The sequence lasts barely a minute. In a

Transcription

1 For 30 years, a revolutionary organization of Afghan women has resisted the Soviets, the Northern Alliance, mujahideen and religious extremists it claims still control the country. In a long interview, Maryam Rawi RAWA: Rage Behind the Burka AFGHANISTAN by Alessandra Garusi denounces endemic rape, murder, corruption, U.S. complicity and describes nation on the brink The sequence lasts barely a minute. In a packed Kabul stadium, a woman in a blue burka, the suffocating headgear imposed on women under Taliban rule, is forced from a car and made to kneel on the grass. An militant approaches her with an automatic weapon and shoots her in the back of the neck. He then kicks her lifeless body. At first, both the BBC and CNN refused to air footage of the 1999 murder of the woman named Zarmeena, a mother of seven children charged with murdering her husband in his sleep. It was considered too violent. The Taliban extremists in the stadium couldn t have imagined the irony of their dress code. A woman determined to expose their cruelty risked her life by filming Zarmeena s last moments. She d hidden a video camera under her clothing. The woman belonged to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), whose members are Members of RAWA are completely covered during press conferences to avoid reprisals. Its founder was killed. On the streets of Kabul, women are shielded from the outside world. Grazia Neri_Y. Tsuno/AFP 60

2 Grazia Neri_S. Marai/AFP hardly new to such exploits. Since 1977, they have used film, stills and interviews to document human rights violations in Afghanistan, including public amputations, stoning and summary executions by firing squad. Like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, we patiently accumulate reams of witness statements in hopes of one day bringing the people responsible for crimes to justice, says Maryam Rawi, a spokesperson for the group. That a criminal such as [warlord Faryadi Sarwar] Zardad was prosecuted in Britain in 2004 thanks to our efforts gives us strength. RAWA, she says, is writing Afghan history. Alessandra Garusi spoke to Rawi. take only a few days to close out the Taliban. But they need a reason to stay in Afghanistan, and there s no better justification that the war on terrorism. In fact, what this is all about is a war to ensure the U.S. maintains economic, strategic and political control of Afghanistan and the region as a whole. Mike Scheuer, the former CIA officials who headed the hunt for Osama bin Laden at the beginning of the Afghan campaign, recently labeled the war a terrible disaster for the U.S. and NATO. Do you agree with his assessment? The United States and NATO agree that only 30 percent of Afghanistan is under the control of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai s government. The rest is out of their hands. At There are troops from more than 37 nations the same time, however, they say they don t in Afghanistan. How do you explain the lack want to change their strategic approach, at of security? least for now. It s the same game I alluded to The West isn t serious in its fight against before. They bemoan failures while at the same religious extremism. It s playing a time negotiating with the guerillas. Recent dangerous game in Afghanistan. On the one news came out that the British government actually helped Taliban forces in the Herat hand, it s done little more than replace the Taliban with the Northern Alliance, which is province, and that they re operating similarly in other regions. Either they finally reach a also an extremist force; on the other, it deal or the fighting will continue. But, and I doesn t want to exterminate what s left of say it again, it s a dishonest fight. There s no the Taliban. Given the advanced weaponry interest in disarming. in the hands of the United States it would 61

3 Grazia Neri_S. Marai/AFP Is it true that 65 percent of the country s parliamentarians are former warlords with Islamic tendencies, people that once fought the Soviets? The 65 percent figure is much too low. That s the number given by international human rights organizations. They agree that from the start extremist religious leaders dominated the Afghan Parliament. If they re not all warlords, they are most definitely people who were involved in the commission of atrocities between 1992 and 1996; they re men who did, and do, the bidding of the extremists, and who are still supported by them both financially and militarily. That s the reason you can say without hesitation that the majority of the Kabul Parliament is composed of religious extremists or pro-extremists. They control the army, including the police and the secret services. They understand how to consolidate their position within Afghan society. In essence, they re free to do whatever they please; commit any kind of abuse. It doesn t matter that this government lacks public consensus and that it doesn t reflect the realities of Afghan society. In 2007, the Afghan Parliament approved a law on national reconciliation. What were its worst consequences? A free pass for such people as Khalili, Sayyaf, Rabbani, Fahim, Muhaqiq, Qanoni, Ranjbar, and Mullah Rokitee. These people and their accomplices were behind the destruction of Kabul between 1992 and 1996, and later on. Their hands are stained 62

