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News and Updates
Much has happened since the Russians left. In some
ways, Afghanistan has slid a thousand years back into the past.
In the last month, I've received letters from RAWA,
the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Something is
very wrong over there, they say. RAWA has requested that I write a second
novel on Afghanistan, this one to show the brutal and inhumane treatment
of women by the Taliban and the fundamentalists presently controlling the
country. The treatment of women in most Muslim countries is dismal. In
Afghanistan, it is much worse.
Incredible as is sounds, there was talk a few years
ago by the Afghan intelligentsia of asking the Russians to come back! At
least under the Russians, females went to school, attended and taught at
universities. They were doctors, lawyers, and--to some men's complete
dismay--politicians. Now there's a whole generation of little girls
growing up who cannot read or write and who can only count on their
fingers. Females cannot work. They cannot leave their house unless
accompanied by a male relative, and they must be covered from head to toe
when they do.
When the Russians left, the Fundamentalists came in
and then the Taliban, who now control most of the country. Their
interpretation of religious laws, Islamic scholars say, is a thousand
years out of touch.
Go see these brave ladies
http://www.rawa@rawa.org and perhaps sign their petition to the United
Nations and Congress asking for a resolution on human rights and democracy
in Afghanistan. Prominent women all over the world have signed it.
Y. L. H.
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