SURVIVORS' RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL

SRI and WAPHA Participate in The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights Victims of Jihad-Terror Rally for Tolerance at the UN to Condemn Radical Islamic Regimes That Support Terrorism and Commit Atrocities in the Name of Jihad

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2002
Contact: Teresa Taylor
Executive Director, SRI
410-507-5007

The connection between employing genocidal policies or related crimes against humanity to destroy, control and terrorize specific identifiable groups within a state's own society, and adopting a friendly policy towards radical terrorist groups, is an inextricable component of the fundamentalist Islamic regimes in Sudan and Afghanistan. Sudan's ties to terrorism are as strong as Afghanistan's. Both Sudan and Afghanistan have used state-commissioned violence and state-sponsored terrorism to target its own people and Americans in the name of jihad. In several other countries jihadists have attacked non-Muslims and moderate Muslim minorities on religious grounds.

On January 9, 2002 SRI and WAPHA will join victims of jihad from around the world, including American victims of the Sept. 11th attacks, and other human-civil rights activists and media personalities as they rally for tolerance. This first-time union of American and foreign victims of Jihad is meant to demonstrate and build a united international effort to confront extremist movements based on Islamist Jihadism. Dr. Zieba Shorish-Shamley, WAPHA representative and Afghan woman, will speak out about the severe persecution of women and other crimes against humanity and human rights abuses under the Taliban regime at the Victims of Jihad-Terror Rally for Tolerance across from the UN in New York City at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th St. and 1st Ave. at 11:30 a.m.

In September 1996, life for women living in Afghanistan came to a virtual halt when the Taliban militia took over the Afghan capital of Kabul. Under Taliban rule, women were stripped of their basic human rights, such as the right to their own bodies, the right to speak, to give and receive health care, education, the right to work and walk down the street. Under the Taliban, women were stoned to death for traveling with a man who was not her relative, beaten by the hundreds for not being "properly "dressed, and shot at for leaving their homes without a male escort to receive medical care. The ban on women working has thrown tens of thousands of families into destitution because many women in Afghanistan are war widows and the sole source of support for their families. Before the Taliban occupation, women in Afghanistan were educated and employed: 50% of the students and 60% of the teachers at Kabul University were women, and 70% of school teachers, 50% of civilian government workers, and 40% of doctors in Kabul were women. Under Islam women are free to be educated, allowed to work, earn and control their own money, participate in public life, and granted equality to men and spiritual status. The Taliban gender apartheid has no basis in Islam.

Under the Taliban, men or women convicted of stealing had their hands amputated, and all punishments in the capital region, were carried out at an outdoor soccer stadium in Kabul. Relatives of their victims, who also had the authority under Islam to forgive the criminal and accept blood money instead, executed convicted killers. Those convicted of homosexuality were placed in front of a brick wall crashed down using a tank. After 30 minutes, the rubble was removed and anyone who survived was exonerated. Those convicted of having relations with someone they were not married to were sentenced to 100 lashings in the public eye. WAPHA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit and independent organization whose main goal is to promote awareness of the tragic human rights situation in Afghanistan and to advocate for social, political, economic and civil rights of Afghan women and girls in that country. www.wapha.org SRI is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness of contemporary acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes not receiving adequate media attention and stemming from conflict situations. www.survivorsrightsinternational.org

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