Press Releases

Afghan Women’s Mission Endorses “Occupy the Occupiers”

August 20, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

The Afghan Women’s Mission, along with Not in Our Name, and International ANSWER invite Southern Californians to join them in occupying the lawn of the Westwood Federal Building this Friday, August 22, in “Occupy the Occupiers”. The event begins at 12 noon and continues until 10 pm, featuring speakers including Sonali Kolhatkar, Vice President of AWM. There will also be musicians and poets.

There will be a multicolored patchwork of tents, each with its own theme. Set up your own tent, complete with banners, photos, and messages of resistance!

BACKGROUND:

On October 7th 2001, the United States began a military campaign against Afghanistan. The bombing lasted several months, during which the ruling Taliban were defeated and thousands of innocent civilians were killed. In the summer of 2002, the US installed a puppet government in Kabul, with Hamid Karzai, an Afghan exile, at the head. US-financed Afghan warlords with a history of human rights abuses, obtained high positions in the government and control parts of Afghanistan outside Kabul, constantly fighting one another and undermining the central government.

There are currently about 12,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, of whom 8,000 are US and British troops. US troops have been increasingly targeted by rocket launchers and other attacks.

LIBERATION or OCCUPATION?

An August 19th article in Reuters entitled, “US Troops Provoke Anger, Fear in Afghan Villages” is indicative of the growing unrest in Afghanistan against US occupation. “When U.S. forces entered a remote Afghan village recently to hunt Taliban and al Qaeda rebels, locals hurriedly hid their Korans in a sack. B affled soldiers who discovered the copies of Islam’s holy book asked an elder what was happening. He told them that villagers feared they would be killed merely for being Muslims. The misunderstanding underlines the depth of confusion and mistrust caused by foreign troops in Afghanistan, particularly in rural areas in the South and East where the coalition is most active in its hunt for “terrorists.” In many cases that mistrust has turned to hatred, as aggressive search tactics and a general sense among Muslims of being under siege plays into the hands of the very people the U.S. military is trying to wipe out.

“On the slightest suspicion they arrest us and treat us like animals,” said Haji Allah Dad, a 50-year-old resident of Sher-o-Aba, a village 4 miles east of the town of Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan. “Their treatment is so inhuman that sometimes we even think of joining the ‘jihad’ (holy war) of the Taliban against them.” Villagers in Sher-o-Aba are incensed at what they call arbitrary arrests and physical abuse by U.S. troops, who clashed with suspected Taliban sympathizers in the area in late July.

U.S. forces, aid workers, foreign peacekeepers and government troops are all facing a rising threat in Afghanistan, with no apparent let-up in the hit-and-run tactics of Taliban or al Qaeda militants operating from along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

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According to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), the oldest feminist Afghan group, and the only Afghan group to join the worldwide antiwar movement, the US has NOT “liberated” Afghanistan:

The people of the world should know that although the despicable and oppressive rule of the Taliban is over in our ill-fated Afghanistan, this does not mean the end to hardship for our tortured nation. It is painful to hear some Western leaders and media speak frequently about the “liberation” of Afghanistan. Contrary to the aspirations of our people and the expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban, are once again in power and are generously supported by the US government. In fact, by reinstalling the warlords in Afghanistan, the US is ultimately replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. The Northern Alliance is nothing but a fragile coalition of bandits with a long list of crimes and brutalities.

The Taliban have been severely criticized as the most brutal rulers in view of their actions against women, but the media has not given much coverage to the anti-women values and atrocities of the Northern Alliance, who were the first to impose misogynic rules on our women.

The US war has not brought any significant positive changes to our country. It is crystal clear that the US did not enter Afghanistan to liberate its people, but to punish its own wayward creations – Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

Because of our unambiguous comments on these matters, some people call us “anti-American”. However, we love the people of America and greatly appreciate their humanitarianism, their generous financial help and their heart-warming moral support. As is the case for many peoples and countries in the world, there is a difference between the US people and the US government.

The work of RAWA is even more difficult inside Afghanistan in such a climate. We cannot even sell our publications openly and those who are caught reading or selling them are threatened and tortured. No serious anti-fundamentalist women’s organization can operate openly in today’s Afghanistan.

– Excerpted from a speech of RAWA member, Brussels, May 16th 2003.

The Afghan Women’s Mission aims to empower Afghan women by improving the education and health facilities of Afghan refugees, many of whom are women and children.

More information about RAWA’s humanitarian work is available on their website, http://www.rawa.org.