4 AFGHANISTAN RAWA: Profile of Women s Resistance RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan) is an independent social and political organization dedicated to ensuring human rights and justice for local women. Kabul-born poet Meena founded RAWA in Kabul in She was assassinated in February 1987 in Quetta, Pakistan where she d traveled to inaugurate the Malalai Hospital for women (since closed due to lack of Grazia Neri_J. Samad/AFP funding). Her murder, at age 31, was tied to the Khad, the Afghan KGB and a radical extremist Afghan exile faction (Hezb-e-Islam) led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Despite an oppressive political environment, RAWA has effectively worked for more than 30 years in many phases of social life, particularly education. It set up and held landmark underground elementary school courses in villages. It has also assisted in health care, promoted egalitarian political causes and assisted journalists in investigative reports. In 1981 it founded the bilingual magazine Payam-e- Zan ( Woman s Message ), which comes out in Urdu, for ethnic Pashtuns, and English. Members based in the West work to keep the organization s Website ( updated. It continues to display footage of Zarmeena s horrific 1999 death, as well as other information relevant to women and Afghan rights. For security reasons, the organization has no office in Kabul. In Pakistan, it often takes no credit for events it has organized to reduce ongoing threats from Islamic radical groups. In meetings with reporters, members of the organization release on their given names, often pseudonyms. with rapes, murders, sackings, kidnappings and torture. Thanks to the national reconciliation law they are immune from prosecution. RAWA has massive dossiers on these people, including witness testimony. But it s all too late. Granted, if such a law had been enacted by an honest and representative government it might have been seen as a positive event. But the Afghan Parliament is anything but honest or representative. All the laws it passes are intended to tend to its own interests and maintain the power of the governing elite. That s why most people opposed the idea of national reconciliation. Not because it wants an endless continuation of the fighting but because the country is led in essence by very powerful military criminals that can strike them down anywhere and at any time. In many Afghan regions, the militias led by warlords (editor s note: warlords represented in parliament) often find themselves in skirmishes. It s the civilians that always pay the price, of course. In April 2008, a parliamentary commission formulated a law that harked back to Taliban rule. One of the articles reads: Young women are obliged not to use makeup, to wear appropriate clothing, and to wear veils at work and in school. Has the law passed, and if not do you think it will in the end? No. It hasn t passed yet. We don t know what will happen with it. That s why on the one hand I say it s a parliament composed of religious extremists that wants to show a progressive face to the international community. Maybe the proposed law is a shot across the bows. Something like, This could be a law soon, so you d better start wearing burkas and stop going to school; it would also be a good idea if media and TV went low profile. Whatever happens with the law, the extremist spirit seems determined to continue, if not in Kabul then certainly in the provinces. In some of them, laws of this kind are already the norm. 63

5 RAWA: RAGE BEHIND THE BURKA Grazia Neri_M. Hossaini/AFP Why would the United States back a government composed of former warlords? Didn t they know what they were up against? Of course they knew (laughs). The truth about these people goes back a long way. The Americans just don t care if they re dealing with war criminals that are responsible for massive human rights violations. What they do care about is that their strategic interests are protected and that the people that matter work for them. If the Taliban hadn t in effect eluded U.S. control, at least up to a point, America most likely would have backed them indefinitely, considering them a valuable ally in a strategic place. Even though the situation was getting worse by the day. The question that hasn t been answered is another: If the United States really opposed terrorism, if it really wanted democracy and the rule of law, and so on, why didn t it do anything during the 10 long years in which Afghanistan suffered under extremist Taliban rule? I don t consider it impossible that a Talibanoriented group would run in the next election and actually make it into government. The United States and the West don t care about the true identity of those running for office. What precisely is the U.S. role in today s Afghanistan? The United States has strategic interests in Afghanistan. That s the reason they stay. It s clear that Washington doesn t put a premium either on democracy or human rights. In any case we don t believe these values can be donated by another nation. It s the Afghan people that have to fight to obtain them. The war against religious extremism, poverty, ignorance, and in favor or education, that s our war to fight. But the U.S. continues to say, In the last six or seven years everything has changed in Afghanistan: Now women can walk unhindered, free of dress codes in the streets, there are political parties, free media, etc. It s unadulterated propaganda. The fact is that suicide bombings by Taliban forces are rising, just as NATO attacks with civilian casualties are also up. The economy is in tatters. Work has become a mirage. Cases of violence against women are growing. But none of these daily problems are dealt with by American troops. They re involved only in the war on terror. From the start, RAWA asserted that the war on terror couldn t be limited to a military campaign. It had to be a portion of a concerted effort to reinforce the basis of democracy. That s the best way of getting rid of terrorism once and for all. 64

