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17 November 2001

State Department Report: The Taliban's War Against Women

(Paper describes brutal treatment of women under Taliban rule) (4100)
Following is the text of a State Department paper released November 17
on the treatment of Afghan women under the Taliban regime:
(begin text)
THE TALIBAN'S WAR AGAINST WOMEN
Executive Summary
Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected
under law and increasingly afforded rights in Afghan society. There
was a mood of tolerance and openness as the country began moving
toward democracy. Women were making important contributions to
national development. In 1977, they comprised over 15 percent of
Afghanistan's highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the
early 1990s 70 percent of schoolteachers, 50 percent of government
workers and 40 percent of doctors in Kabul were women. These
professional women provide a pool of talent and expertise that will be
needed in the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The Taliban regime began its systematic repression of all sectors of
the population soon after taking control of Afghanistan's capital
Kabul in 1996. The Taliban's war against women, however, is
particularly appalling. The Taliban has prohibited schooling for girls
over the age of eight, shut down the women's university, and forced
women to quit their jobs. It has restricted access to medical care for
women, brutally enforced a restrictive dress code, and limited the
ability of women to move about freely. The Taliban has stripped a
society in desperate need of trained professionals of half its assets.
With one of the world's worst human rights records, the Taliban has
perpetrated egregious acts of violence against women, including rape,
abduction, and forced marriage. As many as 50,000 widows, who have
lost husbands and other male relatives in the course of Afghanistan's
long civil war, have been forced to sell all of their possessions and
beg in the streets, or worse, to provide for themselves and their
families.
Islam has a tradition of protecting the rights of women and children.
Despite Taliban claims that it is acting in the best interests of
women, the truth is that the Taliban regime has cruelly reduced women
and girls to poverty, poor health, and illiteracy -- conditions that
are not in conformity with the treatment of women in the Muslim world
or with the tenets of Islam.
Throughout the Muslim world, women fill countless positions as
doctors, teachers, journalists, judges, business people, diplomats,
and other professionals. The large and increasing number of women
students, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, ensures that in the years
to come, women will continue to make an important contribution to the
development of their societies.
Islam is a religion that respects women and humanity. The Taliban
respects neither.
The United States government, which has been the largest individual
national donor to Afghan humanitarian assistance efforts, believes the
Taliban's oppression of women must come to an end. The U.S. government
supports a broad-based government representative of all the Afghan
people and which includes women in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Only
Afghans can determine the future government of their country. And
Afghan women should have the opportunity to play a role in that
future.
THE TALIBAN'S WAR AGAINST WOMEN
The day was much like any other. For the young Afghan mother, the only
difference was that her child was feverish and had been for some time
and needed to see a doctor. But simple tasks in Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan today are not that easy.
The mother was alone and the doctor was across town. She had no male
relative to escort her. To ask another man to do so would be to risk
severe punishment. To go on her own meant that she would risk
flogging.
Because she loved her child, she had no choice. Donning the tent-like
burqa as Taliban law required, she set out, cradling her child in her
arms. She shouldn't have.
As they approached the market, she was spotted by a teenage Taliban
guard who tried to stop her. Intent on saving her child, the mother
ignored him, hoping that he would ignore her. He didn't. Instead he
raised his weapon and shot her repeatedly. Both mother and child fell
to the ground. They survived because bystanders in the market
intervened to save them. The young Taliban guard was unrepentent --
fully supported by the regime. The woman should not have been out
alone.
This mother was just another casualty in the Taliban war on
Afghanistan's women, a war that began five years ago when the Taliban
seized control of Kabul.
Abuses of an Oppressive Regime
Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected
under law and increasingly afforded rights in Afghan society. Women
received the right to vote in the 1920s; and as early as the 1960s,
the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women. There was a
mood of tolerance and openness as the country began moving toward
democracy. Women were making important contributions to national
development. In 1977, women comprised over 15 percent of Afghanistan's
highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the early 1990s 70
percent of schoolteachers, 50 percent of government workers and
university students, and 40 percent of doctors in Kabul were women.
