For Afghan Women, by Afghan Women

Established in Kabul in 1977, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is an organization that fights for human rights and social justice. On its Web site (www.rawa.org), RAWA documents its activities both in Afghanistan and in the refugee camps in Pakistan. The site also details Taliban atrocities against Afghans, with photographs of beatings, hangings and amputations. There are still pictures and a movie clip of the public execution of a woman in the Kabul stadium, captured on videotape by RAWA members using a camera smuggled in under a burqa.

According to RAWA, much of its work in Afghanistan is conducted underground. Facing a literacy rate of about 4 percent among women -- a rate exacerbated by the exodus of educated women over the past 20 years -- the group has been supporting home-based schooling. It also encourages small-scale projects for women, such as chicken farming and rug making, since one of the enduring hardships of civil strife is the suffering of war widows who cannot support their families. The group arranges secret bimonthly meetings of women to discuss issues such as democracy and human rights.

In Pakistan, RAWA members try to provide education for refugee children as well as literacy courses and some health care for women. They also focus on spreading their message to human rights and media organizations.

-- Outlook staff