Weblog Entry - 06/07/2004: "SUPPORT AFGHAN WOMEN"

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06/07/2004 "SUPPORT AFGHAN WOMEN"

SUPPORT AFGHAN WOMEN
with the Feminist Majority Foundation
Boxer Introduces Bill For Afghan Women's Security and Freedom -- Urge Your Senators To Co-Sponsor
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced the "Afghan Women Security and Freedom Act 2004" (S2032) before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this week. Please email your Senators now and urge them to support Boxer’s bill to provide the necessary support and security for Afghan women and girls.
This act calls for direct funding for the Ministry of Women's Affairs, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and Afghan women's organizations. The bill authorizes $300 million for each of the fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007, earmarking $20 million for the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs and $10 million for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission each year. The act will fund programs for women in the areas of political and human rights, education and training, healthcare, and security, protection and shelter. According to the act, "not less than 25 percent of such assistance" should be provided to women-led non-governmental organizations that are located in Afghanistan.
In addition, the act calls for the expansion of international peacekeeping forces and the authorization of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and peace troops to intervene to stop human rights and women's rights violations, which the current mandates do not allow.
Please send a message today to urge your Senators to co-sponsor this important bill. Afghan women and girls need your support.
Want to do more than send email? Start an Action Team for Afghan Women and Girls

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CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO FIND THE BELOW SITES
MORE INFORMATION
Background of the Campaign to Help Afghan Women and Girls
For more alerts on this issue, see Equality Now's column:
Spotlight: Speaking Out About Global Violence
Other organizations working on this issue:
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
But I at green consciousness WOULD NOT OFFER ANY MONEY TO RAWA AS IT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN OR IRAQ.
I THEREFORE QUESTION ITS' USE OF MONEY RAISED IN THE UNITED STATES.
I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MONEY GOES TOWARD ASSISTING WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN.

I am a feminist and have been trying to help Moslem women since 1972 when I learned about female genital mutilation.
Because of my horror at the slave status of women in the middle east;and,
because I have tracked the Moslem brotherhood for a long time;
I DO support this war (Afghanistan/Iraq and hopefully Iran someday) with every fiber of my being.
And except for the CIA and Military Intelligence, I believe President Bush has done a good job in fighting terror and Sec. Rumsfeld has done a good job in planning and executing the war. Those who criticize the "bad post war planning" not only could not do better but never even comprehended the problem and still do not get it for the most part. Previous Democratic and Republican presidents both, walked past women in burkas, women obviously held in slave status, and they did nothing.

However, some things about groups now raising money "to help Afghanistan women " in the United States are disturbing to me. I have noticed there are woman's groups raising $ off the plight of women in Iraq and Afghanistan who ALSO present position papers against the "invasion" of those countries and against the occupation of those countries.
I have asked for an accounting of what happens with the money they raise and they refuse to disclose.
I believe these groups may be fronts, not legitimate organizations.

THREE Women's groups identified as being against the war are also "begging" for money for charitable purposes in Afghanistan and Iraq and one brags of having raised over $70,000.00 last year in the U.S.
These groups are RAWA, Women for Women, International and Women Helping Afghan Women.
http://rawasongs.fancymarketing.net/index.html
http://www.womenforwomen.org/

http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org/press_release/press022003.html
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I compared their anti-invasion press releases which explain why they are against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq - and they are all three the same press release. Women Helping Afghan Women is also asking for money for RAWA's so-called hospital located in PAKISTAN (not in Afghanistan where the "burn victim" are located).

RAWA is a group that tried to stop the US invasion of Afghanistan. After their leader was killed in Afghanistan, they used her martyrdom to raise money and then used that money for the anti-war movement.

The organizers are from the Pastune tribe which produced the Taliban. The Pastune's position in governing Afghanistan with the Taliban was the same as the Sunni's position with Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

I believe the leadership in RAWA shifted dramatically sometime after the murder of their leader. Although RAWA fundraises in the US, they opposed US intervention in Afghanistan, opposed working with all the ethnic tribes to govern Afghanistan and do not make public accounting for the money that is donated to their organization. This is dangerous.

I am very familiar with both socialist groups and CIA lack of ethics. They both often work through front groups. So do this country's terrorist enemies.

It is plausible that RAWA being no longer viable because of THEIR anti-invasion stance, had their US organizers simply branch off into another group.

Women for Women, International,(WFWI) uses the same anti-invasion Press Release but changes a few words, standing against the "invasion" of Iraq and Afghanistan, citing their poor country and fear of bombing. When I asked for their current stance they took all their "anti-war/women are under worse conditions after the war" articles off their website. They also refused to disclose any info about their U.S. woman employee who was killed organizing women in Iraq. I believe her first name was Fern.

