Afghan
Monika Foster Political Science 1:50-3:05 Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan Beginning on September 27, 1996, an extremist militia group known as the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Upon seizing control, the Taliban has instituted a system of gender apartheid, which has placed women into a state of virtual house arrest. Since that time the women and girls of Afghanistan have been stripped of all human rights including their voice, visibility and their mobility. The Campaign to stop Gender Apartheid, led by the Feminist Majority Foundation, has brought together numerous human right and women's organizations around the world to demand an end to the abuses of the women in Afghanistan. In the 1980's when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the United States gave billions of dollars, through a secret CIA operation, to revolutionary militia forces called the mujahideen (soldiers of God). Unfortunately, in 1989 when the Soviet Union pulled out, groups of the mujahideen entered into a civil war and in 1996 the Taliban emerged as the controlling force. The Taliban is actually made up of young men and boys who were raised in refugee camps and trained in ultraconservative religious schools in Pakistan. The primar
One woman, Nazira Karimi, fled the country one year ago after a long drawn out process to be exiled. 70% of schoolteachers, 50% of civilian government workers and 40% of doctors were all women. President Clinton acknowledged the Talibans horrible treatment of women and pledged not to recognize the militia group until all human rights are restored. After and initial denial from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she sought help from the Feminist Majority. Just recently, a United Nations Reporter, Radhika Coomaraswami, voiced her shock of the violations she found in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban militia took control, women have been forced to beg on the streets to simply feed their children because only a tiny percentage of women are allowed to work. Just recently, 16 of her family members arrived safely at National Airport with help from the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. As I sit and type this paper, women are being beaten and killed for no reason what so ever, except for the fact that they are female. Prior to the Taliban seizing control, women led very different lives. Girls have been banned from attending school after the age of eight and women can not leave their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. Medical access is extremely limited because male doctors cannot treat women and there are very few female physicians. Finally, the biggest potential for financial support comes from the wealth of the petroleum industry. " She said she had never seen as much suffering as she witnessed in Afghanistan. I still believe we should restrict how many refugees are allowed into the United States, but in times of such dreadful and deadly actions of the Taliban we need to do something to protect these women and children. Many women have died of treatable illnesses because there was no doctor who would treat them.
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