Tuesday, December 05, 2006
They did it for the women. posted by Richard Seymour
Women's liberation in the New Afghanistan:"I have only just moved here,” Joya says. “I have to keep changing my house. I hate guns, but I have to have men with guns guarding me all the time. One day they will kill me. They kill women who struggle against them.” Although Joya hated wearing the burka during the Taliban years, she is still not able to take it off. “I wore it today,” she tells me, “while I was travelling, because I am not safe….”
“Here there is no democracy, no security, no women’s rights,” she says. “When I speak in parliament they threaten me. In May they beat me by throwing bottles of water at me and they shouted, ‘Take her and rape her.’ These men who are in power, never have they apologised for their crimes that they committed in the wars, and now, with the support of the US, they continue with their crimes in a different way. That is why there is no fundamental change in the situation of women.”