This statement has my total support as chair of the UK Public Health
Association
Dr Geof Rayner
Geof Rayner
Phone: +44 (0)20 8767 6012 Fax: +44 (0)20 8333 9931 Mobile: +44
(0)7970754615
email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Anna Coote [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 February 2001 08:48
To: Adam Oliver; adrian davies; Adrienne Burgess; Agnes Hubert; Allyson
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Subject: (no subject)
Dear Friends,
Please do not ignore this email. I am sorry if you have already received
it, but I really felt I could not refuse to send it on to you.
This is something that we as women and men and essentially as human
beings
need to support - I don't know if this is going to help but take 3
minutes
out of your life to do your part.
Madhu, the government of Afghanistan, is waging a war upon women. 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, translators, doctors,
lawyers, artists and writers have been forced from their jobs and
stuffed
into their homes.
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
misbehaviour. 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.
Depression 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 is
high.
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 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 way.
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 or doctors or simply used to basic human freedoms are now
severely restricted and treated as subhuman in the name of right-wing
fundamentalist Islam.
It is not their tradition or 'culture,' but it is alien to them, and it
is
extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule.
Everyone
has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are women in a
Muslim country.
If we can threaten military force in Kosovo in the name of human rights
for
the sake of ethnic Albanians, citizens of the world can certainly
express
peaceful outrage 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 action by the United Nations and
that the current situation overseas will not be tolerated.
Women's Rights is not a small issue anywhere, and it is UNACCEPTABLE for
women in the 21st century to be treated as subhuman and so much as
property.
Equality and human decency is a RIGHT not a freedom, whether one lives
in
Afghanistan or elsewhere.
1) Giuliana D. Black, Daly City, CA, USA
2) Mariam Nayiny, Palo Alto, CA, USA
3) Sunaina Gulati-Ruh, Palo Alto, CA USA
4) Megan McCaslin, Palo Alto, CA USA
5) Blake Hallanan, San Francisco, Ca. USA
6) Kit Henderson, Sacramento, CA USA
7) Kathryn Austin, Sacramento, CA USA
8) Joni Pitcl, Folsom, CA USA
9) Janet Marston-Hartwell, Key West, FL USA
10) Hari Meyers, Sebastopol, Ca., U.S.A
11) Deborah Garrity, Littleton, CO, USA
12) Sandi Chambers, Portland, OR USA
13) Julie Guichelaar, Portland, OR USA
14) Marci Jensen, Breckenridge, CO USA
15) Diane Hledik, Norfolk NE USA
16) Sandy Nielsen, Norfolk, NE USA
17) Rhea Hochstein, Bennet, NE USA
18) Kay Edeal, Loomis, NE USA
19) Sandra Wimer, Hastings NE USA
20) Beverly Rader, Hastings, NE USA
21) Brenda Rader Mross, Fort Collins, CO USA
22) L. Catherine Workman, Fort Collins, CO USA
23) Jack Gebhardt, Fort Collins, CO.
