Fund RAWA

Taliban, Karzai-led narco state run by war criminals, what's the f'ing difference - not bloody much.  Still dirt poor, still grotesquely misogynist.  Women still chattel.   How many lives, how many years, how many billions of dollars so far, and for this:

The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse - a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

Women's rights activists scheduled a protest Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters - both men and women - who shouted down the women's chants.

Some picked up gravel and stones and threw them at the women, while others shouted "Death to the slaves of the Christians!" Female police held hands around the group to create a protective barrier.

I don't know why of all atrocities going on in the world, the plight of Afghanistan's women breaks my heart more than anything.  I can barely get through a story like this one without weeping out of helplessness and anger: 

A provincial official known for fighting for women's rights in Afghanistan was gunned down in the southern part of the country on Sunday, officials said.

Gunmen killed Sitara Achakzai outside her home in Kandahar city and then drove off, said Matiullah Khan Qateh, police chief of Kandahar province.

We are hosting a foo-foo frivilous feminist blog awards here, and Afghani women are being stoned for daring to protest against a law binding Shi'ite women to their homes, where they are for all intents and purposes, captive sex slaves.  CAN YOU FUCKING IMAGINE?!? Having to ask your husband for permission to leave the house?  Being forced to submit to sex with whether you want to or not?  Well yanno, even without this law, that's what life is like for most women in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.  An unimagineable nightmare, wouldn't you agree?  h/t to mattt for the link

Judging by the diplomatic brouhaha, the most inflammatory provision of the law requires a wife to satisfy her husband’s sexual desires, and mandates that a husband has a right to demand sex at least once every four nights. This has led to its being dubbed “the rape law” by media outlets around the world.

Pakzad smiles indulgently at the fuss. The reality is that no Afghan woman, Shi’ia or Sunni, has the right to object to her husband’s advances. The international outcry, while well meaning, misses the point: It is not a single law that is the problem, it is the overall status of women.

“Our law does not recognize rape within marriage,” she said. “The moment a woman is married, her husband is authorized to do whatever he wants.”

snip

Most women in Afghanistan still face severe limitations in their personal lives. More than 50 percent of girls are married before they reach the legal age of 16, domestic violence is prevalent, and, especially in the conservative south, women cannot leave the house without permission from a male family member.

I say it again.  Can you fucking imagine having to live your life like this?   Going to a political protest and being surrounded and pelted with rocks, all because you want some degree of bodily autonomy? 

Naturally, the IR of A has it's self-hating women, too, just like we have here. 

"We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan," said 24-year-old Mariam Sajadi.

Sajadi is engaged, and said she plans to ask her husband's permission to leave the house as put forth in the law. She said other controversial articles - such as one giving the husband the right to demand sex from his wife every fourth day - have been misinterpreted by westerners who are anti-Islam.

Whoa, engaged at 24? Only girl in the 'hood whose dad didn't sell them at 15 to pay off a gambling debt?  Your life expectancy is only 44 after all.  Look, Mariam, here's how it works.  If you want to ask your husband for permission to leave your home, that is super fantastic for you!  Go for it.  If you will to submit to his "needs" regardless of whether you actually want to or not, wahoo!  Ain't he a lucky feller.    But see, you wanting to make ALL OTHER WOMEN submit to that horrific BULLSHIT and hateful treatment, that's where we disagree.  Nobody wants to stop you from submitting, as an adult, to your husband.  I could not care less, really, if you never leave your house again.   But other women want something different.  Like, NOT being a slave to some toothless, abusive, gross old-ass man.  WHY do you have such a problem with that? 

Ohhhhhh shit sorry, went on a little rant there.  I do have a point and I'll get to it now.  These cultural attitudes are not going to be changed by force by an occupying military.  Maybe if the women were armed, they could violently force their own agenda,  but cultural change won't happen because the US sends more troops.   Afghani women need your help to sow the seeds of change.

Consider these facts:

*  Every 30 minutes, an Afghan woman dies during childbirth
* 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate
* 30 percent of girls have access to education in Afghanistan
* 1 in every 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence
* 44 years is the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan
* 70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages in Afghanistan

There are real, tangible ways you can help.   If you scroll down to the bottom of the page here at ACR, you'll see the badge for RAWA - The Revolutionary Associaton of the Women of Afghanistan.  We put it on the site the first day.  They have an entire page of ways you can lend a hand.  Some examples:

* help our schools with funds, any and all school supplies, etc. and send them to our address in Pakistan

* help our medical teams with funds, medicines and medical supplies. (email us for list of most needed medicines and supplies.)

* donate computers for our training courses for women and children

* donate films with progressive and anti-fundamentalist themes (preferably with sub-titles in English) for our resource centre for anti-fundamentalist, human rights education

* donate camcorders, digital photo cameras (preferably in small size for hidden use), or any other special equipment for RAWA's documentation center. We need many such eqiupment to film and photograph the atrocities against women in Afghanistan.

For those who have more time than money:

* introduce RAWA and its activities to individuals, groups, schools, universities, organizations, and other congregations in your community and raise awareness on the plight of Afghan women.

* organize fundraising campaign with the help of your like-minded friends/colleagues to collect monetary donations for RAWA’s humanitarian projects. (email us for guidance)

* urge different institutions in your area to invite RAWA representative to speak on the situation of Afghan women and RAWA efforts, to inform people about women’s rights tragedy in Afghanistan.

* give coverage to reports on Afghanistan and Northern Alliance and Taliban crimes in your publications, or somehow make people in your community aware of them. Write articles and letters to major media of your town and country.

These women need our material help.  They have orphanages, shelters and hospitals that need money and supplies.  Here's the latest from the "bravest woman in Afghanistan", Malalai Joya:

She claims that although liberating women was one of the main moral arguments for invading Afghanistan in 2001, the situation for women has continued to deteriorate. "Ninety per cent of women in Afghanistan suffer from domestic violence, 80 per cent of marriages are forced, and the average life expectancy for women is 44 years," she says.

Joya recounts the harrowing stories of two women she has met. Fatima, the daughter of a poor shopkeeper, was sold to a man, 50, who raped and beat her and then traded her for a dog. Her father did not have the money to buy back his daughter, 23. Shabnum, seven, was kidnapped and raped by three men, who cut her genitals.

"The plight of victims such as these girls is my driving force," Joya says. "I will never give up my fight for justice, and I'll continue to try to represent the millions of voiceless Afghan people — especially women and children — who are still being brutalised by warlords and the Taliban. While ordinary women and girls face rape, forced marriages and inhuman acts of abuse daily, women who stand up for their rights and take a public role in society risk being killed or silenced.

You can't fight for your freedom if you're sick, hungry, and have nowhere to go.  I'm not going to pretend to have answers on whether or not the military of the US or Canada should stay or go.  But what I do know, especially in light of the recent murder of a prominent women's rights activist and the stoning of protesting women, is that the women of Afghanistan need the kind of help that we - that's you and me - can give them.   It's up to us to do what our governments refuse to.