6 Contrasto_R. Venturi AFGHANISTAN from Iranian Farsi. Unlike the Iranians, we have many words of Pashtun origin. That said, many Afghan intellectuals would like to take the Iranian linguistic style, culture and tone and transfer it wholesale to Afghanistan. Most people resist this because Does the leadership of Iranian President they know means more than just a change Mamoud Ahmadinejad have an impact on in vocabulary. Behind it is the power of the Afghanistan? Tehran regime pressing on local political Very much so. Tehran backs our parties, on the Karzai government, and on intellectuals and has made important inroads all intellectual life. The Iranian regime into the media. In the last three decades, both already owns many Afghan papers, Iran and Pakistan have heavily weight on magazines, educational centers, and so on: Afghan internal affairs. The Hizb-I Wahdat- They re all backed by Iranian money. I Islami-yi Afghanistan Party (Islamic Unity What s your view of the attack on President Party of Afghanistan) has close tied with Karzai last April? Why did it happen in front Iran, both financially and militarily. of so many people? We ve also noticed that large sections of The occasion was the celebration of the sothe Afghan intelligentsia have studied at the called liberation, which is to say the University of Tehran and have received Mujahideen advance into Kabul on April 28, political and financial assistance. Though they may live in Kabul, they re still indebted That was perhaps the darkest time in to and favor the policies of their sponsors. It s our history. People suffered terribly. Atrocities and crimes of every kind were committed. In as if the same religious radicalism that any event, from time to time the anniversary characterizes the Iranian regime were being imported into Afghanistan and was gradually date is still cheered as some kind of a national independence day or birth of the worming its way into society as a whole. It s difficult to explain what s happening, Islamic government in Afghanistan day. Different names have been given to the day. It but here s an example. The Farsi language spoken in Afghanistan is markedly different provides a platform for all the radical religious Hijab-clad women are the norm in the streets of all Afghan cities aside from Kabul, where there is a foreign population. RAWA says legislation liberalizing respect for women is regressing. 65

7 RAWA: RAGE BEHIND THE BURKA Sara Babusci parties that spent four years fighting one another ( ). Though they still have differences of opinion, they re now more united than ever. Their mentality and politics are the same: all of it based on religious extremism. But they have different foreign benefactors, which means they still fight. Each one has a strong ethnic component. That s another feature that separates them. From the Taliban perspective, the attack on Karzai was little more than a show of force. As if to say, We could hit Karzai at any time and at any place. I don t think they wanted to kill him, just to demonstrate his vulnerability. Almost immediately the names of the attackers came out and they were killed. The name of the others who died, including civilians, never saw the light of day. The people learned a less: the Karzai government is incapable of acting independently. In 1992, when the Pashtun grand council (Loya Jirga) picked Karzai as the interim president he was a popular figure. The same was the case in October and November of 2004 when he was elected president with 55 percent of the vote. Does he stand a chance for re-election in 2009? His popularity is vastly diminished, that s the first point. But it s not up to us to guess at the result of the coming elections. The last elections showed us that the vote in Afghanistan is pre-arranged. It s set up to go as it goes by the United States. According to some reports, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmai Khalilzad, who also holds Afghan nationality, could be among the candidates. If he is a candidate, he stands a good chance of winning. The second point is that the people will no longer back Karzai. He s been unable to keep his electoral promises: improved security, increased employment, a greater availability of produce. Most statistics suggest the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated from every point of view and continues to worsen. The reconstruction effort millions of dollars were spent in Afghanistan has stalled; the government is among the most corrupt on the planet; it controls nothing. A few years ago the people wanted, if you will, to back Karzai, to believe in him; no longer. In any event, I repeat that elections here can be neither free nor honest. They will always face extreme pressure. It s as if some major play was always being enacted. 66

