President Hamid Karzai has accepted the support of powerful mujahedeen leaders for the presidential elections scheduled for September, indicating he will continue an alliance with them in a future government. His move has dismayed many Afghans who were hoping that the nation’s first democratic elections would herald an end to the power of the warlords, who have dominated politics for the past decade.
Read More...The road from the village of Ozbin Khol is safe no longer. The eight aid workers packed into a Toyota LandCruiser were keen to get to their destination, Sarobi, before nightfall. But a punctured tire stopped them. Two young men, carrying Kalashnikovs, their faces covered by keffayahs, came out of the darkness, lined up the passengers and opened fire, killing five.
Read More...The growing instability in Afghanistan — a country under virtual military occupation by U.S. and other western forces — has been overshadowed by news of the escalating violence, torture and killings in U.S.-administered Iraq. But analysts who closely monitor the region say security in Afghanistan remains “tenuous” and “has shown no signs of improvement.” And they predict the explosive situation there might soon turn out to be as bad as Iraq – but on a smaller scale.
Read More...Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan, a new book by Melody Ermachild Chavis
March 1, 2004
“A vivid celebration of a contemporary heroine.” – Kirkus Reviews
Click here to purchase a copy of the book.
“This is a book not only to read but to urge others to read. It provides, in its devastating way, a measure of hope. Another way of preventing violence exists: not through repression but through the expansion of civil liberties.” — Susan Griffin, LA Times Review
Read More...As Afghanistan continues to receive the brunt of US military attention in the post-September 11th world, the first Afghan Loya Jirga in decades will meet for six days in June 2002. AWM Co-Directors Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls recently published this analysis of what’s expected.
Read More...This Is What We Believe In: OC punk label raises funds to help Afghan women
June 1, 2002
Sept. 11 made punk rock put its militancy where its mouth is: after America entered a permanent yellow alert, criticizing the government wasn’t quite so simple. Heela Naqshband even remembers punk kids wondering if they should turn their flag patches upside-down—which for every not-punk American means right-side up.
But Afghan-born Naqshband and her husband, Shahab Zargari, think progressive kids need to stick to their politics now more than ever. So Naqshband and Zargari—who, with about a half-dozen friends, run a punk label called Geykido Comet Records out of a Fullerton apartment—stepped in to help the sometimes-overlooked victims of the war on terrorism. Their recent compilation CD, Dropping Food on Their Heads Is Not Enough, is a fund-raiser for both the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and the Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM).
Read More...Chain of International Violence in Afghanistan, an Interview with RAWA’s Tahmeena Faryal
February 2, 2002
On November 12, Sonali Kolhatkar, the vice president of the Afghan Women’s Mission, interviewed Tahmeena Faryal, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan during Tahmeena’s visit to the United States.
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For many Afghan women, their struggle against the Taliban has been paid for out of a coffeehouse in Old Town Pasadena. Step upstairs at the Zona Rosa Cafe, and you’ll enter the de facto office of the Afghan Women’s Mission. The AWM is the money-managing intermediary of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), the much-in-the-news underground human rights group now based in Pakistan
“Today, in Afghanistan… thousands of women, they’ve had to go to beggary or into prostitution… it’s not a normal country anymore… for people and also for women in particular it’s a real hell.” — Sahar Saba, RAWA
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So Cal Events |
Events and Announcements
- Malalai Joya’s Defense Committee’s Campaign for Internally Displaced Afghans
- Malalai Joya Sends a Message to the World
- RAWA Responds to the Taliban Takeover
- AWM Thanks the Lisa Akbari Foundation
- One Young Man’s Holiday Wish: Raise Funds for RAWA
- RAWA Statement on 12th Anniversary of US War
>> Read More...
Afghanistan News Wire
- Malalai Joya Sends a Message to the World
- 20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit
- Malalai Joya on Democracy Now!
- Girls School in Danger of Closing
- Huffington Post: A Woman Among Warlords: An Interview With Malalai Joya
- The Cost of Courage: Malalai Joya’s Life-Risking Activism
>> Read More...
Press Releases
- Tenth Anniversary of Afghanistan War: RAWA Member Available for Interviews
- U.S. Responds to Broad Public Campaign, Grants Malalai Joya Visa!
- US government denies entry visa to Afghan women’s rights activist and author Malalai Joya
- Leading Afghan Feminist Urges Immediate end to U.S. War
- A Woman Among Warlords – Malalai Joya Available for Interviews
- Afghan Women’s Rights Activist Calls for an End to US Occupation
>> Read More...