WFWI, hired a U.S. women to organize in Iraq, primarily because of her strong contacts with members of the US Senate and House. Rather, she applied for a job position and they hired her. After some time of successful organizing of women in Iraq, she was killed by "terrorists".

Terrorist killed the WFWI organizer in Iraq after receiving intelligence concerning the organizer's movements. Women for Women International refuses to put a memorial to the dead organizer's efforts on their website. Then all the Iraqi women quit the projects she was organizing because they started getting death threats.

What a nice way to get Afghanistan and Iraqi women to refuse to step out of line. Just murder their organizers. Then claim that things are worse for women than before the United States' invasion as does RAWA and as did Women for Women International before they took the articles off their website.
Nice. A very effective tactic and one previously employed by terrorists world-wide..

So now we have, Women helping Afghanistan Women, (WHAW) - same Press Release against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, same request for donations to RAWA's "hospital" in Pakistan not Afghanistan on their website.

And now WHAW is advertising for a bookkeeper to work for them. They have refused to disclose to me their tax status and the amount of money they have raised for the hospital in Pakistan.

The position is advertised for a bookkeeper who speaks darsi - not much more info is given. Since money is the priority of Women Helping Afghan Women it stands to reason that bookkeeping in the U.S., not organizing in Afghanistan, is also their employment priority.

You do not need to be in Afghanistan to raise money -you can just take a plane to drop off used goods every once in a while to justify raising millions in the US.

The real question is, how long before those organizers who work for Women Helping Afghan Women and who might actually live in Afghanistan are killed as was the organizer who worked for Women for Women International was killed in Iraq?
Wouldn't it be horrible if these groups were, like Hamas, supposedly raising money for "charity" but actually funding terrorism?

I hope people on this website will e-mail Women Helping Afghan Women, Women for Women International and RAWA to ask the following questions. I hope anyone considering donating to these organizations will ask the following questions.

1. Ask for their PR against the war/invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and all the articles they had on their website on the "worse" position of women after the invasion.

2. Ask them to describe how they expected the Taliban to be overthrown without a US invasion.
3. Ask how they were going to change things for Iraq women/people without the US invasion?

4. Ask to see their current position on the wars for liberation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

5. Ask for a statement of accounting detailing the amount of funds donated to their organization, from what sources and an accounting of the distribution of funds that have been donated to their organizations.

5. Ask for the organization's tax status in this country.

6. Ask Women for Women International, why they refuse to discuss what happened to their Iraqi women's organizer or place a memorial to her on their website.
I am serious. I believe all these groups are front groups. For who or what? I do not know, but the liberation of women is NOT their primary purpose if they are against the U.S. invasion.
There could be no organizing for women in Iraq or Afghanistan, no changes in the status of women, as long as Hussein or the Taliban were in power. There will be no changes in the status of women in Iran without a U.S. invasion there either.

Considering that an innocent women went to work for WFWI Iraq and was KILLED because she was too successful, and that they are raising a lot of money without accounting for its' distribution, I think these three groups should be examined carefully.

If I am exposed as wrong that will be wonderful - but I want you who do support the war, to help me find out . We do not yet know if my suspicions are correct and I hope I am wrong - but if they are correct this is so disgusting because the women - and all the people of Afghanistan are so needy that this is the cruelest kind of exploitation.

I am not confusing the organizations with the legitimate needs of Afghan women for freedom and justice. The plight of Afghan women (and Iraqi women) is real - there is no gender justice in their male dominated society - the courts were designed to keep the women slaves of their male relatives.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020627.jhtml

The organization RAWA, and now it seems others as well,WHAW and WFWI, may be exploiting that situation to raise money from gullible women in the US. The question is -What did RAWA do with those funds? What are Women for Women International and Women Helping Afghanistan Women, doing with the money they are raising right now? Why won't they release their tax status or current position on the war?

BELOW ARE BETTER LINKS IF YOU WANT TO HELP IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WOMEN:

http://www.radiofeminista.net/25nov03/International2003.htm

http://www.fire.or.cr/agosto03/notas/kandahar.htm

http://www.state.gov/g/wi/c8973.htm

http://usawc.state.gov/index.htm

http://www.radiofeminista.net/25nov03/International2003.htm

http://www.fire.or.cr/agosto03/notas/kandahar.htm

http://www.state.gov/g/wi/c8973.htm

http://usawc.state.gov/index.htm

http://www.equalitynow.org/english/navigation/hub_en.html