From: endevour@snoopy.umd.edu (endeavor)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.afghanistan
Subject: Afghan Women, To be or not to be ?
Keywords: women , afghan, hardline
Date: 31 Jul 92 08:02:45 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park



     PROFILE NEWS

  1. IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN CONCLUDE AGREEMENTS ON WIDE-RANGING COOPERATION
  2. AFGHANISTAN TV BANS WOMEN FROM NEWSCASTS IN A BOW TO MUJAHEDIN

>AFGHANISTAN TV BANS WOMEN FROM NEWSCASTS IN A BOW TO MUJAHEDIN 

>KABUL (JULY 29) DPA - Kabul telvision has removed women from on-air jobs as
>newsreaders following complaints by the hardline former Mujahedin which now
>rules the country, the German Press Agency dpa learned Tuesday. 


Would the HARDLINE former Mujahedin please stand up ! If a bunch of hardcore
fanatics who are grossly out of touch with reality bully their way into 
the Afghan Government the result is obvious. While hundreds of people are
dying in the Kabul hospitals for the lack of basic medical needs, the
self-procaliamed herois of Afghan Jihad i.e our hard core fanatics are
too busy witch hunting for women or musicians in the Kabul television.
I wonder what next their twisted minds will come up with ? Let us not
slander the honourable name of Afghan Mojahed by calling some fanatics 
by the same name.   


>''Some of the hardline Jehadi Forces (former Mujahedin) were asking for women
>to be banned form television, so we felt it better to comply rather than start
>fighting and have people killed,'' said Maulavi Wala Jan Wasiq, first deputy
>minister of information and culture. He said the decision was made by the
>Leadership Council.

So thougtful of Maulavi Saheb ( who by the way has a masters degree in in 
communication and is currently getting his second degree in literature :-) ) to
ban the women before the big children on the streets start plucking each others
eyes ( for the sin of looking upon a veiled women on TV).   

And yes , let us not forget the LEADER SHIP council. The same leader ship 
council who held a three day meeting discussing one of the most important 
issues that faced the newly installed ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT OF AFGHANISTAN. 
The question which intrigued our leadership council and took their attention
from the lack of security, lack of medicine, lack of food and electricity and 
hundreds of other problems that ails the nation was :

Should there be music in Radio Kabul or not ? Now there is leadership.  
 

>The departure of female anchors from news broadcasts is only the latest change
>to take place in broadcasting since the former Mujahedin took power in Kabul in
>late April. 

>At first music was not allowed on televison. Women continued to appear on
>camera, but wearing headscarves (chadar). Then this week they vanished from
>television altogether, although women are still reading the news on radio. 


>Maulavi Wasiq said, ''We are repecting women's rights according to Islamic Law.
>For those women working on television, we will pay their salaries and keep them
>on our staff.'' 

I wish to tell  Mr.Wasiq that the  anchor women was not belly dancing on the
TV but was reading the news while wearing a CHADER. I hope Mr.Wasiq is not 
under the false impression that the anchor woman cooks and keeps the station
clean.    


>The issue of women in front of the television camera figured in the
>negotiations for power last spring. One of the conditions for support for
>Burhanuddin Rabbani by hardline leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf was removal of women
>newsreaders from television. That was backed by another hardliner, Unis Khalis
>of Hizb-I-Islami. 

Is everybody listening; ONE OF THE CONDITIONS FOR SUPPORT FOR RABANI BY 
HARDLINE LEADERS WAS REMOVAL OF WOMEN NEWSREADERS FROM TELEVISION.

I can almost imagine the conversation between Khalis and Rabani 

Khalis : Brother Rabani, either the anchor women stays or you stay. It 
         is up to you ?
Rabani : Don't worry brother Khalis, not only I will get rid of the 
         anchor women but I will also outlaw women from Afghanistan. In
         fact I will do anything which secures my presidency.
Khalis : Looks like we have a deal. Now don't get carried away like
         brother Mojadidi with the presidency. My turn comes next.

Point to ponder : Mr. Khalis who is in his upper sixties married a 
sixteen year old girl on the hay days of Jihad. Now why the sudden 
aversion to women ? hmmmm 



>A moderate leader of the former Mujahedin, Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani, said the
>decision to take women off the air had been made by individuals, and that the
>Leadership Council had taken no disicion yet. 

What leader ship council ? Today every man who have a gun and walks the 
streets of Kabul is a member of the leadership council. Its such a neat 
trick to send mixed messages from Kabul to the international mass media. 
The  Afghans know too well that moderate or radical the leadership council
and its countless members all drink from the same fountain.  


>He said women have the right to work, noting that women hold jobs as teachers
>and doctors. 

Did he forget to say that from now on wards, if the leader ship council 
have its way, women will have to exercize their RIGHTS from within the 
confines of their houses. 



Afghan brothers and sisters ! as a single Afghan individual, who, like most 
of you, is stranded in foreign lands I try my best to voice the 
conscience of the Afghan nation. Some individuals will be quick to 
jump me over and question my claim for such a broad representation, but ,
more or less, this is how we think and express ourselves. Your silence 
regarding issues baffles me. Do we not care for our beloved country ? 
If we do, then why the indifference ? Have you all given up hope ? Are 
we afraid of the bullies and payrolled fanatics who threaten us on the net ?
If so then we are not Afghans . We do not belong to the same country who 
just recently defeated a super power . Why this lack of interest ?  
Do you want to go back to your contry or not ? If so then speak up and let 
the world know that we are not the same people who are making a mockery of 
our religion, our culture and and tridtions in Kabul.