Pained people will one day rise, drive out occupiers ─ RAWA

Afghan Life
under foreign occupation

From “We Will neither Forgive nor Forget!”

Excerpt, minor editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

R

evolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan responded this month to the mid-December 2012 Paris summit on Afghanistan

We hope for:

Peace that is based on Afghanistan’s independence from the captivity of the United States 

The arrest, prosecution and punishment of traitorous brutes 

Accountability for the billions of dollars from each of them and their affiliates 

Otherwise, our people will not see a ray of peace, democracy, progress or prosperity.  

Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai
Taliban to  Paris talksDecember 2102

Spectacle: insulting, painful games played with suffering nation

This time, it is the performance of an agonizing drama: the Paris Conference endorsing and supporting the United States which has gathered the enemies ─ from the Northern Alliance, Taliban, Gulbuddin’s party, Al-Qaeda, the United Front, the Afghan High Peace Council, the National Coalition, the Truth and Justice Party, and others ─ to bring peace for our people.

W

hat is most painful is not why these gangs of professional killers with their mouths filled with blood are sitting around a table and talking about peace nor is it the prospect of these treacherous murderers reaching an agreement for creating a joint government to butcher our people with a reinforced comfort they never had before. The actual issue is that the propaganda machine of U.S. occupiers and their allies have all created such hue and cry through their experts, analysts, and pet bondservants such as  Zarif Nazar from Radio Azadi (RFE/RL Dari), Dr. Akbar Wardak, Dr. Ahmad Mahjoor, Wahid Muzhda and others who championed the Paris Conference with such enthusiasm as to say the people of Afghanistan have only this choice: if they want peace, they have to submit themselves to these murderers for these are the undoubted leaders of Afghanistan ….

French President
Pakistan President
discuss Afghanistan
December 2012

But they have stupidly misjudged our people to be as senseless as they are traitorous and corrupt.

Peace is only attainable through the prosecution and punishment of these criminals and national traitors. By sacrificing justice, our people will never see peace.…

T

he U.S. ─ wanting the world to know that it is responsible for establishing order in the world and that nothing in the world changes without its will ─ can maybe extend its presence in the region by bringing together our enemies of different species and tightening their leashes in its hands; it can create a regime far more mafia, dependent, corrupt, anti-people and ridiculous than the current one in our homeland. But after the expiration date of its dirty creations ─ as it did with the Shah of Iran, Hosni Mubarak, Pinochet, Suharto, Zia Ul Haq, Noriega and its other lackeys ─ it will take each by the tail and throw them aside like mice.

RAWA EDUCATION

Consequence

Surely a day will come when the U.S. government will become weak due its fatal financial crisis and the justice-seeking movement of its people and the mass uprisings in different parts of the world or it will face a downfall and the pained people of Afghanistan will drive away the U.S. occupiers in an ultimate uprising ─ just as brave people of Vietnam drove away the occupiers half-dangling from helicopters ─ and will prosecute and punish the fundamentalists and other indigenous elements.

RAWA orphanages

 

O

ur people have a tough path filled with hindrances in front of them. But history has proved to us time and again that the superpower U.S. and its filthy creations of different religious and non-religious kinds are no more than paper tigers in the face of the will of a fearless nation that rises against them with a revolutionary leadership. This is not just a slogan. If the former Soviet Union suffered a bitter defeat on our soil, so can the United States.

RAWA school

Power of Afghan people

Let there be hundreds of conferences ─ Paris or otherwise ─ our people will not forgive and forget the traitors and criminals of the past three decades.

Our people do not want the U.S. bases or a single government composed of Jehadi, Talib and Gulbuddini murderers, and their Parchami and Khalqi cowards.

Our people want an independent and democratic Afghanistan ─ free from the fetters of fundamentalism.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, January 2, 2012

Sources and notes

RAWA.org, January 17, .2013:

“Paris Conference: We Will Neither Forgive nor Forget! Our people do not want the U.S. bases or a single government composed of Jehadi, Talib and Gulbuddini murderers, and their Parchami and Khalqi cowards.” http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2013/01/17/rawa-statement-on-paris-conference.html

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is “an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan.

“The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who was assassinated in 1987 in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

“RAWA’s objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women’s human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment in Afghanistan of a government based on democratic and secular values.

“Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.” http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

Paris Conference reported in Afghanistan news sources

Taliban to attend Paris conference on Afghanistan, December 10, 2012,

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/taliban-to-attend-paris-conference-on-afghanistan-303686

… Three day conference on Afghanistan in Paris where Taliban group and Islamic Party of Afghanistan representatives attended the summit along with the 17 other representatives from various organizations, http://www.khaama.com/karzai-insists-for-caution-in-peace-talks-with-taliban-2072?s=paris+summit

Afghan peace council meets Taliban in Paris Conference, By Mirwais Adeel - December 17 2012, 4:06 pm, http://www.khaama.com/afghan-peace-council-meets-taliban-in-paris-conference-1136

Paris Conference Concluded! Outlook Afghanistan | December 24, 2012: “For the first time, representatives of various factions involved in Afghan conflict came together to discuss the future of Afghanistan.

