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New York-More than 500 feminists, anti-war activists and leftists jammed
Judson Church on Oct. 28 to hear and welcome Tahmeena Faryal of the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Faryal
received a standing ovation after describing RAWA's courageous work to
improve the horrible conditions that girls and women live under in
Afghanistan.
RAWA illegally educates Afghan girls and women, and provides medical care
and aid to them in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, where many refugees of
Afghan wars reside. Faryal also stressed that RAWA is a political
organization. Today it opposes the U.S. bombing of its country, and the
Islamic fundamentalism of both the Taliban government and the U.S.-backed
Northern Alliance. Earlier, it fought the decade-long Soviet occupation of
their country.
The solidarity meeting for RAWA was organized on short notice by the New
York News and Letters Committee. Although there was little
publicity--mostly e-mail announcements and word of mouth-the sanctuary of
Judson Church was filled to more than capacity. Dozens of people had to be
turned away. The overflow crowd was proof of the intense interest in
Afghanistan since Sept. 11, and of people's eagerness to try to figure out
what to do to prevent more killing.
People came to the meeting from as far away as Boston and Albany. Noted
feminist writers Kate Millet, Phyllis Chessler, Jessica Neuwirth, and Ellen
Willis were in attendance. There were many young feminists, including many
of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent.
Billed as "The Other America Welcomes the Other Afghanistan," the
meeting
was an attempt to establish a people-to-people, revolutionary ground for
the new anti-war movement here. The audience's enormous enthusiasm for the
ideas expressed by Faryal, and support for those of the News and Letters
speaker, Anne Jaclard, indicate that the meeting may have some meaning for
the future of the anti-war movement. The 23 co-sponsors of the meeting
included the two new anti-war coalitions that have sprung up in New York
since Sept. 11, as well as Direct Action Network, NOW-NYC, a new support
group called Women for Afghan Women, Women in Black-N.Y., the Brecht Forum and
its Hegel class, groups of South Asian women, artists, and activists,
Anjoman Azadi (Iranian Marxist-Humanists in exile), Theater of the
Oppressed Laboratory, and more.
Anne Jaclard issued a welcome, calling this international solidarity
meeting historic because its U.S. and Afghan participants had come together
to oppose their own governments, just two miles from the World Trade Center
and less than two months after the terrorist attack. She noted that some
people had asked the meaning of "the other America" and "the
other
Afghanistan" in the title of the meeting. "Other," she explained,
refers to
the two worlds within each country, the world of the rulers and that of
ordinary people, whose aspirations for individual freedom, safety and a
whole new way of life are shared across boundaries, and form the impetus
for global change.
"RAWA's work means not only hope for social revolution in
Afghanistan,"
Jaclard continued, "but also gives hope to women everywhere who are
struggling to redefine our relation to society, to each other and to
ourselves-to become whole human beings. RAWA's idea of Women's Liberation
can inspire other 'others,' the second world within each country, including
the people of the U.S."
Tahmeena Faryal began by expressing RAWA's sorrow over the Sept. 11 deaths,
and described her country's grief during the past 22 years. Afghanistan has been
at war since the Russians invaded in 1979; the Russians killed two
million people before being driven out in 1989. But "anti-democratic,
misogynist, terroristic fundamentalists" then took over the country, backed
by the U.S. and other Western nations. 'They committed crimes unprecedented
in modern history," she said, including many rapes and abductions of women.
The Taliban, who gained control of the country in 1996, imposed even more
restrictions on women and men, said Faryal. Women were driven out of all
jobs and schools, and forbidden to leave their homes except when completely
covered up and accompanied by a male relative.
Faryal said RAWA had anticipated that something like Sept. 11 would happen
when the fundamentalists turned against those countries like the U.S. that
had formerly backed them, until the outside powers could no longer control
them.
RAWA began in 1987, and remains the only women's political organization in
the country, according to Faryal. It operates completely underground. It
provides health care that is otherwise non-existent for women. With the
economy in ruins, the average life span has been reduced to 43, and the
infant mortality rate is the highest in the world. RAWA also establishes
small handicraft centers that employ widows, and supplies money to
impoverished families who would otherwise survive only by what their
children can scavenge in garbage dumps. For these 'children of garbage,"
Faryal said, many only six or seven years old, just having a notebook and
pencil is usually only a dream.
Responding to questions, Faryal said that RAWA survives through the
contributions of individuals. Having "revolution" in its name scares
away
most sources of funding. RAWA welcomes support from all organizations that
oppose both the Taliban and the other fundamentalists, such as those now
being touted by the U.S. She explained that none of the fundamentalists
have popular support. RAWA calls for a democratic secular state. If other
countries stopped funding the fundamentalists, Faryal said, they would fall
at once.
-N.Y. News and Letters Committee Members
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