Beneath the Veil, Anger Seethes Among Afghan Women

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 10/7/2001 | ROBYN DIXON

[Utah Girl]

ping

[Illbay]

See also the earlier thread Afghan women fight for rights.

[agrace]

"There are many women who will fight," she said, "even if they take up stones, or sticks or boiling water."

You have our prayers, ladies. Drudge said during his radio show tonight that reports are coming out of Afghanistan of rioting in the streets against the Taliban.

[LeeMcCoy]

I guess my biggest question is...where the heck were their loving husbands and fathers when all this started? After living in relative freedom, to suddenly see their beloved female relatives treated this way should have made their blood boil! I really don't understand how this kind of repression gets started.

[Illbay]

Don't think the men get off scot-free. If they dare to "stand up" against the Taliban and their "Islamic" laws, they are beaten as well. Up until recently there were public executions of men who defied Taliban laws.

[dandelion]

BOOM BOOM BOOM. Let's get these gals some weapons and then let's see what those Taliban sissies think of them...

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

It is my opinion that the Taliban does not allow love. That Afghanistan is an entire country without the concept of love or else they wouldn't be able to beat women for showing and ankle and making them suffer in the hot Burqas and stay in a home all day long. They can't love their children and make them fight when they are 5 years old. You can't love your daughters yet not allow them to read or write.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I guess my biggest question is...where the heck were their loving husbands and fathers when all this started? After living in relative freedom, to suddenly see their beloved female relatives treated this way should have made their blood boil! I really don't understand how this kind of repression gets started.

Guess its a Middle Eastern thing. We just wouldn't understand.

[LeeMcCoy]

You're quite right, the Taliban has been miserable to everyone in Afghanistan.

You know, if all these gals decided to throw off their burquas at the same time, it just might tip the scales in this war. Can you imagine the Taliban trying to fight us and the women at the same time?

[Utah Girl]

The Taliban are big hypocrites. Their daughters go to school, there is a special school set up for them in Kabul. And the Taliban think that women are there for the pleasure of men and to have children. I read a statement from one of them that was roughly "A woman is a beautiful flower, to be kept indoors so that her perfume is only smelled by her husband." I have read in the past few days though that the Afghan refugee women are starting to fight back in the refugee camps. Apparently some male Taliban are in the camps and trying to enforce their rules, and the women are saying back to them "You killed our husbands, and took everything away from us. We are not going to listen to you anymore."

[Balding_Eagle]

I really don't understand how this kind of repression gets started.

Take a look at our gun laws lately? Same thing, only slower.

[Fearless Flyers]

RAWA = Communist
Things they don't explain on CNN's behind the veil, is why RAWA is affiliated with the Communist Party. I don't aprove of the treatment women are recieving in Afghanistan but I'm not going to support the Communist Party either.

[Utah Girl]

I didn't know that, thanks for the information. It is going to be very interesting to see who fills the leadership vacuum in Afghanistan if the Taliban are ousted.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I saw a 13 year old Muslim girl in New York explain why she had to wear the scarves and then the Burqa. She said it was because the women were pearls and needed to be hidden because they were so precious.

I wanted to cry for her.

[Utah Girl]

It is just so sad. Their society is really missing out on so many things by repressing half the population. Men and women united together can do so much good, that one or the other can't accomplish.

[Fearless Flyers]

Wrong Thread sorry RAWA=Communist

[BnBlFlag]

The Taliban make the Commies look like Sunday school teachers.

[Nick Danger]

I guess my biggest question is...where the heck were their loving husbands and fathers when all this started?

These stories are always written to make it sound like Afghan men are living the life of Riley while the women are being oppressed. We're told that women can't drive... in a country where somebody doing really well can aspire to own a camel. We're told that women are beaten if they don't wear the right clothes... how many of us knew that Afghan men are jailed if their beards aren't long enough? Did the Taliban recently go through all the villages rounding up teenage girls to fight in the war? I don't think so. But we know they did that to the boys. Look at this guy on the right. Do you honestly wonder why this Highly Privileged Male does not rise up against the people with the guns?

The Taliban is a ruthless, oppressive, theocratic regime. Let's get over this idea that they are especially oppressive towards women. They are oppressors, period.

[jws3sticks]

How to exact justice for Osama bin Laden's crimes:

Killing him will only create a martyr. Holding him prisoner will inspire his comrades to take hostages to demand his release.

Therefore, we should do neither.

Let the CIA, Rangers, Seals or whoever covertly captures him, fly him to an undisclosed hospital and have surgeons perform a complete sex change operation.

Then return 'her' to Afghanistan to live under the Taliban.