Normally, the list rules at trainspotters, are no forwarding
of posts to other lists, but, given that this is entirely in
the public domain already and has nothing gossippy (damn!) or
sensitive in it, here 'tis. Michael Pugliese
>From: david stitt <whatsleftusa at yahoo.com>
>To: leftist_trainspotters at yahoogroups.com
>Date: 12/8/01 4:19:16 AM
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>From today's (8-Dec-01) Boston Globe, a story on the
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>new interim Afghan government's minister of women's
>
>affairs, Dr. Sima Samar, describes her as a "former
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>Maoist" (Eternal Flame party) and a founder of RAWA...
>
>
>
><a href="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/342/nation/an_afghan_exile_returns_to_stand_up_for_women+.shtml">http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/342/nation/An_Afghan_exile_returns_to_stand_up_for_women+.shtml</a>
>
>
>
>AN AFGHAN EXILE RETURNS TO STAND UP FOR WOMEN
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>
>
>KABUL, Afghanistan - Dr. Sima Samar enjoyed the story
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>so much she told it again and again, laughing each
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>time.
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>
>
>A fellow ethnic Hazara woman had taken to riding
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>around conservative Kandahar on a motorcyle. Her
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>behavior was driving the city's ethnic Pashtuns mad.
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>
>
>Then there was the Kandahar woman who wanted her house
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>back after the Taliban had seized it. The case went
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>before a judge, and Samar loved that the woman removed
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>her head-to-toe burka in court. She loved even more
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>that the woman punched the judge in the face for his
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>indifference.
>
>
>
>''Sima's very funny, and she just loves recounting
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>ridiculous aspects of Afghan society,'' said Robert
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>Kluijver, a United Nations civil officer in Kabul who
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>heard her recount both episodes. ''She's progressive.
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>She's a powerful character. She just forces admiration
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>from everyone.''
>
>
>
>Samar, 44, is in a position to bring about real change
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>in Afghanistan, where until recently women were barred
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>from working and girls from attending school. She is
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>one of just two women, both medical doctors, named to
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>the country's transitional government.
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>
>
>As minister of women's affairs, and one of five deputy
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>premiers in the Cabinet, Samar will have the ears of
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>Afghan leaders and the eyes of the world. The other
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>woman appointee is Dr. Suhaila Seddiqi, 60, a Kabul
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>surgeon who was named health minister.
>
>
>
>An exile returning to Kabul for the first time in
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>years, Samar will insist on the equality she has come
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>to expect for herself and other women, those who know
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>her said. But beyond exiles and international aid
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>officials, Samar is mostly unknown in Afghanistan.
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>
>
>Despite the hospitals she has built and the schools
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>she has opened for girls in rural areas populated by
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>minority Hazaras, few knew her name until her
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>appointment this week. What they did know pertained
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>more to the Maoist politics she once embraced than to
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>the people whose circumstances she has dedicated
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>herself to improving.
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>
>
>''She's not a famous doctor; no one knows her because
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>of medicine,'' said Dr. Massouda Jalal, a physician
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>with the UN World Food Program who years ago assessed
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>a funding proposal from Samar. ''But she's from a very
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>well-known family in her area, one of the richest.
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>People knew her because of them and because of her
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>politics in the past. Everyone knew about that.''
>
>
>
>Those stances - pro-worker, anti-religion- may have
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>gotten her first husband killed by political opponents
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>of the Eternal Flame party to which Samar and her
>
>husband belonged. Arrested during the Russian invasion
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>in 1979, he was never seen again. Samar fled
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>Afghanistan for Pakistan, where she worked in a
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>refugee camp and opened a hospital in 1987.
>
>
>
>Today the remarried mother of two lives in Quetta,
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>near the Afghan border, a proximity that has allowed
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>her to slip in and out of her homeland on occasion.
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>From outside Afghanistan, political observers said,
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>she pushed for progress inside the country. Still,
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>women in Afghanistan remain emotionally scarred by the
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>Taliban.
>
>
>
>''We're a little hopeful, because women have been
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>ignored for 20 years - all the focus was on men,''
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>Samar told the Calgary Sun newspaper in Canada, where
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>she was on a tour this week to accept a human rights
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>award.