Afghan women had been active in humanitarian relief organizations
until the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on their ability to
work. These professional women provide a pool of talent and expertise
that will be needed in the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan.
Islam has a tradition of protecting the rights of women and children.
In fact, Islam has specific provisions which define the rights of
women in areas such as marriage, divorce, and property rights. The
Taliban's version of Islam is not supported by the world's Muslims.
Although the Taliban claimed that it was acting in the best interests
of women, the truth is that the Taliban regime cruelly reduced women
and girls to poverty, worsened their health, and deprived them of
their right to an education, and many times the right to practice
their religion. The Taliban is out of step with the Muslim world and
with Islam.
Afghanistan under the Taliban had one of the worst human rights
records in the world. The regime systematically repressed all sectors
of the population and denied even the most basic individual rights.
Yet the Taliban's war against women was particularly appalling.
"Women are imprisoned in their homes, and are denied access to basic
health care and education. Food sent to help starving people is stolen
by their leaders. The religious monuments of other faiths are
destroyed. Children are forbidden to fly kites, or sing songs... A
girl of seven is beaten for wearing white shoes."
--President George W. Bush, Remarks to the Warsaw Conference on
Combating Terrorism, November 6, 2001
The Taliban first became prominent in 1994 and took over the Afghan
capital, Kabul, in 1996. The takeover followed over twenty years of
civil war and political instability. Initially, some hoped that the
Taliban would provide stability to the country. However, it soon
imposed a strict and oppressive order based on its misinterpretation
of Islamic law.
The assault on the status of women began immediately after the Taliban
took power in Kabul. The Taliban closed the women's university and
forced nearly all women to quit their jobs, closing down an important
source of talent and expertise for the country. It restricted access
to medical care for women, brutally enforced a restrictive dress code,
and limited the ability of women to move about the city.
The Taliban perpetrated egregious acts of violence against women,
including rape, abduction, and forced marriage. Some families resorted
to sending their daughters to Pakistan or Iran to protect them.
Afghan women living under the Taliban virtually had the world of work
closed to them. Forced to quit their jobs as teachers, doctors,
nurses, and clerical workers when the Taliban took over, women could
work only in very limited circumstances. A tremendous asset was lost
to a society that desperately needed trained professionals.
As many as 50,000 women, who had lost husbands and other male
relatives during Afghanistan's long civil war, had no source of
income. Many were reduced to selling all of their possessions and
begging in the streets, or worse, to feed their families.
Denied Education and Health Care
Restricting women's access to work is an attack on women today.
Eliminating women's access to education is an assault on women
tomorrow.
The Taliban ended, for all practical purposes, education for girls.
Since 1998, girls over the age of eight have been prohibited from
attending school. Home schooling, while sometimes tolerated, was more
often repressed. Last year, the Taliban jailed and then deported a
female foreign aid worker who had promoted home-based work for women
and home schools for girls. The Taliban prohibited women from studying
at Kabul University.
"The Taliban has clamped down on knowledge and ignorance is ruling
instead."
--Sadriqa, a 22-year-old woman in Kabul
As a result of these measures, the Taliban was ensuring that women
would continue to sink deeper into poverty and deprivation, thereby
guaranteeing that tomorrow's women would have none of the skills
needed to function in a modern society.
Under Taliban rule, women were given only the most rudimentary access
to health care and medical care, thereby endangering the health of
women, and in turn, their families. In most hospitals, male physicians
could only examine a female patient if she were fully clothed, ruling
out the possibility of meaningful diagnosis and treatment.
These Taliban regulations led to a lack of adequate medical care for
women and contributed to increased suffering and higher mortality
rates. Afghanistan has the world's second worst rate of maternal death
during childbirth. About 16 out of every 100 women die giving birth.
Inadequate medical care for women also meant poor medical care and a
high mortality rate for Afghan children. Afghanistan has one of the
world's highest rates of infant and child mortality. According to
UNICEF, 165 of every 1000 babies die before their first birthday.
Further hampering health, the Taliban destroyed public education
posters and other health information. This left many women, in a
society already plagued by massive illiteracy, without basic health
care information.
