DATE=12/1/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TALEBAN - WOMEN (L-O)
NUMBER=2-256733
BYLINE=BARBARA SCHOETZAU
DATELINE=NEW YORK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Taleban's treatment of women in
Afghanistan was the subject of an impassioned debate
in New York today (Wednesday). Correspondent Barbara
Schoetzau reports.
TEXT: The Taleban faction - which controls 90 percent
of Afghanistan -- has come under increasing fire from
human rights and women's groups since it emerged as
the most powerful force in war-torn Afghanistan.
T. Kumar of the human rights group Amnesty
International says after 20 years of war and chaos,
everyone in Afghanistan, including the Taleban, is a
victim. But Mr. Kumar says edicts by the Taleban
leadership restricting the rights of women to
education, employment and freedom of movement make it
unique in the world.
//// KUMAR ACT ///
This is the only country where women because of
their gender have been denied education,
employment and freedom of movement. So
Afghanistan stands by itself as the champion of
having tens of thousands of prisoners of
conscience.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Kumar says the Taleban leadership should rescind
regulations that retrict women. But Laili Helms, an
Afghan-American activist, says she found a very
different situation when she visited Afghanistan last
February than the one often presented by human rights
groups and the media.
//// HELMS ACT ////
I spent about two weeks going around four
provinces and in Kabul meeting with women
doctors, nurses, teachers, administrators, who
were working. So it is false that women are not
allowed to work. I have hours of videotapes of
women walking around Kabul without male
companions, with and without the burka (face
cover). So it is false that women are not
allowed out without male companions. I spent
lots of time speaking to women who teach home
schools and also spoke with the women who are
participating in the medical school. Right now
there are 35 women attending the medical school
in Kabul. So it is not true that the right of
education has been taken away from women.
//// END ACT ////
Ms. Helms says that women's and human rights groups
criticizing the Taleban are actually hurting Afghan
women by diminishing their prospects for much-needed
Western economic aid.
//// HELMS ACT ////
I find it extremely obnoxious that all of a
sudden when the country has finally found peace
the international community found religion on
the issue of women in Afghanistan. Where were
these voices when the women were being raped?
Where were these voices when the women were
being tortured in prison under the communists?
//// END ACT ///
Ms. Helms says Afghanistan has now been invaded by
what she calls "gender wars" that do nothing to help
Afghan women feed and educate their children. But
Amnesty International's T. Kumar says it is not
outsiders who have created a gender war.
//// KUMAR ACT ////
Do not think that we jumped up immediately after
the Taleban came up (took over) and began waging
this gender war. The gender war is not being
waged by human rights or feminist groups. It is
purely being waged by the Taleban. The edicts,
the rules were passed when the Taleban came to
power. They closed all the girls' schools. They
banned women from employment. They restricted
women's movement.
/// END ACT ///
The debate was sponsored by the Women's Foreign Policy
Group, a private Washington organization that often
hosts events on international topics in New
York.(Signed)
NEB/NYC/bjs/LSF/PT
01-Dec-1999 18:12 PM EDT (01-Dec-1999 2312 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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