Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
| Logo of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan | |
| Founded | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Meena Keshwar Kamal |
| Type | Women's organization |
| Focus | Promoting women's rights and secular democracy |
Area served | Afghanistan |
| Website | RAWA website |
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian: جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان Jamiyat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānestān, Pashto:د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) is a women's organization in Afghanistan that promotes women's rights and secular democracy. It was founded in Kabul in 1977 by Meena Keshwar Kamal, a student activist who was assassinated in 1987 for her political activities. [1] RAWA supports non-violent strategies. The organization aims to involve women of Afghanistan in both political and social activities aimed at acquiring human rights for women and continuing the struggle against the government of Afghanistan based on democratic and secular, not fundamentalist principles, in which women can participate fully.[2] As such, the organization's critics have accused it of being a "Maoist" organization, which is odd considering its opposition to Communism, as seen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. RAWA also strives for multilateral disarmament.
The group opposed both the Soviet-supported regime and the later Mujahideen and Taliban Islamist rulers. Since RAWA opposes all forms of religious fundamentalism, it is regarded as a controversial group in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Background
The RAWA was first initiated in Kabul in 1977 as an independent social and political organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice. The organization then moved parts of its work out of Afghanistan into Pakistan and established their main base there to work for Afghan women.
Founder
RAWA was founded by a group of Afghan women led by Meena Keshwar Kamal.[1] At age 21, she laid the foundations of RAWA through her work educating women. In 1979, Kamal began a campaign against Soviet forces and their puppet regime in Afghanistan. In 1981, she launched a bilingual magazine called Payam-e-Zan (Women’s Message). In the same year, she visited France for the French Socialist Party Congress. She also established schools for Afghan refugee children, hospitals and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan. Her activities and views, as well as her work against the puppet regime and against fundamentalists led to her assassination, February 4, 1987.[1]
Early activities
Much of RAWA's efforts in the 1990s involved holding seminars and press conferences and other fund-raising activities in Pakistan. RAWA also created secret schools, orphanages, nursing courses, and handicraft centers for women and girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. RAWA also secretly filmed women being beaten in the street in Afghanistan by the religious police, and being executed. RAWA activities were forbidden by both Taliban or Northern Alliance.[2]
RAWA after the September 11, 2001 attacks
RAWA was highly critical of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, emphasizing casualties among the civilian population. The organization went so far as to threaten to sue United States authorities for unauthorized use of four photos from their website that were used in propaganda handbills that were dropped on various cities in Afghanistan during the 2001 invasion. [3] After the defeat of the Taliban regime by U.S. and Northern Alliance forces, RAWA warned against the Northern Alliance as being equally fundamentalist and dangerous. They continue to charge that the current government led by President Hamid Karzai has no support in most areas of Afghanistan, and that fundamentalists are enforcing anti-woman laws as they were under the Taliban. These claims are supported by media reports about the Herat government of Ismail Khan, who has created a religious police that forces women to obey strict dress and behavior codes, as well as many reports by Human Rights Watch. [4] [5]
Current activities
RAWA collects funds to support hospitals, schools and orphanages and still run many projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including a project in conjunction with CharityHelp.org for orphan sponsorships.
Recently RAWA started its mission inside Afghanistan and organize some of its events in Kabul. They marked the International Women's Day in Kabul on March 8, 2006, March 9, 2007 and March 8, 2008.
On September 27, 2006, a RAWA member for the first time (perhaps in the whole history of RAWA) appeared in a round table of a local Afghan TV channel called TOLO TV. She had a debate with a representative of a hard line fundamentalist group. She named the top leaders of the Islamic groups and termed them "war criminal and responsible for the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan". Tolo TV censored the audio of any sections where names were called.
On October 7, the Afghan Women's Mission (AWM) organized a fund raising event for RAWA in Los Angeles, California.[3] Eve Ensler was the chief guest and Sonali Kolhatkar and Zoya, a member of RAWA, were among the speakers.
Achievements
RAWA has so far won 16 awards and certificates from around the world for its work for human rights and democracy, some of the awards include The sixth Asian Human Rights Award - 2001 [6], The French Republic's Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Human Rights Prize, 2000 [7], Emma Humphries Memorial Prize 2001 [8], Glamour Women of the Year 2001 [9], 2001 SAIS-Novartis International Journalism Award from Johns Hopkins University [10], Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the U.S. Congress, 2004 [11], Honorary Doctorate from University of Antwerp (Belgium) for outstanding non-academic achievements [12], as well as many other awards.[13]
What others say about RAWA
In the book With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan' by Anne Broadsky, a number of world-known writers and human rights activists share their views of RAWA. They include Arundhati Roy who says "Each of us needs a little RAWA"; Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, who suggests that RAWA must stand as a model for every group working to end violence; Katha Pollitt, author of Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture; Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban and Jihad; and Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur of the UN and prominent women's rights activist of Pakistan are two Pakistanis who write about RAWA and express their support.[4]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Toynbee, Polly. "Behind the burka", The Guardian, September 28, 2001.
- ^ "RAWA testimony to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing", U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus, December 18, 2001.
- ^ The Afghan Women's Mission - AWM News
- ^ The Afghan Women's Mission - Books
Further reading
- Benard, Cheryl. 2002. Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-1301-9
- Brodsky, Anne E. 2003. With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93492-3
- Chavis, Melody Ermachild. 2004. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan : The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-30690-3
- Follain, John and Rita Cristofari. 2002. Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-06-009782-5
- Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls, 2006. Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence. [14]
- Mulherin, Jeannette E. 2004. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and their Commitment to the Establishment of a Secular Government in Afghanistan. Georgetown University, Washington DC: Masters Thesis