In May 2001, the Taliban raided and temporarily closed a
foreign-funded hospital in Kabul because male and female staff
allegedly mixed in the dining room and operating wards. It is
significant to note that approximately 70 percent of health services
had been provided by international relief organizations -- further
highlighting the Taliban's general disregard for the welfare of the
Afghan people.
"The life of Afghan women is so bad. We are locked at home and cannot
see the sun."
--Najeeba, a 35-year-old widow in Kabul
The Taliban also required that windows of houses be painted over to
prevent outsiders from possibly seeing women inside homes, further
isolating women who once led productive lives and contributing to a
rise in mental health problems. Physicians for Human Rights reports
high rates of depression and suicide among Afghan women. One European
physician reported many cases of burns in the esophagus as the result
of women swallowing battery acid or household cleaners -- a cheap, if
painful, method of suicide.
Fettered by Restrictions on Movement
In urban areas, the Taliban brutally enforced a dress code that
required women to be covered under a burqa -- a voluminous, tent-like
full-body outer-garment that covers them from head to toe. One
Anglo-Afghan journalist reported that the burqa's veil is so thick
that the wearer finds it difficult to breathe; the small mesh panel
permitted for seeing allows such limited vision that even crossing the
street safely is difficult.
While the burqa existed prior to the Taliban, its use was not
required. As elsewhere in the Muslim world and the United States,
women chose to use the burqa as a matter of individual religious or
personal preference. In Afghanistan, however, the Taliban enforced the
wearing of the burqa with threats, fines, and on-the-spot beatings.
Even the accidental showing of the feet or ankles was severely
punished. No exceptions were allowed. One woman who became violently
carsick was not permitted to take off the garment. When paying for
food in the market, a woman's hand could not show when handing over
money or receiving the purchase. Even girls as young as eight or nine
years old were expected to wear the burqa.
"The fate of women in Afghanistan is infamous and intolerable. The
burqa that imprisons them is a cloth prison, but it is above all a
moral prison. The torture imposed on little girls who dare to show
their ankles or their polished nails is appalling. It is unacceptable
and insupportable."
--King Mohammed VI of Morocco
The burqa is not only a physical and psychological burden on some
Afghan women, it is a significant economic burden as well. Many women
cannot afford the cost of one. In some cases, whole neighborhoods
share a single garment, and women must wait days for their turn to go
out. For disabled women who need a prosthesis or other aid to walk,
the required wearing of the burqa makes them virtually homebound if
they cannot get the burqa over the prosthesis or other aid, or use the
device effectively when wearing the burqa.
Restrictions on clothing are matched with other limitations on
personal adornment. Makeup and nail polish were prohibited. White
socks were also prohibited, as were shoes that make noise as it had
been deemed that women should walk silently.
Even when dressed according to the Taliban rules, women were severely
restricted in their movement. Women were permitted to go out only when
accompanied by male relatives or risk Taliban beatings. Women could
not use public taxis without accompanying male relatives, and taxi
drivers risked losing their licenses or beatings if they took
unescorted female passengers. Women could only use special buses set
aside for their use, and these buses had their windows draped with
thick curtains so that no one on the street could see the women
passengers.
One woman who was caught with an unrelated man in the street was
publicly flogged with a hundred lashes, in a stadium full of people.
She was lucky. If she had been married, and found with an unrelated
male, the punishment would have been death by stoning. Such is the
Taliban's perversion of justice, which also includes swift summary
trials, public amputations and executions.
Violation of Basic Rights
The Taliban claimed it was trying to ensure a society in which women
had a safe and dignified role. But the facts show the opposite. Women
were stripped of their dignity under the Taliban. They were made
unable to support their families. Girls were deprived of basic health
care and of any semblance of schooling. They were even deprived of
their childhood under a regime that took away their songs, their
dolls, and their stuffed animals -- all banned by the Taliban.
The Amman Declaration (1996) of the World Health Organization cites
strong authority within Islamic law and traditions that support the
right to education for both girls and boys as well as the right to
earn a living and participate in public life.
