as being anti-Islam – the truth is: the position of Women today is more precarious than ever. You can play a role in stopping these abuses or be a perpetrator by keeping silent.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Afghanistan – Human rights abuses against women

Story Filed: Thursday, February 18, 1999 09:23 AM EST

FEB 18, 1999, M2 Communications - Public statement

In recent months a petition in support of women’s rights in Afghanistan has been circulated by the National Organisation for Women in the USA. While welcoming any initiatives highlighting the plight of women in Afghanistan, Amnesty International does not as a matter of principle endorse statements that do not fall strictly within its mandate.

In solidarity with this worldwide campaign to promote women’s rights, Amnesty International is reiterating today its position on the issue – based on corroborated evidence of the human rights situation in Afghanistan – which may in part differ from the above mentioned petition.

Amnesty International has continuously brought the plight of Afghan women to the attention of the international community and has urged armed groups as well as countries supporting them to acknowledge their responsibility for human rights violations in Afghanistan and end the cycle of abuses there.

Scores of women have been abducted and raped by members of the various political factions, often being treated as the spoils of war. Thousands of women have been indiscriminately killed in fighting between opposing sides in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of women and children have been displaced or forced to flee the country as a result of systematic human rights abuses.

In recent years, the Taleban have imposed a new form of repression against women in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and other areas they control. The situation of women in these areas deserves special attention by the international community.

Tens of thousands of women remain restricted to their homes under Taleban edicts banning them from seeking employment, education or leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative. Other measures restricting women include the closure of women’s hammams (public baths). Women are also barred from the streets for certain periods during the fasting month of Ramadan.

These restrictions have been enforced through the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments and ill- treatment including the beating of women by Taleban guards in detention centres or in public places.

Amnesty International welcomes any move to restore Afghan women’s rights to education, employment, gender equality and access to health facilities and will continue to consider women detained or physically restricted on account of their gender as prisoners of conscience.

The organization fully supports any initiative seeking to highlight the flagrant abuse of women’s human rights in Afghanistan, and which recognises the vital role that the international community can play in bringing such abuses to an end.

Background

Amnesty International takes no position on the question of recognition of any party or government but calls on all armed political groups in Afghanistan to respect fundamental human rights, in accordance with international human rights standards and the principles of humanitarian law.

Governments with a vested interest in Afghanistan who appear to provide military support to the warring factions must accept responsibility for fuelling human rights abuses. Governments which provide political and material support to Afghanistan’s warring factions should hold leaders of armed groups to account for the human rights abuses committed against women in Afghanistan.

However, responsibility to end the suffering of Afghan women is not confined to governments directly involved in the country. In September 1995, at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, governments of the world committed themselves to ensuring the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In the Beijing Declaration they pledged their determination “to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity”. It is now their chance to enforce respect for women’s human rights in Afghanistan.

[See Women in Afghanistan: A human rights catastrophe (ASA 11/03/95), May 1995; Women in Afghanistan: The violations continue (ASA 11/05/97), June 1997]

Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street, WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom

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Abdulmalick,

What does Amnesty International have to say about sex films involving women and farmyard animals? These are all filmed in the west and as those involved are on film, and their Directors are known, surely it is no big deal to track them down and prosecute them?

What about the lap-dancing clubs in the USA where Amnesty International was devised? Is it really acceptable that leering lechers should thrust dollar bills into the nooks and crannies of naked female dancers?

In Islam, we see women as our mothers, our sisters and our daughters. In light of that can you please comment on the above situations in the Western countries which always seem to escape your analysis. And yet strangely, Islamic countries are examined in depth and with a microscope to see if there is a new way that the Islamic values can be undermined.

I hope you appreciate that I could have been a lot more graphic in both range and description of the above topics, but it did not seem appropriate. But if you are going to continue muslim-bashing then there has to be room for a counter-argument to ensure an open debate.

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AbdulMalick quotes: "Amnesty International has continuously brought the plight of Afghan women to the attention of the international community and has urged armed groups as well as countries supporting them to acknowledge their responsibility for human rights violations in Afghanistan and end the cycle of abuses there."

