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RESEARCH
This page contains research I did for a project on the Taliban and women's rights in Afghanistan. I conducted all of this research before the September 11th attacks and do not claim to be an expert on either the Taliban or women's rights in Afghanistan. Please use the sources listed throughout this document to contact experts on the current situation in Afghanistan. Thanks.
Topic:The Taliban and women’s rights in Afghanistan
Synopsis:
I chose this topic because I am very interested in women's issues. I already know that the Taliban is an extreme Islamic fundamentalist movement/government that controls the majority of Afghanistan. The men do not believe in women’s rights and often force their wives and female relatives to live in terrible conditions characterized by abuse, neglect, and starvation. The Taliban is a relatively new movement, and its horrors have only recently been exposed to the outside public, at first, through secret video footage and the hard work of some Afghan women who are doing their best to fight back against the regime. Under the Taliban government, any actions that challenge Islam or go against governmental policy are often punishable by death. This policy has recently topped the headlines of US newspapers because of the eight foreign-aid workers currently jailed in Kabul for supposed Christian missionary activities in the country.
Through researching this topic I would like to familiarize myself with the history of the Taliban and find out how such an extreme and in many cases cruel regime was able to gain power without being stopped by either Afghan forces or international human rights groups. I would also like to explore the effects this regime has had on the women of Afghanistan. Have many women given up and resigned themselves to living lives of seclusion and unhappiness? Has any one woman or group of women been able to overcome this regime and regain some freedom? Where does the United States stand on the Taliban issue? Are there currently groups working to improve the lives of these Afghan women?
My intended audience is college students like myself. I want my peers to learn about the Taliban so that they can educate others about the situation in Afghanistan. I want my information to come across in an easy-to-read and straightforward manner that will have an impact on readers and make them sympathetic to the cause. I hope to use this research to paint a truthful and poignant picture of how desperate the situation in Afghanistan really is. I think that college students will be interested in my topic because international politics and women’s rights are popular issues on campuses around the world. There are many interest groups and classes dedicated to better understanding these topics, and the Taliban is a movement that is important for discussion as an example of an international government with strict gender policies.
Section I-b: Keywords
Taliban AND United States
Taliban w/5 Islam!
Search Engine on Web <http:// www.google.com>
Afghanistan and human rights abuses
Taliban and Eve Ensler and women
Print Sources:
Ellis, Deborah, 1960- Women of the Afghan War / Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000.
Call Number: HQ1735.6 .E45 2000
The Taliban's war on women: a health and human rights crisis in Afghanistan. Boston:
Physicians for Human Rights, c1998.
Call Number: HQ1735.6 .T35 1998
Fundamentalism reborn?: Afghanistan and the Taliban. New York: New York
University Press, 1998.
Call Number: DS371.3 .F86 1998
Non-paper Source:
Afghanistan [videorecording]: exporting the Taliban Revolution / Princeton, NJ: Films
For the Humanities & Sciences, c1999.
Call Number: 65-V7889
Beith, M.
& Dehghanpisheh, B. (2001, July 30). Tali-Banned.
Newsweek [Online], p. 6.
Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
[2001, September 14].
Bruce,
Ian. (2001, September 13). Snaring Bin Laden will take deaths, diplomacy, or
missiles. The Herald (Glasgow)
[Online], p. 6.
Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
[2001, September 14]
Howell, P. (2001,
September 8). Woman’s Journey to Afghanistan Inspired Movie.
Toronto Star [Online], p. A31. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic
Universe
[2001, September 12].
Hussain, Z. (2001, July 9). The Prison of the Veil.
class=MsoHyperlink>Newsweek [Online], p.26. Available:
LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, September 12].
Hussain, Z. & Piore, A. (2001, March 12). Destroying
the Afghan Past. Newsweek [Online], p.59. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic
Universe
[2001, September 12].
Nebenzahl, D. (2001, June 30). The terror of the Taliban: Woman
who campaigns for rights in Afghanistan can’t show her uncovered face in public.
The Gazette
(Montreal) [Online], no page reference. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS
Academic Universe [2001, September 12].
Title: The Taliban: Afghanistan’s fundamentalist leaders
Web Address: http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/taliban.htmlBrief Description: This site gives an overall description of the history of the Taliban movement, what it is, how the regime came to power, its policies toward women, and its reputation around the world. This concise description is great for people looking to learn the basic facts about the Taliban as a part of Afghanistan’s history and present-day culture.
Source: CBC News Online
Title: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers ban the Internet
Web Address: http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/12017.html
Brief Description: This site reports about the Taliban’s July 2001 decision to ban the internet in Afghanistan in order to block access to “immoral” information online that might go against Islamic ideals. Experts say that the ban will not make much of a difference because most Afghan citizens do not have access to computers, but, nevertheless, the ban denies Internet access to all students, intellectuals, and professionals.