Indeed, the Taliban's discriminatory policies violate many of the
basic principles of international human rights law. These rights
include the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly,
the right to work, the right to education, freedom of movement and the
right to health care. What is more, as Human Rights Watch has noted,
"the discrimination [that Afghan women face] is cumulative and so
overwhelming that it is literally life threatening for many Afghan
women." This assault on the role of women has not been dictated by the
history and social mores of Afghanistan as the Taliban claim.
Nor are the Taliban's restrictions on women in line with the reality
in other Muslim countries. Women are serving as President of Indonesia
and Prime Minister of Bangladesh. There are women government ministers
in Arab countries and in other Muslim countries. Women have the right
to vote in Muslim countries such as Qatar, Iran, and Bahrain.
Throughout the Muslim world, women fill countless positions as
doctors, teachers, journalists, judges, business people, diplomats,
and other professionals.
A large and increasing number of women students ensures that in the
years to come, women will continue to make an important contribution
to the development of their societies. In Saudi Arabia, for example,
more than half the university student body is female. Although Muslim
societies differ among themselves on the status of women and the roles
they should play, Islam is a religion that respects women and
humanity. The Taliban respects neither.
The long years of war and instability in Afghanistan have resulted in
massive numbers of displaced persons internally and in neighboring
countries. There are approximately 1.1 million internally displaced
persons. An estimated 3.5 million Afghans have fled to Pakistan, 1.5
million to Iran and hundreds of thousands more scattered throughout
the border regions. Moreover, Taliban looting of humanitarian relief
organizations contributed to the increased numbers seeking refuge
abroad. Afghan women and children make up the overwhelming majority of
the refugee population dependent on international assistance.
Afghan civil society and community-based activists are working hard to
begin reconstructing their society in refugee camps, in preparation
for the day when they can reclaim and rebuild their own country. Women
have played an important role in these efforts, both in refugee
settlements and -- clandestinely -- in communities in Afghanistan.
These women and men, says Sima Wali, an Afghan woman who directs the
non-profit organization Refugee Women in Development, "have already
demonstrated remarkable leadership and ability. They are our hope for
Afghanistan."
"In Afghanistan ... the disrespect of human rights has acquired
extreme dimensions. Overall, women in Afghanistan are basically not
treated as people.... To overcome this,
one needs to develop specific gender-oriented programs that would
include, primarily and first of all, questions related to proper
education for women."
--Russian President Vladimir Putin
America's Concern
The United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to all
Afghans, including women and girls. The U.S. is the largest individual
national donor to Afghan humanitarian assistance efforts. The United
States has provided over $178 million in humanitarian relief in 2001.
In addition, President Bush announced $320 million more in response to
this crisis. The U.S. government is working closely with international
humanitarian aid organizations to ensure that aid is distributed
fairly and with consideration for the needs of women.
Public concern for Afghan women and girls is growing in the United
States. Numerous non-governmental organizations have studied the
detrimental effects of Taliban policy on women, and have worked hard
to raise public awareness. Writer Mavis Leno, a leading activist on
behalf of Afghan women, recently said, "Everything that constitutes
human rights, but life itself, has been swept away from [Afghan women]
by the Taliban."
The U.S. Congress -- including members of both parties -- realizes
that Afghan women and girls need the support of the international
community. U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison recently introduced the
"Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001." This bill would
authorize U.S. humanitarian aid expenditures on health care and
education for women and children. All thirteen female U.S. senators
are cosponsors of this bill.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have spoken out as well
against Taliban mistreatment of women. The chair of the Congressional
Black Caucus, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, said that Afghan
women today are treated as "subhumans, fit only for household
slavery." California Representative Ed Royce, a member of the
International Relations Committee, said the Taliban has
"institutionalized widespread and systematic gender apartheid."
The Afghan people want, and the U.S. government supports, a
broad-based representative government, which includes women, in
post-Taliban Afghanistan. As Under Secretary for Global Affairs Paula
Dobriansky stated, "We believe any future Afghan government should be
multi-ethnic, representative, and respect human rights, including
those affecting women and girls." Only Afghans can determine the
future government of their country. And Afghan women should have the
right to choose their role in that future.