24) Annalee Gebhardt, Fort Collins, CO
25) Kathy Wolff, Fort Collins, CO
26) Robin MacDonald, Fort Collins, CO
27) Karen Walker, Cedaredge, CO
28) Kirsten Windolf Morales, Tucson, AZ
29) Felipe A. Morales, Tucson, AZ
30) Christa Schubert, Long Beach, CA
31) Ilana Tauber, Sherman Oaks, CA
32)Marian McDonald, Bainbridge Island, WA
33)Cheryl Champlain, Lake Oswego, OR
34)Kathleen Greeene, Tigard, Or
35)Rebecca Thompson, Ellensburg, WA
36) Victoria Maghrak, San Diego CA
37) Jeff Mill! s, San Diego, CA, USA
38) Deirdre Sidars, Avalon, Ca. USA
39) Sherry Krug, Avalon, CA, USA
40) Stephanie O'haraughty, Yucaipa, CA USA
41) Jean Schuna, WA, USA
42) David Alderman, WA, USA
43) Victoria Leuba, ID, USA
44) Wayne Tuttle, Ljubljana, Slovenia
45) Rick Whitelaw, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
46) Joyce Resnick, West Hartford, CT, USA
47) Priya Morganstern, West Hartford, CT USA
48) Dolores Carbonneau, Alna, ME USA
50) Shannon Robertson, Burnaby BC, Canada
51) Tammara Johnson, Vancouver BC, Canada
52) Kylie Cross, Surrey, BC, Canada
53) Toni Penfold, Surrey, BC, Cananda
54) Navneet Hundal, Surrey, BC, Canada
55) Aman Gosal, Surrey, BC, Canada
56) Pavendeep Kharod, Surrey, BC, Canada
57. Mandip Kharod, Surrey, BC, Canada
58. Manjit Kharod, Surrey, BC, Canada
59. Amy Johal, Surrey, BC, Canada
60. Jennifer Popove, Surrey B.C. Canada
61. Wendy George, Surrey B.C. Canada
62. Rebecca Meyers, New Westminster B.C Canada
63. Nicole Hudec, Swift Current Sk,Canada
64. Lisa Selinger, Swift Current Sk, Canada
65.Tammy Hodge, Regina SK, Canada
66. Bonnie Smith, Regina. Sk, Canada
67. Ann-Marie Wynnyk, Regina, Sk. Canada
68. Tracey Jones, Regina, Sk. Canada
69. Angela Williams, Regina, SK, Canada
70. Sherry Ruchotzke, Regina, SK, Canada
80. Wendy Bell, Regina, Sk, Canada
81. Robert Hays, Dallas, Texas, USA
82. Joy Darling, Hudson, MA, USA
83. Nancy Sullivan, Hudson, MA USA
84. Patricia Salvesen, Pittsford, NY, USA
85. Meghan Goolsby, Leesburg, VA, USA
86. David Bruno, Altoona, Pa, USA
87. Jennifer Bruno, Altoona, Pa USA
88. Dean Bruno, Irvine, CA, USA
89. Mark Svede, Glenford, OH USA
90. Tracey Hummer, New York, NY
91. Hillary Lewis, Charleston, SC
92. Tamara Biggs, Chicago, IL
93. Lisa McGuire, Denver, CO
94. Roma Hooper, Strawberry Hill, England.
95 Josephine Seccombe London
96. Jonathan Shaw, Pwllheli, UK
97. Karl Price, Llanaelhaearn, UK
98. Yves Dubois, UK
99. Fr Raphael Armour, Cambridge, UK
100. Anne-Marie Angus London UK
101. Stephen Platt, Oxford, UK
102. Gillian Crow London UK
103. Lin Ball Milton Keynes, UK
104. Adrian & Lois Wells, Faringdon, UK
105. Faith Holdsworth, Faringdon, UK
106. David and Debbie Flint, Garford, UK
107. Harford Smith, Oxford, UK
108. Jenny Smith, Oxford, UK
109. Tom & Brenda Green, UK
110. Bob EWilkes, Liverpool, UK
111. Pamela Harrison, Dorking, UK
112. Carolyn Murray, Lancaster, UK
113. Hugh Hoskins, Warminster, UK
114. Alison Hoskins, Warminster, UK
115. Lynda Wearn, Great Cheverell. UK
116. Rosa Pietsch, Market Lavington, UK
117. Anasuya Prime, London, UK
118. Eleanor Bradshaw, London, UK
119. Sybilla Corbett, London, UK
120. Shona Kelly, London, UK
121. John Carr, London, UK
122. Glenys Thornton
123. Anna Coote
PLEASE COPY this email on to a NEW message (DON'T simply FORWARD it -
that
adds more of those annoying marks on the left!), add your name to the
bottom and send it to everyone on your distribution lists. If you
receive
this
list with more than 300 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to:
[log in to unmask]
Even if you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not kill
the
petition.
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