STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE
DECLARATION OF THE ESSENTIAL RIGHTS OF AFGHAN WOMEN
The most extreme violation of human and political
rights in the world has been vigorously pursued in Afghanistan in a
reign of terror under the control of the Pakistani-backed Taliban
militias.
On June 28, 2000, at the initiative of NEGAR-Support of Women of
Afghanistan, a Paris-based Afghan women’s association, several hundred
Afghan women from all segments of the Afghan nation, assembled in
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to draft and promulgate a “Declaration of the
Essential Rights of Afghan Women”(see elsewhere in this web site).
With this document, the Afghan women affirm and demand for themselves
the inalienable rights that had been assured for them by the
Constitution of Afghanistan. The Afghan women reject the false
assertions of the Taliban militias that these rights are in
contradiction with the religion, culture and traditions of Afghan
society and nation.
For nearly 20 years, life in Afghanistan has been degraded by foreign
and civil wars, but, since 1994, the regime of the Taliban militias
has, by decree, officially taken away from women all rights to
education, to work, and to health. Denial of freedom of movement
renders Afghan women practically prisoners in their own homes, in the
most extreme situation of material and moral destitution.
This statement in support of the Afghan women’s Declaration is part of
an international campaign by NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan
with the goal of five million signatures to be presented to the United
Nations by NEGAR and a delegation of Afghans and their world-wide
women and men supporters.
Congress, the US Mission to the UN and other US policy-making entities
must support:
1. The integration of this Declaration as a part of the process for a
just, honorable and durable peace for the legitimate country of
Afghanistan for eventual inclusion in the Constitution,
2. Pressure on Pakistan to end its military, political, and financial
support which renders the Taliban militias possible,
3. The denial of recognition of the Taliban militias.
History has demonstrated that supremacist and totalitarian regimes
such as the Taliban militias maintain themselves in power only if the
rest of the world remains silent.
Please sign this statement of support, pass copies on to your friends
and organizations, and email or mail to the address below.
Initial signers include: Betty Friedan, Hon. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA),
Ambassador Bruce Laingen, Martha Burk, Catherine Deneuve, Christopher
Hitchens, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Isabel
Morel Letellier, Dorothy I. Height,
Hon. Karen McCarthy (D-MO), Hon. Jan Schakowsky and others.
NAME (Please Print First & Last):
NATIONALITY:
PROFESSION/ORGANIZATION:
ADDRESS (street, tel, email):
SIGNATURE:
Mail or email signed Statement of Support to: American Friends of
NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan, POBox 2079, Falls Church, VA
22042, email:
negarusa@hotmail.com, tel: 703-536-6471, fax:
703-536-6951,
website:
perso.wanadoo.fr/negar/englishsite
Headquarters: NEGAR-Soutien aux Femmes d'Afghanistan, BP 10, 25770
Franois, France, email:
negar@wanadoo.fr, same website as above. |