>
>
>
>Mary Durran of Rights and Democracy, the Quebec-based
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>group that gave the award, said in a telephone
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>interview that Samar reacted with disbelief when her
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>son called before dawn to say she had been named
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>minister of women's affairs. She said that Samar was
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>''a little daunted but ready to take on the task.''
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>She added, ''It's been the focus of her life's work.''
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>
>
>
>
>Samar's focus has long been on women. During her first
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>years in Pakistan, she helped form a women's group so
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>radical that it named itself the Revolutionary Afghan
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>Women's Association. Those earlier politics, which
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>Kluijver said she had not completely abandoned, could
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>cause problems in Afghanistan, which the Taliban
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>turned into a puritanical Islamic state. Samar doesn't
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>like to discuss them even now.
>
>
>
>''This is a traditional society very much based on
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>religion, and I worry that religious groups won't work
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>with her because of the stamp of Maoism,'' said a
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>Kabul physician and activist feminist who did not want
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>to be identified because she probably will work with
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>Samar. ''The whole of Herat, the area where she is
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>from, the whole of the country, knew that she was
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>kafir,'' or religiously unclean.
>
>
>
>Samar, however, hasn't emphasized politics in years,
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>at least not publicly. Instead, as head of her own
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>nongovernmental organization Shuhada - named after
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>martyrs who died and achieved heavenly status - she
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>has focused on contacting donors, getting medical care
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>for the needy, and putting girls in school, colleagues
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>said.
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>
>
>''She doesn't run an NGO emporium,'' Kluijver said.
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>''She goes out and does the work herself.''
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>
>
>Through Shuhada, that work has helped educate more
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>than 17,000 girls in Afghanistan as well as refugee
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>girls in Quetta. Samar now has four hospitals and 10
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>clinics for Afghan women and children. Her
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>organization also distributes food and information on
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>family planning in a country where women have an
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>average of 6.9 children, according to the UN.
>
>
>
>In an interview with the Associated Press, Samar said
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>the UN-brokered government's top priorities must be
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>getting food to people during the harsh winter and
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>creating a safer climate for women.
>
>
>
>''She's done very well for the people,'' said Dr.
>
>Bashir Noormal, education and training coordinator at
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>the UN World Health Organization in Kabul. ''It's a
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>fortunate symbol for all Afghans, not just women, that
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>we could find a woman to lead.''
>
>
>
>That symbolism has not been lost on Afghan women.
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>While Dr. Said Karim Zarif, president of Malalay
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>Maternity Hospital in Kabul, insisted that every
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>minister in the Cabinet should be a man, obstetrician
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>Massouda Faizee said Samar's appointment gave her both
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>a sense of pride and hope.
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>
>
>Saria Parlika, a Kabul feminist who has been trying to
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>organize protest marches against the burka, said she
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>was stunned when she heard of the appointments on
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>Afghan radio. Her second reaction: Why only two female
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>ministers? ''But two is better than one or none,''
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>Parlika said.
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>
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>Over green tea last night, four women - three former
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>educators and a government official - agreed that it
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>will take more women to make Afghanistan hospitable to
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>their gender again. In the interim, the women said,
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>Samar will have their support, although none had heard
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>of her before this week. Together they will make
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>Afghan men listen, they said.
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>
>
>''Although she was not physically here in Afghanistan,
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>she was here,'' said Shahla Maihandost, who headed
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>government departments in northern Afghanistan before
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>the Taliban forced women to stay at home. ''She was
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>always in close contact. She can understand our
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>problems. She had problems of her own. She knows how
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>much better it should be.''
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>
>
>***************
>
>
>
>From this and other comments and articles I've seen
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>about RAWA, it seems very likely that most of its
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>founders were probably in or around the "Flame-ist"
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>(Maoist) movement from the 1970s.
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>
>
>-- Dave S
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>=====
>
>What's Left in the USA:
>
><a href="http://people.ne.mediaone.net/lexdave/whatsleft.html">http://people.ne.mediaone.net/lexdave/WhatsLeft.html</a>
>
>
>
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