Source: Newsfactor Network
Title: Bin Laden: Steganography Master?
Web Address:http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41658,00.html
Brief Description: This site talks about FBI concerns that terrorist Bin Laden is using internet message scrambling techniques to send out instructions and maps to followers and to evade police surveillance. He is using steganography, a way of hiding messages within other messages, to send his information over Internet web pages.
Source: Wired News
Title: Women's Health and Human Rights in Afghanistan
Web Address: http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v280n5/rfull/jsc80298.html
Brief Description: This site is an overview of a study conducted by the Women's Health Information Center and includes statistics and analysis about the conditions of Afghan women both before and after the Taliban took over in 1996. The information points to war trauma and human rights abuses that have severely affected the lives of many women in the country.
Source: The Women's Health Information Center
Title: The Taliban's War on Women: A health and human rights crisis in Afghanistan Executive Summary
Web Address: http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/exec.html
Brief Description: This site gives an in-depth summary of another study of women's health in Afghanistan under the Taliban. It includes methods of investigation, research results, and reasons women suffer from poor physical and mental health and recommendations for bettering the treatment of Afghan women.
Source: Physicians for Human Rights
Title: ACCESS DENIED!: The Taliban bans Internet use in Afghanistan, but will it make a difference?
Topic Area: Net Controversy and the Taliban
The Taliban is an extreme Islamic-Fundamentalist regime that came to power in Afghanistan in 1996 after taking control of the capital of Kabul. This takeover effectively ended years of civil war in the country and established the Taliban as the primary government and religious power. This new governing body did not, however, bring peace to Afghanistan. Instead, the Taliban has created a strict system of laws and regulations that require absolute compliance to the most conservative of all Islamic practices. These laws ban anything that the government considers even remotely immoral or anti-Islamic and have had devastating effects on Afghan women who now live their lives in seclusion and under constant moral scrutiny (3). As of 2001, the Taliban has added the Internet to the list of things deemed unacceptable in the Islamic state. This growing list already includes items such as lipstick, movies, fireworks, greeting cards, and Western clothes (1). The Internet is now strictly forbidden in all of Afghanistan, but will this sanction actually affect the Afghan people?
The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The vast majority of Afghan people is very poor and does not have access to computers at all, so the Internet was never a part of their lives to begin with. The ban will, therefore, not affect their daily lives at all. It will, however, affect the lives of the small percentage of professionals, doctors, and students in Afghanistan who gain most of their knowledge through internet resources coming from other, more developed countries around the world (1). For these people, the Internet ban means the loss of a huge source of information and connections to communities not related to the Taliban. This ban could potentially damage the already unstable economic system of Afghanistan by keeping it from receiving knowledge and advancing technologically.
The Taliban government, however, does remain hooked into the Internet. In fact, the FBI and CIA are speculating that terrorist Osama Bin Laden, who has been linked to the Afghan government before, sends information to his followers over the Internet using message scrambling techniques (2). It is very possible that much of the planning for the recent attack on the USA was orchestrated over the Internet because it is the fastest way to send information across the world.
Notes:
(1)Dehghanpisheh,
B. (2001, July 30). Tali-Banned. Newsweek [Online],
p. 6. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, September 14].
(2)
Bruce, Ian. (2001, September 13). Snaring Bin Laden will
take deaths, diplomacy, or
missiles. The Herald (Glasgow) [Online], p. 6. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS
Academic Universe [2001, September 14].
(3)Hussain, Z. (2001, July 9). The Prison of the Veil. Newsweek [Online], p.26. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe[2001, September 12].
Three Web Sites:
Title: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers ban the Internet
Web Address: http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/12017.html
Brief Description: This site reports about the Taliban’s July 2001 decision to ban the internet in Afghanistan in order to block access to “immoral” information online that might go against Islamic ideals. Experts say that the ban will not make much of a difference because most Afghan citizens do not have access to computers, but, nevertheless, the ban denies Internet access to all students, intellectuals, and professionals.
Source: Newsfactor Network
Title: Bin Laden: Steganography Master?
Web Address: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41658,00.html
Brief Description: This site talks about FBI concerns that terrorist Bin Laden is using internet message scrambling techniques to send out instructions and maps to followers and to evade police surveillance. He is using steganography, a way of hiding messages within other messages, to send his information over Internet web pages.
Source: Wired News
Title: The Taliban's War on Women: A health and human rights crisis in Afghanistan Executive Summary
Web Address: http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/exec.html
Brief Description: This site gives an in-depth summary of another study of women's health in Afghanistan under the Taliban. It includes methods of investigation, research results, and reasons women suffer from poor physical and mental health and recommendations for bettering the treatment of Afghan women.
Source: Physicians for Human Rights
This page was last modified 11-08-01.