8 AFGHANISTAN Grazia Neri_H. Fahimi/AFP RAWA alleges that most members of the Aghan parliament maintain ties with the ousted Taliban. It considers Karzai a foreign puppet. Bearing in mind all that you ve said, what s the situation of Afghan women. Do they still wear burkas? That depends. Village life is profoundly different from life in Kabul. While the burka is less prevalent in the capital, in the rest of the country, women still prefer to use it. They feel more protected. Rapes and kidnappings, which remain commonplace, no longer even make headlines. Last April the son of a member of parliament raped a 14- year-old girl. Her response to what had happened? I m poor, I have no means, I expect no justice. The youth was released a few days after the rape, very likely without facing charges. The judicial system works on behalf of the extremists that form the government. Which means, as a natural consequence, that crimes against women go mostly unpunished. Only eight percent of the women in the provinces not Kabul ever go to high school. For security reasons most families don t feel comfortable letting them out of their sight. American propaganda relentlessly insists that the condition of women in the country has improved over the last six or seven years. They cite new schools and other positive factors. But if you dig deeper you see that isn t quite the case. Yes, new schools were built, and inaugurated with pomp and circumstance, but there are no desks, chairs, reading material, teachers. In April Kabul was paralyzed by a teachers strike. They hadn t received paychecks for months. Paychecks, I might add, that amount to 50 a month. They unfurled slogans that read: We also have to live We have families to support. The government replied by saying that the delay was a result of pay hikes they were proposing. A farce. Is it true that suicides are up in Afghanistan? Are there any reliable figures? No. There are no statistics. All we do know is that suicides among women are on the rise. In Kandahar province, where suicide was never an issue, we re been told of cases. It s becoming a more regular occurrence. 67

9 Grazia Neri_J. Macdougall/AFP The hospitals in Herat province, for example, say they receive three or four complaints daily, usually women with burns or other signs of self-inflicted wounds. Few of these cases are ever reported in the media. Even when the issue is one of domestic abuse, the husband s family does everything in its power to stop the information from getting out. RAWA was created in What would you say are your greatest satisfactions over that time? That we ve been able to reach some of our goals despite extremely modest funding. Obviously we re still in no position to undertake majestic projects. We get no funding from the government or international organizations. What we do we re able to do thanks to private donations. But we have support groups all over the world. Our Website ( is now available in many languages and is regularly looked at by people interested in the country. We re able to get information and photos out well ahead of most. Do you think some of the material you ve gathered concerning killings and torture could be used at a war crime s trial in the future? That s part of what RAWA is all about: To bring criminals to justice. International human rights organizations have already gathered proof against some of the worst Demands that Afghan government criminals be made to stand trial for human rights abuses over the last three decades has failed to gain support from the United States, Britain and Europe. offenders. Whether the material is ever used depends on the big powers, such as Britain and the United States. Will they actually allow some of the people to face an international tribunal? If they don t, everything will take much longer. We re not talking about the (relatively) few criminals who are actually in the government now, but what happened over a period of 30 years, from three different periods: the Taliban era, the Northern Alliance era, and the Soviet occupation. Do you have a dream? I believe so deeply in what I m doing that my only real desire for the time ahead is to continue the work. Tragedy has always surrounded my life, since the murder of my father and other members of my family. That and all the other stories I ve heard. For that reason I dream about a secure life. I want very little, really. I don t care about success. When I m traveling I sometimes have nightmares of something terrible happening to my son or my husband. Anything can happen in Afghanistan. I repeat, for now, all I dream about is a safe life. 68