'Ministry
of vice' fills Afghan women with fear
The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 07/23/06 | Christina Lamb
Posted on 07/22/2006 4:12:36 PM PDT
I do not wish to speak against President Bush and the war on
terror, but as we have noted in previous news articles, and as the Lord has
indicated in articles on this website that Islam is the Forth Beast of Daniel.
And that from out of their Talmudic hatred ,killing, and destruction, shall
arise the False Prophet and the Antichrist. It is plainly prophesied that the
Antichrist and the beast of Islam shall make war with Israel and the Church and
stamp in pieces and trample and break in pieces the residue of the church and
Israel throughout the world. – So to defeat the Taliban and re-establish an
Islamic government whether freely elected or not is an exercise in utter
futility. And as we read in this article the freely elected President of
Afghanistan is moving more and more towards the repressive Islamic laws of the
Shia that we fought and cast out of that nation just three years ago. The truth is that regardless of what
environment you put these “fundamentalist Islamic” people in, ( And we shall
witness this in all of Europe over the next 2.5 decades) They will overthrow
and kill and repress into submission all that oppose Shia law. It is commanded to be so everywhere in their
Koran. So unless they convert of become
apostates both of which in the Koran are punished by death, -- those that
follow Islam and obey the Koran can only kill, destroy, and oppress others into
submission in the name of Allah – that would include their own and all those
that are around them. So this is not a
slam against the President and this war, the best this effort can hope to do is
to slow the militant edge of Islam.
AFGHANISTAN’S
notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which
was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working
to wearing nail varnish or laughing out loud, is to be re-created by the
government in Kabul. The
decision has provoked an outcry among women and human rights activists who fear
a return to the days when religious police patrolled the streets, beating or
arresting any woman who was not properly covered by a burqa or accompanied by a
male relative.
“This is a very bad idea at a
bad time,” said Sam Zia-Zarifi, the Asia research director of Human Rights
Watch. “We’re close to the edge in Afghanistan. It really could all go wrong
and it is alarming that the United Nations and western governments are not
speaking out on this issue.”
President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet has approved the proposal to
re-establish the department, and the measure will go to Afghanistan’s
parliament when it reconvenes later this summer. The conservative (Fundamentalist Muslim) complexion of the assembly makes it likely to be passed.
“When we talk of ‘vice and
virtue’ . . . the one introduced by the Taliban comes to our minds. But it
won’t be like that,” insisted Mohammad Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for the
president. “It will be an organisation which will work on promoting morality in
society as exists in any other Islamic country.”
Nematullah Shahrani, the
religious affairs minister who will oversee the department, claims it will
focus on alcohol, drugs, crime and corruption. But critics point out that
Afghanistan’s criminal laws already address these issues and say that once the
department has been re-established, it will be easy to misuse.
“We are worried that there are
no clear terms of reference for this body,” said Nader Nadery, of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission. “It will remind people of the Taliban.”
“They haven’t even bothered to
change the name,” said Malalai Joya, a courageous female MP whose outspokenness
means she has to travel with bodyguards and move every day because of threats
to her life. Joya, 28, was physically attacked in parliament in May after she
criticised warlords.
“The situation for women in
Afghanistan has not improved,” she said. “People in the outside world say
Afghan women don’t have to wear burqas any more and yes, it’s true that in some
provinces like Kabul, Jalalabad and Herat, women can go outside without a
burqa.
“They can go and work in
offices, and we have 68 women MPs. But more and more women are wearing burqas
because of the lack of security. Look at the high rate of suicide among our
women — Afghan women prefer to die than live because there is no security.
“In my opinion what we have in power under the mask of democracy are
the brothers of Taliban — fundamentalists, warlords and drug lords,” she added. “Our country is under the shadow of their black hands. They are
against women and re-creating the [department] is proof of this.”
Afghan women recall with horror
the department’s religious police who ruthlessly enforced restrictions on women
and men through public beatings and imprisonment under Taliban rule from 1996
to 2001.
