Women Stand Against Fundamentalism
  by Rebecca Hale

I'm the woman who has awoken
I've found my path and will never return
I've seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children
I've seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes
I've seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their ravenous stomach
I've been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage
I've learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the waves of blood and in victory
Oh compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable
--I'll Never Return
by Meena, founder of RAWA

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) was founded to give voice to these deprived and silenced women and has fought religious oppression, tribal chieftains, Russian invaders, and Taliban holy leaders for the past twenty-five years.

These courageous women did not come to this battle from a westerner's history of civil rights and personal dignity. Nor was there a foundation of human rights in place for them to build upon. Instead, they had to emerge from the literal veil of their religiously-forced burqas (the traditional Muslim garment), imposed by their very own husbands, fathers, brothers, and even other Afghani woman.

RAWA was started by a small number of educated university women to support basic rights and education for the women of Afghanistan. Meeting in private in secret schools, the women worked to provide basic reading and math skills for their burqa-bound sisters. They set up health centers, primarily in the refugee camps in Pakistan.

Eventually, their active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and led to the assassination of many, including Meena, their founder, in 1987.

Now that the international community is attempting to set up a more modern society in Afghanistan, the warriors of RAWA again have a chance to emerge from their holy burqas. At the recent elections they dared to raise a woman candidate to challenge the U.S. ordained president-designee. That action failed, but it declared to the world and to the religious despots of Afghanistan that RAWA is a group on the verge of making a real difference.

RAWA's website, http://www.rawa.org, states that this is "a political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan." It shows demonstrations, with banners decrying Fundamentalism and proclaiming that "Democracy without Secular Government is not Enough." There are photos of life in Afghanistan, including scenes of women being beaten in the streets for immodest dress or men hanging from light poles for religious non-compliance.

RAWA understands that many of Afghani women's liberties are denied to them because of religious fundamentalism. This presents disturbing similarities to our own situation. The Muslim Taliban denied women access to work, health care, and education. Christian fundamentalists advocate women staying home, limiting women's rights to their own bodies, and dismantling the free public education system. Patriarchal religions cannot allow women equal rights.

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