Afghan women recall horror of life under Taliban rulers

By yanagawa

Maryam and Saba talking to a group of concerned Japanese. RAWA photo More photos

Two members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which campaigns for democracy and women's rights in Afghanistan, spoke of the horror of two decades of war and government repression during a recent visit to Osaka.

RAWA was established two years before Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979. It offers education, medical help and other social services to Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan. The organization also helps refugees trace missing relatives and offers refuge in Pakistan for other families who have been victimized by Afghan authorities.

Through interviews with those refugees, RAWA has compiled evidence of widespread human rights abuses committed by the Taliban, the nation's Islamic fundamentalist rulers.

Sahara Saba, who is in her late 20s, said the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 had deprived the country of a normal political, economic and cultural life.

After the collapse of the Soviet puppet regime in 1992, several fundamentalist groups backed by neighboring countries became embroiled in a religiously motivated civil war.

They excused the ensuing death and destruction by claiming they were simply trying to protect their ethnic identity, Saba said. By 1996, however, much of Afghanistan's financial assets had been taken out of the country, and its cultural ones destroyed.

Saba said countless women were abducted, raped and killed by fundamentalist during the four-year civil war: "They didn't even stop at raping a 70-year-old woman or a 6-year-old girl."

In 1994, the Taliban, then a student movement, whose members had undergone military training in Pakistan, joined the fighting, capturing Kabul in September 1996 and establishing a government.

Since then, Taliban rulers have suppressed democracy and human rights, with women and children the most frequent victims. Women, for example, are not allowed to leave their homes unaccompanied, receive an education or get a job, Saba said.

Unemployment in Afghanistan is estimated at 80 percent, she said, and most people struggle to survive. Even the most trivial violation of religious laws is met with fierce retribution. A sports stadium in Kabul is often used for public floggings and executions. Women and children are not permitted to consult doctors, so many people are dying needlessly, Saba said.

There are no schools, movie theaters or other forms of recreation, which were banned by the Taliban because they were judged to encourage antifundamentalist sentiment. More than 50,000 war widows live in Kabul alone.

"There is no hope for change" as long as the Taliban remain in power, she said.

Fellow RAWA member Maryam recalled the humiliation and tragedy she had suffered at the hands of fundamentalists during the civil war.

One night in September 1993, Maryam, the mother of five children, heard a knock at the door of her home.

When she opened the door, about 10 fundamentalist militiamen stormed into the house, demanding that her husband hand over their money and valuables. When her husband, a teacher, tried to explain that the family owned nothing of value, he was brutally beaten.

Maryam begged neighbors to help, and was in turn beaten unconscious by the militia. When she came to about five hours later, her husband had disappeared.

When she visited a militia camp to find out what had happened to him, she was again beaten and sworn at.

She moved to Pakistan with the rest of her family in 1995, still unaware of her husband's fate.

A year later, after hearing that the Taliban had taken control of Kabul, Maryam decided to return to Afghanistan, believing things would change for the better. Instead, she and her family suffered more torment.

In December 1997, Taliban guards visited her home and demanded that she hand over weapons. After she told them she was a war widow and did not own any weapons, they said they would take her 17-year-old daughter instead.

Maryam's protests were followed by another beating, this time at gunpoint. By the time she recovered consciousness two hours later, her daughter had gone.

Two days later, her daughter returned, but would not speak for a few days. "Just by looking at her, I knew what they must have done to her," Maryam said. "I just cried and screamed." When her daughter finally spoke, she begged her mother to kill her.

A few months later, the family fled to a refugee camp in Pakistan, where they were looked after by members of RAWA. Maryam is now learning to read at a school run by the organization.

She said the Taliban and other fundamentalist groups should be brought to justice in an international court.

From: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20001227wo43.htm

FOCUS: Afghan woman tells of torment, seeks int'l support

TOKYO, Jan. 12 (Kyodo) A woman from Afghanistan who experienced the violent excesses of her country's fundamentalist Islamic regime at first hand and was forced to take refuge in Pakistan to escape them has told of the torment she experienced and is seeking international support for some 3 million similar Afghan refugees.

The 38-year-old woman, who used the pseudonym ''Maryam'' for her own security, in a recent interview with Kyodo News told of how she ended up in a refugee camp in Pakistan with her five children aged between 10 and 20 after her husband was abducted by Islamic fundamentalists in 1993.

Maryam visited Japan last month to testify in Tokyo at the one-day Public Hearing on Crimes Against Women in Recent Wars and Conflicts, an event sponsored by nongovernmental organizations supporting oppressed women around the world.

The woman's husband, a teacher, was abducted in July 1993 when a group of armed fundamentalists broke into the family's home in Kabul demanding money, jewelry and other valuables.