Women were publicly beaten for
wearing white shoes or heels that clicked; using lipstick; or going outside
unaccompanied by a close male relative.
The department banned women from
educating their daughters in home-based schools as well as working or begging,
leaving thousands of widows with no means of supporting their families. They
also beat men for trimming their beards, which had to be at least the length of
a fist.
The repression of women was
often cited in the West as a reason to intervene and oust the Taliban. Both the
American first lady and the wife of the British prime minister made passionate
speeches on the subject.
Laura Bush took over her
husband’s weekly radio address in November 2001 to boast that “because of our recent
military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their
homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of
punishment”.
The sentiment was echoed in a
speech by Cherie Blair a few days later at a meeting with Afghan women at
Downing Street. “In Afghanistan if you wear nail polish, you could have your
nails torn out,” she said, adding that the burqa, above all, symbolised the
oppression of women.
“The women in Afghanistan are
entitled, as women in every country are, to have the same hopes and aspirations
as ourselves and our daughters: for good education, a career outside the home
if they want one; the right to health care, and, of course, most importantly,
the right for their voices to be heard.”
Yet almost five
years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghan women are far from achieving these
aims. In a new report, Lesson in Terror: Attacks on Education in Afghanistan,
Human Rights Watch identified the lack of access to education, especially for
girls, as jeopardising the country’s development and security.
Increasing attacks
on schools, teachers and students, as well as general insecurity — particularly
in southern Afghanistan — are preventing children from attending school.
There have already been more attacks
in the first half of this year than all of last year and according to a UN
official, barely a day goes by without a school being burnt or teacher killed.
As a result the majority of primary school age girls are not in school, and
fewer than 5% of secondary school age girls are attending classes.
“Afghan women and girls face
increasing insecurity, and it’s more important for the government to address
how to improve their access to public life rather than limit it further,” said
Zama Coursen-Neff, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher.
The government’s decision to
re-create the Taliban religious police is seen by critics as the most shocking
in a series of backward steps designed to appease conservatives. Last year,
both Karzai and the international community turned a blind eye to the election
of warlords and former Taliban to parliament.
Last month Karzai tried to
introduce press censorship, though this met international resistance. He has
also started allowing local commanders to re-create militia, although it was
these that led to the emergence of the Taliban in the first place.
Such moves have prompted
increasing disillusion with Karzai from the international community. “The way
we are heading you have to ask what this was all for,” said one western
diplomat.
Others blame foreign governments
for a lack of commitment to Afghanistan, which remains at the bottom of most
social indicators.
Both Karzai and the
international community were shocked by riots in Kabul in late May that took
more than six hours to bring under control and which highlighted public anger
at a lack of development.
“We have to lift our game,” Jaap
de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary-general, told reporters in Kabul last
week. His visit was to finalise an expansion of Nato’s International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF), which will see British troops in the southern province
of Helmand come under Nato command.
“Nato is lifting its game in the
south and hopefully soon in the east so that the whole of Afghanistan will be
under the control of Nato-ISAF,” he said. “But the international community has
to lift its game as well by also showing commitment to the government of
Afghanistan.”
'Fierce' enemy
The Taliban has fought more
fiercely than British troops were led to expect, the commander of Britain’s
4,800-strong contingent in Afghanistan has admitted.
Brigadier Ed Butler told
reporters at a briefing in London: “We have been a little surprised by the
ferocity and persistence of the Taliban.”
Six British soldiers have been
killed in the operation since the beginning of June. “Hopefully it will not be
too long before the tide does turn,” Butler said.
His remarks came as senior Nato
commanders indicated that they would need more helicopters and men to expand
the organisation’s mission across the entire country.
US General James L Jones, Nato’s
supreme commander, said that plans were expected to be approved at a summit in
November.
Yesterday coalition and Afghan forces killed 19 suspected Taliban fighters in Helmand province