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June 18, 2001
Afghanistan. No nation in the
Afghanistan. No nation in the world is suffering more, and with no nation is the rest of the world so helpless.
What is happening in Afghanistan goes beyond tyranny, beyond injustice, beyond cruelty. The reign of terror to which the Taliban have subjected their people is an abomination. It is humanity at is very ugliest, a hideous testimony to how thin the barriers really are between civilization and savagery. Afghanistan's descent into madness in the past twenty years should chill us all. None of us are immune from the horrors that have unleashed itself on this small landlocked Asian country. And once entrenched, evil takes on a life of its own, an evil that grows ever stronger despite any and all attempts to stop it.
Sexism and the oppression of women are nothing new, of course; they have been omnipresent in human society for thousands of years. But the ruling Taliban party in Afghanistan have taken it to extremes that boggle the mind. Not sufficient is it that women be forced to wear long robes like the Saudi hijab; the Taliban have come up with the even more oppressive burqa. Wearing this outfit, a woman is completely invisible. The curves of her body are totally hidden in massive layers of cloth. Even her face is covered with a thick black screen, through which it is difficult to see. The heavy garment is torture in Afghanistan's desert heat; yet to venture outside without it is a crime punishable by death. Taliban police, consisting mostly of teenage boys, cruise the streets freely, armed with machine guns, ready to shoot without mercy anyone who attempts to defy them.
So great is the Taliban's fear of women's bodies that even the burqa's extreme concealment is not enough. Women are not permitted to go out of doors at all without special permission, and even then must be accompanied by a male relative. Some women have been arrested even for going to the hospital when giving birth. And even at the hospital, a woman may not speak to a man who is not a relative, not even in life-threatening circumstances. Even in their own homes, the Taliban have ordered that all windows be painted black so that women cannot be seen from the outside.
Most of the schools in Afghanistan have been closed, since most of the teachers were women. Girls are forbidden to go to school at all; few boys, either, are able to attend without any teachers. Many children starve because their mothers are no longer permitted to work and have no means of survival. After twenty years of civil war, the country is littered with mines. Crop lands have been destroyed and industrial activity is almost nonexistent. Nearly half the population would starve without the support provided by the United Nations and charitable organizations. Yet the Taliban's spiteful venom does not spare even humanitarian activity. Female aid workers are often stopped, beaten, and even killed by police. Male aid workers are not permitted to even be in the same room with an Afghan woman, making food distribution and shelter difficult to provide. Repeatedly, the Taliban has harassed aid organizations, expelled them, and done everything in its power to work against them.
In control of 90 percent of the country, the Taliban will stop at nothing to gain the control of the other 10 percent, under the control of remnants of the former government overthrown by the Taliban in 1996. The Taliban have massacred whole villages, poisoned farm lands, and cut off food supplies to civilian populations in order to starve them into surrender.
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Posted by Tyrone at June 18, 2001 10:31 PM