Posted on 12/22/2001 5:27:16 PM PST by aculeus
A LOOK of outrage settled over the features of Abdul Habib Salim, head of the Allauddin orphanage, as he recalled how children had become spoils of war for Taliban officials who took over his institution in late 1996, writes On his first day in the job, the Taliban commander appointed to run the orphanage in place of Salim showed an interest in three teenage orphans. “They were very pretty girls,” said Salim. “Fereshta was 18, a talented seamstress, Maleha was 17 and Mariam just 15.” The next day they were gone.
The commander had taken the women as concubines for his brother and two other relatives. “The Taliban didn’t care about orphans,” said Salim. “They were just loot. They were forcibly married. There was nothing anybody could do.”
A tale of unusual suffering has come to light in Kabul, where hundreds of women were abducted, forcibly married, raped or sold into sexual slavery by Taliban fighters. Many are still missing.
Orphans were easy prey. “The girls had no families to protect them,” said Roma, who teaches sewing at the orphanage, a grim building in a bomb-ravaged part of Kabul. “They had no choice but to go with these men.”
Many more girls were snatched from their homes. One was Shabnam, the sister-in-law of a 32-year-old baker called Mohamed Islamodin.
“If I can find the Taliban commander who took her, I will kill him,” he said. “We think of her all the time. All her things are still here in the house. We dream she will come back to us.”
Two years ago the family heard that Shabnam had become the property of a top Taliban commander with whom she was living in Kabul. After the Taliban fled Kabul, Islamodin went to the house where Shabnam had been. It was empty and there was no sign of her.
“Perhaps they are in Pakistan or another province,” he said. “Our first priority is to find her. Then we must take revenge.”
Mohamed Qasim, a general in the alliance of forces that led the assault to overthrow the Taliban, said he believed that up to 1,000 women had been abducted. He said many were kept as concubines and some were sold as sex slaves to Arabs through the terrorist network of Al-Qaeda.
“We think many of these women were killed or are no longer in Afghanistan,” said Qasim. “But we will do our best to find them.”
The abductions are evidence of the startling hypocrisy of the Taliban regime and its mullahs, who seemed obsessed with protecting women’s virtue. It was said that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, began his revolt against the government in 1994 in outrage at the rape of two women by soldiers. He captured the men and hanged them from the barrel of their tank.
In reality, the zeal of the “religious police” masked greater abuses by illiterate troops who claimed women as sexual trophies.
Roholla Stanikzai, a magistrate under the Taliban, recalls at least 20 cases in which officials were accused of raping women in Kabul.
One case involved a senior commander who tied up a 13-year-old neighbour and forced himself on her with the help of a female accomplice. The girl’s mother complained to police. The accomplice was imprisoned, but the commander was not even questioned.
Islamodin claimed most of the victims had been families with roots in northern Afghanistan, a hotbed of resistance to Taliban rule. “They wanted to plant their seed in our women so they would not have to face another hostile generation fighting them from the north.”
By all accounts, Taliban soldiers from Omar’s southern Pashtun stronghold were encouraged to seek northern Tajik brides in Kabul. They would offer money, as is customary, to the parents of their intended bride. It was unwise to refuse such proposals. Yet many did — and paid for it.
The director of the women’s prison in Kabul said there were usually an average of 40 women, some as young as 13, behind bars for turning down Taliban suitors. In the end, these dissenting brides always cracked, she said, particularly if other members of their family were brought into prison.
When the object of one Taliban soldier’s passion fled to Pakistan, her sister was jailed in her place. Eventually the soldier offered the sister freedom if she would marry him instead. After a year in prison she accepted. Her fate is unknown.
No you didn't.
Sure it is.
For our part, all the Taliban should be brought to the US, have sex change operations forced on them, and returned to these enlightened cultures as women. It will add an incentive to the other nuts out there to leave us alone.
That's right. Hurt the body to "save" the soul sort of mentality. Nasty folks.
No, it isn't. I'm talking about First Wave Feminism of the late 1800s aimed at establishing women's right to vote, get an education, own property, and be treated as a competent adult by the legal system. You're talking about 1960s Second Wave Feminism.
Trouble with that statement is Chapt 8:69 "So eat (and spend) of that which you have acquired after winning the war as is lawful, good and pure." Muslims don't regard war booty as stealing. (Remember they were thrown out of France in 733 A.D., in part, because they were so loaded down with loot, they were all but immobile.) About the "rape thing", as cited in post #26, Chapt 4:3 allows that.
Re: post 37 Mr Watchin, those are all very good adjectives and all are appropriate. Trouble is, they all wouldn't fit in the space allowed by the printer; and using only one or two would detract from the majestic, reverent appearance of the Book given by Allah to his Prophet. I use the title of my Book because that's what it says (and with tongue firmly in cheek).
Allow me to explain:
Three women are walking down the street when they see a 5 story building that says "Choose the man of your dreams" on the front. Intrigued, they go inside to the information desk on the mezzanine, and the concierge tells them that each floor holds a different kind of man. "Take the elevator up till you get to the floor you want. But beware, once you've left a floor, you can never return."
The ladies go into the elevator and press 1 (first floor). When the doors open, they see a sign that says "Men who work hard."
They agree that they want a bit more than that. The doors close and they press 2. When the doors open again, they see a sign that says "Men who work hard and are good lovers." Not good enough.
They press 3, and when the doors open the sign says "Men who work hard, are good lovers, and are ready to commit to a loving relationship."
They agree that this is better yet, but there are still two floor above this! They press 4.
The sign says "Men who are independently wealthy, handsome, great lovers, and are ready to commit to a loving relationship." Eagerly, the women press 5.
When the door opens, they see a sign that says "There are no men on this floor. This floor was created purely to show that there is no way to satisfy women."
In other words, yes, the ladies got the vote and repaid us by outlawing booze. (sigh)
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