''They started abusing and beating my husband on his back and belly with the butts of their guns. I cried and begged them to leave us alone...They did not listen to me and started beating me up as well. They kicked and punched me so fiercely that I fell unconscious to the point of death,'' she said at the public hearing.

While she was unconscious the men took her husband away, leaving the crying children behind. ''At that moment, my entire world was turned upside down and I almost lost all hope for my life and my children,'' she said.

Maryam does not believe the attack was political, related to the factional conflicts that were tearing Afghanistan apart at that time, because she and her family were not politically involved. Rather it was an indiscriminate attack such as was rampant in the country.

Following the attack, the family left Afghanistan for a Pakistani refugee camp because Maryam did not have a source of income.

They returned home in 1996 after the Taliban came to power and Maryam heard peace and security had been restored to her country.

Maryam said the situation of Afghani women has worsened under the fundamentalist Taliban regime. Women suffer even more abuse, both verbal and physical in nature, including rape, gang rape, insults and forced marriage, and they cannot attend school or leave their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative, even to visit the doctor.

''The Taliban men also beat women in public for exposing their faces or their ankles,'' she said at the hearing.

In December 1997, some armed Taliban men broke into the family's home in Kabul and demanded Maryam's 17-year-old eldest daughter marry one of them.

''I refused, and tot to look depressed so as to give hope to her children.

More than 1.5 million Afghan refugees are believed to be living in Pakistan, most of them in severe poverty, according to support organizations.

Tormented Afghan woman seeks aid for refugees

A woman from Afghanistan who was forced to take refuge in Pakistan to escape from the violence of armed Islamic fundamentalists has visited Japan to tell of the torment she experienced.

The 38-year-old woman, who used the pseudonym "Maryam" for her own security, sought international support for some 3 million similar Afghan refugees in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

Maryam visited Japan last month to testify in Tokyo at the one-day Public Hearing on Crimes Against Women in Recent Wars and Conflicts, an event sponsored by nongovernmental organizations that support oppressed women around the world.

She told the hearing of how she ended up in a refugee camp in Pakistan with her five children, aged between 10 and 20, after her husband was taken away by Islamic fundamentalists in July 1993.

The husband, a teacher, was abducted when a group of armed fundamentalists broke into the family's home in Kabul demanding money, jewelry and other valuables.

"They started abusing and beating my husband on his back and belly with the butts of their guns," she said. "I cried and begged them to leave us alone. . . . They did not listen to me and started beating me up as well. They kicked and punched me so fiercely that I fell unconscious to the point of death."

While Maryam was unconscious the men took her husband away, leaving the crying children behind. "At that moment, my entire world was turned upside down and I almost lost all hope for my life and my children."

It was the last time Maryam saw her husband, and she does not know of his fate.

She does not believe the attack was related to the factional conflicts that were tearing Afghanistan apart at that time, because she and her family were not politically involved. Rather, it was the type of indiscriminate attack that was rampant in the country.

Following the attack, the family left Afghanistan for a Pakistani refugee camp because Maryam did not have a source of income.

They returned home in 1996 after the Taliban came to power and Maryam heard peace and security had been restored to her country.

Maryam said the situation of Afghan women has worsened under the fundamentalist Taliban regime. Women suffer more abuse, both verbally and physically, including rape and forced marriage, and they cannot attend school or leave their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative, even to visit the doctor.

"The Taliban men also beat women in public for exposing their faces or their ankles," she said at the hearing.

In December 1997, some armed Taliban men broke into the family's home in Kabul and demanded Maryam's 17-year-old eldest daughter marry one of them.

"I refused, and they threatened to conduct the marriage at gunpoint," she said. "When I did not comply with their demand, one of them dragged my daughter and took her away. My cries and loud protests were in vain."

Two days later, a group of Taliban men dropped her daughter in front of the family's house, she said.

"For a few days, she was not able to speak a word. From her torn clothes and bruised body I realized that my daughter was raped. Finally, she spoke. Her first words were 'Mother, kill me. I am not worth living. They gang-raped me. They dishonored me,' " Maryam said.

The daughter threatened to commit suicide if her mother didn't kill her, she said.

About a year later, the family moved to a refugee camp in northern Pakistan. Maryam said the camp lacked water facilities and heaters, and some 3,000 people were forced to beg on the street and collect garbage to feed themselves.

Maryam now earns a living by weaving carpets with support from a civic organization, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

Her daughter hasn't been the same since she was raped, she said.

Even though Maryam needs surgery to heal wounds she suffered during the multiple attacks on her, she has no money for treatment, she said.

She said she tries not to look depressed so as to give hope to her children. More than 1.5 million Afghan refugees are believed to be living in Pakistan, most of them in severe poverty, according to support organizations.

The Web site of Maryam's support group is http://www.homepage2.nifty.com/WATAN/

From: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010118b6.htm