Yes Amnesty International has been bringing the "plight of the Afghan women to the attention of the international community" for years. It was doing so during the Russia-Afghan war also. When women were being raped in their villages. They were also their before the Taliban, when war-lords had overtaken cities and continued to abuse women, threatening them with rape and beating them. They are still there and condemn the abuses of the Taliban.

Amnesty International also acknowledges the multi-faceted causes of the civil war in Afghanistan. Something you cannot bear to admit to. Amnesty International does not blame all the problems of Afghani women on "Islam", however you do. In fact the 'cut and paste' you have provided us from AI, does not even mention the word "Islam" or "Muslim". They seem to be a little more objective. They instead write, we "urge armed groups as well as countries supporting them to acknowledge their responsibility for human rights violations in Afghanistan and end the cycle of abuses there."

Why is your view so narrow-minded?

Achtung ;)

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The UN Relief agencies have re-started their efforts in Afghanistan on the conditions that Women be allowed to work for these agencies. Attached is another report from Director of UNESCO re: situation in Afghanistan under the Taleban.

UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL CONDEMNS ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE TALEBAN

Paris, March 19 - UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor today declared he was horrified by mutilations and other show-case punishments carried out in public by the Taleban in Afghanistan in the name of a justice based on an erroneous and unacceptable interpretation of the Koran.
Mr Mayor pleaded for the diplomatic isolation of a barbaric authority which humiliates women and discriminates against them. Mr Mayor declared:
“As Director-General of UNESCO, an organisation in charge of education and culture, and thus of the values and examples we hand down to our children, I am horrified by these inhumane and bloody spectacles regularly staged by the Taleban in the stadiums of Kabul. This travesty of justice flouts Islam, a religion based on love. This is yet another example of intolerable actions which should unleash immediate and global protestation.”
Mr Mayor added: “All must be done to assist the people but let us not establish diplomatic relations with these barbarians who interpret the Koran as they see fit, who humiliate and discriminate against women to the extent of withholding education from girls. We must speak out - loud and clear - against those who violate human rights so flagrantly. All those who supply arms and assistance to these madmen must cease to do so. The Taleban now claim they are willing to support education for women but say that they are lacking funds. Let those who financed their war now finance their schools for girls!”

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I am a bit confused by Mr. Mayor's comments. He writes, "let us not establish diplomatic relations with these barbarians who interpret the Koran as they see fit." Than ends his declaration with, "Let those who financed their war now finance their schools for girls!"

In order to finance "schools for girls" diplomatic relations will have to be resumed. Simply because the brokers of power in Afghanistan are the Taliban. The world will have to come to the realization that the Taliban will not go away. They cannot be ignored. If they are willing to re-open schools for girls, they should be encouraged to do so. In light of the fact that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, it is understandable that they lack funding. It is also worthy to note that UNESCO would like to encourage those who financed their war (i.e. USSR, US, Pakistan and Iran) to finance the building of their social institutions. I think that would be a positive development.

Outside interference has ripped Afghanistan apart, lets hope the same interference can put it back together. Lets hope the Taliban begins to treat women the way Islam advocates they be treated. And let's pray for peace in Afghanistan.

I'll post a bit of my thoughts on the development of the Taliban and their relation to women later this week.

Achtung ;)

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AbdulaMalik:
That is so nice of you for brining up the reports from the Human Right Commissions around the world. Would you please do rest of us a great favor and post the reports about the number of women are being battered every second in the USA and in the Western world? Would you also post the reports of the number of women are being raped every second in the USA? Do us these favors kindly please, because you are very prompt to bring the reports.

