Subject: From: "Manuel S. Malmierca" <msm(at)GUGU.USAL.ES> Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:58:50 +0100>Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:59:52 +0100 >To: sarabande(at)brandeis.edu >From: msm(at)gugu.usal.es >Cc: merchan, lopezde, saldana, plaza, vbajo, msm, nodal, riquelme, nodal, > riquelme, vero, mikelsan > >Please sign at the bottom to support, and include your town. Then >>copy and e-mail to as many people as possible. If you receive this list >>with more than 50 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to >><mailto:sarabande(at)brandeis.edu>sarabande(at)brandeis.edu Even if you decide >>not to sign, please be >>considerate and do not kill the petition. Thank you. It is best to copy >>rather than forward the petition. >TEXT: >> >> The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. The situation= is >>getting so bad that one person in an editorial of the times compared the >>treatment of women there to the treatment of Jews in pre-Holocaust >>Poland. >>Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua and >>have been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper attire, >>even if this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of their >>eyes. One woman was beaten to DEATH by an angry mob of fundamentalists= for >>accidentally exposing her arm while she was driving. Another was= stoned>to >>death for trying to leave the country with a man that was not a >>relative. >>Women are not allowed to work or even go out in public without a male >>relative; professional women such as professors, translators, doctors, >>lawyers,artists and writers have been forced from their jobs and stuffed >>into their homes, so that depression is becoming so widespread that it= has >>reached emergency levels. >> There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide >>rate with certainty, but relief workers are estimating that the suicide rate >>among women, who cannot find proper medication and treatment for severe >>depression and would rather take their lives than live in such= conditions, >>has increased significantly. Homes where a woman is present must have >>their windows painted so that she can never be seen by outsiders. They >>must wear silent shoes so that they are never heard. Women live in fear= of >>their lives for the slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot work,= those >>without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death or= begging >>on the street, even if they hold Ph.D.'s. There are almost no medical >>facilities available for women, and relief workers, in protest, have= mostly >>left the country, taking medicine and psychologists and other things >>necessary to treat the sky-rocketing level of depression among women. >> At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still, nearly >>lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their burqua, >>unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything, but slowly wasting away. Others >>have gone mad and were seen crouched in corners, perpetually rocking or >>crying, most of them in fear. One doctor is considering, when what= little >>medication that is left finally runs out, leaving these women in front of >>the president's residence as a form of peaceful protest. It is at the= point >>where the term 'human rights violations' has become an understatement. >>Husbands have the power of life and death over their women relatives, >>especially their wives, but an angry mob has just as much right to stone= or >>beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending >>them in the slightest way. >> Women enjoyed relative freedom, to work, dress generally as they wanted, >>and drive and appear in public alone until only 1996 -- the rapidity of >>this transition is the main reason for the depression and suicide; women >>who were once educators or doctors or simply used to basic human >>freedoms >>are now severely restricted and treated as sub-human in the name of >>right-wing fundamentalist Islam. It is not their tradition or >>'culture', >>but is alien to them, and it is extreme even or those cultures where >>fundamentalism is the rule women by the Taliban. >> >>************* >> STATEMENT: In signing this, we agree that the current treatment= of >>women in Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves support >>and>action by the people of the all members of the United nations,= United >>States and the U.S. Government and that the current situation overseas= will >>not be tolerated. Women's Rights is not a small issue anywhere and it >>is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 1998 to be treated as sub-human and so much= as >>property. Equality and human decency is a RIGHT not a freedom, whether= one >>lives in Afghanistan or the United States. >>***** >>1) Leslie London, Cape Town, South Africa >>2) Tim Holtz, Boston, MA >>3) Joyce Millen, Cambridge, MA >>4) Diane Millen, Falls Church, Va. >>5) Bill Millen, Falls Church, Va. >>6) Milt Eisner, McLean VA >>7) Harriet Solomon, Springfield, VA >>8) Arlene Silikovitz, West Orange, NJ >>9) Susanna Levin, New Rochelle, NY >>10) Ruth Slater, New Rochelle,NY >>11) Elisabeth Keane, Westport, CT >>12) Mercedes Lopez-Morgan, Chappaqua, NY >>13) Pete Morgan, Chappaqua, NY >>14) Aaron Cela, Chappaqua, NY >>15) Michelle Lee, San Francisco, CA >>16) Karen Muiter, San Mateo, CA >>17) Nate Walker, North Hills, CA >>18) Jasmyn Hatam San Jose, CA >>19) Josephine Thompson, Pacific Grove, CA >>20) Donnie Gallegos, San Francsico, CA >>21) Kate Lauer, New York, NY >>22) Melanie H. Stein, New York, NY >>23) Emanuela Silvestri, Brussels, Belgium >>24) Thinam Jakob, Brussels, Belgium >>25) Gillian Kenny, Brussels, Belgium >>26) Barbara Kj r, Brussels, Belgium >>27) Kirsten Christensen, Brussels, Belgium >>28) Sandrine Branquet, Brussels, Belgium >>29) Grazia Fiorello-Reina, Brussels, Belgium >>30) Nathalie Champenois, Brussels, Belgium >>31) Esra Tasasiz, Brussels, Belgium >>32) Rebecca Townsend, Brussels, Belgium >>33) Anne Van Roy, Brussels, Belgium >>34) Cynthia Bogaert, Brussels, Belgium >>35) Joelle Corroy, Brussels, Belgium >>36) Nicole Corroy, Brussels, Belgium >>37) Linda Van Lierde, Brussels, Belgium >>38) Kris Dejonckheere,Brussels, Belgium >>39) Chantal Zoller, Brussels, Belgium >>40) Elise Lennertz-Adam, Brussels, Belgium >>41) Francoise Pr=3D3DC8vot, Brussels, Belgium >>42) Guy Josens, Brussels, Belgium >>43) Charles Susanne, Belgium >>44) Tine Valentincic, Slovenia >>45) Kornel L. Kovacs, Szeged, Hungary >>46) Ines Soares, Sede Boqer, Israel >>47) Eduardo Santero, Sevilla, Spain >>48) Angel Velasco, Sevilla, Spain >>49)Senen Vilar=3DF3, Barcelona, Spain >>50) Isabel Fabregat Madrid, Spain >>51) Gemma Rguez-Tarduchy, Spain >>52) Antonio Villalobo, Madrid Spain >>53) Dolores Sol=EDs, Madrid, Spain >>54) Teresa Diaz-Mauri=F1o, Madrid, Spain >>55) Carlos Lopez-Garcia, Valencia, Spain > 56) Jose M. Delgado-Garcia, Sevilla, Spain =20 >57) Dolores L=F3pez, Salamanca, Spain > >Dolores E. Lopez >Dept. Biologia Celular y Patologia >Alfonso X El Sabio s/n >37007 Salamanca >Tel. 34-923-294400 Ext. 1865 >FAX: 34-923-294549 >e.mail: lopezde(at)gugu.usal.es > >http://www-incyl.usal.es/ > > > > ###################################################### Manuel S. Malmierca, M.D., Ph.D. Laboratory for the Neurobiology of Hearing The Institute of Neuroscience of 'Castilla y Leon' (INCyL) Faculty of Medicine. University of Salamanca Campus 'Miguel de Unamuno' 37007 Salamanca - Spain phone: 34 - 923 - 29 44 00, ext. 1861 or --- 29 45 63 fax: 34 - 923 - 29 45 49 e-mail: msm(at)gugu.usal.es http://www-incyl.usal.es/ ######################################################