RAWA for
representative government in Kabul
The
Statesman, March 18, 2003
Statesman Report
PESHAWAR: The Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan has termed the Hamid Karzai government
a total failure as far as the women’s rights are concerned and demanded the
establishment of a true and representative government in that country.
Addressing a seminar under the
title of the ‘Women Rights in Afghanistan’ at a hotel here on Monday, the RAWA
speakers urged the international community to fulfil its pledges and take
concrete steps for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
“We want that Afghanistan
should be purged of all sorts of fundamentalism and extremism. In the last 23
years, the Afghan warlords, jihadis and Taliban have played havoc with the rights
and freedom of the Afghan people. The women’s rights have been in particular
violated and they have been brutalised for vested interests. We demand of the
international community to consider the miserable condition of the Afghan women
and take steps for their social, political and educational emancipation”, they
said.
The woman speakers declared
that giving the power to the Northern Alliance was just like giving authority
to the enemies of Afghanistan. The NA had been involved in gross human rights
violations and destroying Afghanistan at the behest of the foreign powers, they
observed.
“We demand that all the Afghan
warlords, included in the Hamid Karzai government and outside, should be
presented before an international tribunal and put on trial for their long
history of intrigues and bloodshed on the Afghan soil. We don’t think that the
present government is acceptable to all the Afghan people. If the international
community and neighbouring countries really want to see stability and peace in
the region, the Afghan people should be allowed to elect their representatives
in a free and fair manner. Democracy and secularism are the remedies for all
evils confronting Afghanistan at the present hour,” they observed.
The RAWA members pledged that
they would continue their struggle for the protection of the women rights and
never compromise on the principles of democracy, liberty and secularism. They
demanded of the international community to discourage the US imperialism and
block the US way for monopolising the natural resources of Iraq.
“The US has no right to bring
a regime change in Iraq. It is the right of the Iraqi people to either accept
or reject Saddam Hussain’s government. On the one hand, the US has adopted
criminal silence over the killing of the innocent people at the hands of the
Israeli forces in Palestine and, on the other, it has become the champion of
democracy and human rights. This double standard will lead the country to a new
holocaust,” they said.
Addressing the seminar, Haji
Muhammad Adeel, the central information secretary of the Awami National Party,
said that his party had always supported the cause of the Afghan women and
opposed the interference of the foreign countries in the internal affairs of
Afghanistan.
“It is a happy sign for the
people of Afghanistan that the government of the fundamentalists has been
dismantled there, but unfortunately this time Pakistan has been made the victim
of the menace of fundamentalism. All the secular parties and groups are being
discouraged by the generals and secret agencies. Fighting extremism and
fundamentalism is very essential for the establishment of a tolerant, stable
and peaceful society, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he observed.
A
central leader of the PPP (S), Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, a leader of the Mazdoor
Kisan Party, Afzal Khamosh, and a lady senator, Anisa Zaib, also addressed the
seminar. The student members of the RAWA presented some patriotic songs on this
occasion.
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Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Mailing Address: RAWA, P.O.Box 374, Quetta, Pakistan
Mobile: 0092-300-8551638
Fax: 001-760-2819855
E-mail: rawa@rawa.org
Home Page: http://www.rawa.org
Mirror site: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net