Today, with Kabul and other Afghan cities liberated from the Taliban,
women are returning to their rightful place in Afghan society -- the
place they and their families choose to have. Schools are preparing to
reopen and women are praying again in mosques. The international
community stands with Afghanistan and with Afghans in reclaiming their
traditions and their rights.
"Afghan society is like a bird with two wings. If one wing is cut off,
then society will not function."
--An Afghan elder, interviewed by Sima Wali of Refugee Women in
Development
"They made me invisible, shrouded and non-being
A shadow, no existence, made silent and unseeing
Denied of freedom, confined to my cage
Tell me how to handle my anger and my rage?"
--From "Look into my World" by Zieba Shorish-Shamley, published on the
50th Anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
The Taliban in their own words...
"It's like having a flower, or a rose. You water it and keep it at
home for yourself, to look at it and smell it. It [a woman] is not
supposed to be taken out of the house to be smelled."
--Syed Ghaisuddin, Taliban Minister of Education, when asked why women
needed to be confined at home
"If we are to ask Afghan women, their problems have been solved." 
--Qudratullah Jamal, Taliban Minister of Culture
"We have enough problems with the education of men, and in those
affairs no one asks us about that."
--Qari Mullah Din Muhammad Hanif, Taliban Minister of Higher Education
"If a woman wants to work away from her home and with men, then that
is not allowed by our religion and our culture. If we force them to do
this they may want to commit suicide."
--Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, Taliban Minister of Justice
"We do not have any immediate plans to give jobs to (women) who have
been laid off. But they can find themselves jobs enjoying their free
lives."
--Moulvi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel, Taliban Minister of Foreign Affairs
And in their people's words...
"Because of the Taliban, Afghanistan has become a jail for women. We
haven't got any human rights. We haven't the right to go outside, to
go to work, to look after our children."
--Faranos Nazir, 34-year old woman in Kabul
"Approximately 80 percent of women and men agreed that women should be
able to move about freely and that the teachings of Islam do not
restrict women's human rights."
--Physicians for Human Rights, "Women's Health and Human Rights in
Afghanistan: A Population-Based Assessment"
"'Indignity is our destination,' says Seema, 30, who used to work at a
health center and now roams the streets in Kabul begging to support
her children."
--Time, November 29, 2000
"When we are together, everyone here is talking about how the Taliban
has destroyed our lives. They won't let us go to school because they
want us to be illiterate like them."
--Nasima, 35-year old Kabul resident
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES ON WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN
The inclusion of non-U.S. government web sites on this page should not
be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE WEB SITES
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Office of Human Rights,
U.S. Department of State
www.state.gov/g/drl/hr 
"International Human Rights Report," Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights
and Labor, Office of Human Rights, U.S. Department of State
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000
"International Religious Freedom Report 2001," Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor, Office of Human Rights, U.S. Department of
State
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
www.state.gov/g/prm
Bureau of South Asian Affairs, Regional Issues: Global Impact of
Terrorism
www.state.gov/p/sa/rt
Office of International Women's Issues, U.S. Department of State 
www.state.gov/g/wi
ADDITIONAL READING
"Women's Health and Human Rights in Afghanistan: A Population-Based
Assessment"
Physicians for Human Rights publication available at
www.phrusa.org/campaigns/afghanistan/Afghan_report.html
"Afghanistan: New War Puts Women's Rights In Peril"
Human Rights Watch publication available at
www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/afghan-women.htm
"Humanity Denied: Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in
Afghanistan"
Human Rights Watch publication available at
www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan3/
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS/NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS  
Afghan Women and Education
www.erols.com/kabultec
Church World Service 
www.churchworldservice.org
Human Rights Watch 
www.hwr.org
International Committee of the Red Cross
www.icrc.org/eng/afghanistan
International Medical Corps 
www.imc-la.com
International Rescue Committee 
www.theirc.org
Mercy Corps International 
www.mercycorps.org
Revolutionary Organization of the Women of Afghanistan
www.rawa.org
Save the Children Fund-United States
www.savethechildren.org
United Nations High Commission on Refugees 
www.unhrc.ch
United Nations, Humanitarian Affairs 
www.un.org/ha
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



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