Human Rights Watch: Afghan women still oppressed under occupation

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Has the U.S. and NATO occupation  and the U.S.-created regime done anything
to improve the conditions of Afghan women?  Do Afghan women or fighters for
women's rights anywhere have any interest in supporting U.S. domination in
Afghanistan or the Middle East as the road toward liberating women?  Do they
have any interest in supporting backing the occupation forces against
resistance from actual or alleged "Taliban"  or "Al Qaeda" forces?  Will the
increasing number of occupation troops do anything to improve the situation?
The answer to all these questions, in my view, is no, and this article on a
Human Rights Watch report provides some of the evidence.
Fred Feldman


AP (with additional material by Guardian). 17 December 2002. Afghan
Women Still Suffer Repression.

KABUL -- Women and girls are still suffering severe abuse, harassment
and repression at the hands of Afghanistan's post-Taliban leaders,
particularly in the west of the country, a human rights group said
Tuesday.

In a 52-page report entitled, "We Want to Live as Humans," Human Rights
Watch said life has improved marginally for some women and not at all
for others since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, which
barred women from any role in public life.

"Many people outside the country believe that Afghan women and girls
have had their rights restored" after the collapse of the Taliban last
year, said Zama Coursen-Neff, a researcher with New York-based Human
Rights Watch.

"It's just not true. Women and girls are still being abused, harassed
and threatened all over Afghanistan, often by government troops and
officials."

Even in the relatively liberal capital of Kabul, where the central
government holds sway, a team of 90 women from the Ministry of Religious
Affairs "harasses women in Kabul's streets for 'un-Islamic behavior,'
such as wearing makeup, and, in some instances, follows them home to
castigate their parents or spouses."

Human Rights Watch said the situation was particularly dire in the
western province of Herat -- an area largely under the control of
U.S.-backed warlord Ismail Khan.

"Under the rule of the local governor Ismail Khan, women's and girls'
freedom of expression, association, movement and rights to equality,
work, education and bodily integrity steadily deteriorated throughout
2002," the report said.

"Virtually every aspect of women's and girls' lives is still policed in
Herat .... Where they can go, how they can get there, whom they can go
with and how they can dress."

Human Rights Watch said authorities prohibited women in Herat from
walking or riding in vehicles alone with men who are not close
relatives. With little public transport available -- they cannot even
ride alone with a male taxi driver -- women have "few ways to get to
school, work or the market, or to seek medical care."

Breaking the rules can mean arrest, or worse.

"A police task force now patrols Herat city, arresting men and women who
are seen together and suspected of being unrelated or unmarried," the
report said.

"Men are taken to jail; women and girls are taken to a hospital to
undergo forced medical examinations to determine whether they have
recently had sexual intercourse."

A doctor at Herat's only hospital told Human Rights Watch that police
bring in about 10 girls and women a day for "chastity" tests.

Elsewhere, the troops of rival warlords with close military ties with US
and other foreign forces have committed gang rapes.

Women caught without wearing the all-encompassing burqa, still widely
used in most of the country, "may be harassed and threatened by the
police, as well as private individuals," the report said.

At home, women have almost no way to contest a male family member's
decisions about whom she will marry or whether she can attend school or
work, the report said. And those subjected to abuse or violence have no
recourse.

"As in most parts of the country, fleeing from her home may result in
her arrest and prosecution," the report said.

"Women and girls... have also been prohibited from speaking publicly or
to journalists about women's rights, and fired from their jobs or
threatened with being fired."

Coursen-Neff concluded: "The US-led coalition justified the war against
the Taliban in part by promising that it would liberate Afghanistan's
women and girls ... The international community has broken that
promise."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ProletarianNews
http://www.utopia2000.org

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