“The two-day Paris conference concluded on Friday, December 21, 2012. It was the first conference of its kind since the ouster of Taliban government in Afghanistan. The conference is deemed as an important step forward in involving Taliban in Afghanistan’s political mainstream.

“For the first time, representatives of various factions involved in Afghan conflict came together to discuss the future of Afghanistan. Although the Taliban representatives remained confined to the contents of declaration they had brought with them, their participation in an international conference can be called a political win for the Afghan government, http://www.wahdatnews.com/archives/1159

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Marshall sees through sentimental journey

Feminist Peace Network founder Lucinda Marshall’s “Cup of Rancid Tea” puts “savior” Mortenson and his three cups in perspective

Edited excerpt by Carolyn Bennett

“In a country that has spent the last 10 years fighting wars we cannot win,” Marshall begins, “and which have cost so much, in every sense of the word — it is understandable that Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea describing the journey that led him to want to build schools, especially for girls, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, struck a chord.

“It was a story that many wanted to believe.  We wanted there to be a romanticized way that the white colonizer could convince the dark heathens that we would save them. We needed a Lawrence of Arabia-looking hero and Mortenson fulfilled our fantasy.…

“[T]he Mortenson story is merely a variation of the ‘we are better than everyone else therefore we must save them and show them the wisdom of our ways’ mythology that poisons so much of our public dialog.”

However, let us remember, Marshall says, “that Mortenson is hardly the first person to observe that educating children, especially girls, is a very effective way to better society.  Human rights groups have been saying this six-ways-to-Sunday for a very long time.

“If we truly bought into this theory, we would be spending a great deal more on education and a great deal less on military action.

“Women’s rights groups such as RAWA [Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan] were operating schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan long before Mortenson showed up to discuss the matter with male warlords and elders of remote villages — the very same warlords and elders who threaten RAWA [Afghan activist, feminist, leader Malalai Joya] and its work.

“RAWA  operates on very minimal funds, faces great danger, usually the disapproval of elders and warlords and only generates niche support in [the United States] while  Mortenson catches the attention of the whole country — for the simple reason that we were brought up to believe that this was the model of heroism that will save the world.”

Marshall suggests that we are in this respect delusional. Mortensen’s tea saves nothing nor will a brand of anachronistic nonsense save anything, least of all the world.

Sources and notes

 “A cup of rancid tea” (Lucinda Marshall), April 24, 2011, http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2011/04/24/a-cup-of-rancid-tea-2/

Andy Worthington on Guantanamo files, Lucinda Marshall on Greg Mortenson” —

CounterSpin (4/29/11-5/5/11), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4280

Lucinda Marshall

Writer, speaker Lucinda Marshall is the Director of the Feminist Peace Network (FPN) she “founded in December 2001 as a virtual ‘room of our own’ where women concerned about how the impending U.S. invasion of Afghanistan (and later Iraq) would impact women’s lives could share their thoughts and ideas for action in a safe, supportive space.”  Initially focusing on militarism, Marshall has expanded the work to address “other terrorism, the systemic global pandemic of misogyny and violence against women.” http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/about/lucinda-marshall/

“Fake feminist bona fides— HRClinton’s State Department strikes again —bans Afghan MP/women’s rights activist until pushed to lift ban”  (Todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com Friday, March 25, 2011, http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/fake-feminist-bona-fides.html

Sources and notes

“Four things you can do about Malalai Joya’s Visa Denial,” (ACTION ALERT: AWM News, Campaigns), March 18, 2011, http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1258

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977, http://www.rawa.org/index.php

Independent-minded Afghan feminist, activist, Member of Parliament Malalai Joya is a vocal defender of human rights, a passionate opponent of fundamentalism, and a fearless advocate of a civic Afghan culture. Malalai Joya is author of A Woman among Warlords: the Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice

“Speaking truth to warlords Banned Afghan MP Malalai Joya on her country’s corruption, the bravery of women and being squashed between two powerful forces,”

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2009/111909/news1.html

“U.S. Reverses Visa Denial to Afghan Activist,” March 25, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/25/headlines

Afghan Women’s Mission

The Afghan Women’s Mission was founded in January 2000 by a small group of Americans to support the humanitarian and political work of RAWA. Projects include many programs run by Afghan women including Malalai Clinic, schools, orphanages, agricultural programs, demonstrations and functions in support of women’s and human rights. We are an all-volunteer organization based in the United States.

The Afghan Women’s Mission was founded in response to the compelling need for adequate hospital facilities near Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Their first undertaking was the re-opening of the Malalai Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. This flagship project was effectively started in late 2001. In 2005, Malalai Hospital was transitioned into Malalai Clinic in Khewa refugee camp, http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?page_id=2

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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