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Afghan Women Plead for Help Against Taliban Leaders

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP 28-APR-99) -- Carrying placards denouncing Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, Afghan women marched on U.N. offices in Pakistan today to demand world attention for their plight.
"We get only silence from the international community ... we need help," said Huma Saeed, a spokesman for the protesters, who were led by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
In a one-page letter, the group criticized the international community and media, saying their central Asian country had received only sporadic attention while the plight of refugees from Kosovo had received extensive coverage.
"Is it because European blood is (more important) than the blood of the people of Afghanistan?" said the letter, which was delivered to the U. N. office.
In the 90 percent of Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban, women are banned from working outside the home and girls are not allowed to go to school. Health care is segregated and there are complaints of insufficient doctors, beds and medicines for women.
The association says the anti-Taliban alliance, made up of Islamic groups who ruled Kabul from 1992 until the Taliban took over in 1996, are not much better.
Association members have received numerous threats from Afghans who identify themselves as Taliban.
In December in northwestern Pakistan, men saying they were Taliban threatened to break the legs of women who went ahead with an anti-Taliban march. The march was canceled.
The women today also criticized U.N. peace efforts that offer radical Islamic groups a share of power.
"We demand to know why the United Nations and other world bodies insist on delivering the destiny of our people into the hands of fundamentalist murderers," the statement said.
However, the United Nations has had very little success at negotiating a peaceful end to the protracted and bitter conflict.
Like previous U.N.-negotiated accords, the latest agreement reached in Turkmenistan in March quickly fell apart and the two sides returned to the battlefield.
A U.N. team from New York is in Pakistan to determine how civilian monitors being sent to Afghanistan can assess human rights.

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THANK YOU MRS. CLINTON !

The predicament of women living under tight restrictions imposed by Afghanistan's Taliban government must not be forgotten, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.
We cannot go into the 21st century without doing everything within our power to try to stand against such human rights violations and against the perils of indifference,'' Mrs. Clinton said at a Capitol Hill luncheon honoring Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The Taliban, who seized control of the government in 1996, follow a strict and disputed interpretation of Islamic law that requires women to wear the burqa, a garment covering them from head to toe, while out in public or risk being beaten. Women must stay indoors unless accompanied by a close male relative.
When women are savagely beaten by so-called religious police for not being fully covered by the burqa or for making noises while they walk, we know that it is not just the physical beating that is the objective. It is the destruction of the spirit of those women as well,'' Mrs. Clinton said.
The government also has banned girls from going to school. Male doctors are prohibited from treating sick women in Afghanistan, and women are not allowed to work, let alone practice medicine.
The women of Afghanistan, while other women are moving forward, are being pushed brutally backward in time,'' Mrs. Clinton said.
The group Physicians for Human Rights honored Feinstein for her work on the issue a day after it released a report critical of diminishing health care and human rights for women in Afghanistan.
Today we honor especially what (Feinstein) has done to bring to public attention and work toward the end of the widespread violations of women's rights in Afghanistan,'' Mrs. Clinton said.
Feinstein has spearheaded efforts to pass a Senate resolution calling for an end to the abuse of woman and girls in that country.
Mrs. Clinton told the story of an Afghan teacher who was shot to death this month in front of her students after refusing to close down a home school for girls.
Relatives living in refugee camps in Pakistan told human rights observers the woman was shot in the head and stomach in front of about 40 students and her family after Taliban militia burst into her home demanding that the school be closed.
``We can honor her memory ... by not forgetting her story and her willingness to stand against the forces of violence and oppression,'' Mrs. Clinton said.

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Mrs Clinton needs to spend less time worrying about Afghan women and concentrate more on the women in her own country. Maybe if she paid more attention at home she could have saved Billy boy having to pay Monica's dry-cleaning bill.

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am comeing here some days now and I am seeing Abdulmalik fellow complain so
much about abuses of humans in the arab and talibens worlds. It is much more worst
in the Amrica. Shareef admi is abuse in the Amrica and no one is caring. I see
Abdulmalick is caring so much about the less serios and less real problems. Please
Abdulmalick bhai if you want to help the worlds please solve the more serios problems
first. If you want to see more tragic storis of human abuses then what you are telling
then come please to my webpage and read the storis of brave shareef admi who is tell
his terrible tales:

             http://members.tripod.com/muqaddir_khan/storis/ 

             Before you ask arabs and talibens to stop the abuses please see what your own
             peoples are doing.