In a message dated 9/2/2000 7:36:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Qsofie writes:

<< >>>Please read this: News and an e-petition about

 >>>the Taliban. I think it's important, and anyway, you get to use the power

 >>>of the net for some good: read and sign it!! The government of

 >>>Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. The situation is getting so bad

 >>>that one person in an editorial of the Times compared the treatment of

 >>>women there to the treatment of Jews in pre-Holocaust Poland.

 >>>

 >>>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 misbehavior. 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, has increased significantly. There are almost no medical

 >>>facilities available for women. 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 1999 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. Angana Chatterji, CA, USA
 2. Richard Shapiro, CA, USA
 3. Sofia Qureshi, CA, USA
 4. Ramez Qureshi, NY USA

 >>>PLEASE COPY this email on to a new message, sign the bottom and forward

 >>>it to everyone on your distribution lists. IF you receive this list with

 >>>more than 300 names on it, 1) please e-mail a copy of it to:

 >>>[log in to unmask]

 >>>

 >>>2) and PLEASE remove the first 300 names from the copy you e-mail to your

 >>>friends. Even if you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not

 >>>kill the petition. Thank you!

 >>> >>