‘Firoz uncle, we kept our promise’

November 30, 1998

In the December 1997 issue of Communalism Combat, we had featured ‘Pathare Prabhus in a Muslim Mohalla’ as the cover story. It was the story of a Hindu family from the Muslim–majority pocket of Mahim in Mumbai recounting how their Muslim neighbours had ensured that the few Hindus living in their midst felt safe and secure throughout the bloody riots in December 1992 and January 1993.

Shortly after the report was published, Firoz Khan, one of our regular readers, called to say that he had liked the story very much. He also added that it was only fair that Communalism Combat published his experience during the riots so that the magazine’s readers got to know the other side of the picture, too. The January riots were virtually a city–wide pogrom against Muslims instigated by Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray. But in the midst of murder and mayhem, a prominent Sena leader and local Shiv sainiks ensured that no harm came to Firoz Khan and his family — the only Muslims determined not to move out of their Hindu predominant locality in central Mumbai.

We are happy to place before our readers the praiseworthy, if isolated, conduct of a group of Shiv Sainiks, while fellow sainiks elsewhere in the city engaged in killing, loot and arson.

I live in a predominantly Hindu area, Fitwala Road right opposite Elphinstone Road station (Mumbai), with my wife, three children and my 87–year–old father. After the second bout of riots started on January 7, 1993, I started receiving a string of threatening phone calls throughout the day and till late at night.

First they spoke in Marathi: "Kai landya? Ajoon ithe ahe ka? Ajoon gela nahi? Jyastee vel ithe rahoo nako (Hey landya — a derogatory word for Muslims — you are still here? You haven’t yet disappeared? For your own good, don’t stay on too long)".

I would listen to all this and hang up, without reacting. They probably thought that being a Muslim I could not follow Marathi well. (In fact, I understand and speak Marathi very well). So, the same people started speaking to me in Hindi, or simple Urdu.

"Kyon? Apne aap ko Tees Maar Khan samajhte ho kya? Abhi tak gaye nahin? Apni jaan, apni biwi, bachhon ki jaan pyari nahin hai kya? (So? Do you think you are a super man or what? Haven’t disappeared yet? Don’t you value your own and your family’s lives?)"

I would ask: "Bhai, aap koun hain? Kahan se bol rahe hain? (Brother, who are you? Where are you calling from?) "

They would answer: "Tumhara baap hoon (I am your dad speaking)". (laughs).

I’d say: "Mera baap to mere paas mere ghar mein baitha hua hai. Tumhara baap kaun hai, mujhe maloom nahin. Baher haal, main yeh jagah khali kar ke nahin jaoonga (I have no idea who your father is but my father is sitting right next to me. In any case, I have no intentions of leaving this place)".

My father had seen the 1948 riots. One day when he was going to work, they stabbed a Muslim — a fellow railway employee — before his very eyes. He picked up the wounded man in his arms and carried him to the railway dispensary, which was about half-a-mile from there. The man survived. I was only about 7–years–old at the time, but I’ve often heard stories about the partition riots and how bad they were from my father and my uncle.

When the calls continued, I told one of them one night: "My father lived through the experience of the 1947 riots. Consider that I want to live through the 1993 riots and that’s why I do not want to leave this place". I also said: "I was born and brought up in this very locality. I was educated here, I work here. As a kid, I learnt to speak Marathi to interact with other kids my age most of whom were Marathi speaking Hindus. My childhood mates became an integral part of my life and I of theirs. Those people are saying nothing to me and I have full faith that they never will. You are youngsters of today. Why are you so interested that I move out with my family?"

"There are two possibilities," I said, "Either you want to loot my house in our absence, or you want to murder us. If you wanted to murder us, you could have done it anyway, there was no need to call. So, obviously, you just want to loot my home".

They said: "Zyaada baatein mat karo. Apne aap ko Mahatma samajhte ho kya? Bahut bada bahadur samajhte ho? Yaad rakho, pachtaoge (Don’t talk too much. You think you are a Mahatma or some kind of a super man. Remember, you’ll regret it) ".

I said: "I’m going to stay right here".

They asked, "Kyon? Tumhara koi watan nahin hai kya? (Why? Don’t you have a native place?)"

I said, "Sara Hindustaan mera watan hai (All of India is my native place) ".

They asked, "No, no, don’t you have some native place?"

I said, "Yes, I’m from Surat".

"So, then, why don’t you go to Surat? Bambai mein kya rakha hai tumhare liye? (What’s there for you in Mumbai?) "

I said, "Bambai mein mera sab kuch rakha hai (Everything dear to me is in Mumbai)". My grandfather is buried here in a cemetery. And if I have to be buried in Bombay, I’ll be proud to lie right next to my grandfather. Do what you like but I am not going to leave this house. I was born here, lived here and I’ll die here. And, let me tell you one thing more. Birth and death is in the hands of God. If he has decreed me to die at your hands, I can change nothing and neither can you." But the calls kept coming, even till two, three in the morning.

On a few occasions, the caller was a woman! She’d ask for my wife and tell her: "Your husband doesn’t understand, but you’re a sensible woman. Why don’t you explain to him, take all you have and leave for your village. There’s no use your staying here. Aapka zindagi bhar ka ghaata ho jayega (You’ll lose your entire life’s possession)."

My wife and father would get scared. They’d keep telling me: "There’s no point staying on here. Why don’t we just leave for the village? We have a house there".

But I would try to give them courage. I told my father: "Don’t worry. You were here in 1948, what happened to you? Now, in 1993, I’m here. If nothing happened then, nothing will happen now. I am convinced of that".

My father asked, "What makes you so confident? Don’t you read the newspapers?"

I said, "I have nothing to say about Bombay as such but I can speak with confidence about my own friends, my own neighbours, all the people I’ve grown up with. After all, I’ve spent full 57 years of my life with them here.

He said, "Nahin, ab inke aankhon mein khoon utar aaya hai (No, there’s blood in their eyes now). Anything can happen any time. The very people you have eaten and rejoiced together with could attack you".

I said, "No. Something inside me says nothing will happen, I have faith in God. No, we’re not going anywhere. Neither me, nor you, nor the family".

By January 9 the tension had mounted to a pitch. The pressure became too much. The phone calls increased, the riots escalated. The funniest part was that the Shiv Sainiks in our area started receiving parcels containing bangles and bits of women’s plaited hair along with a message: ‘Here, put on these bangles since you are incapable of throwing out a single Muslim family from your area’.

They would bring those to me and say, "Look Uncle, this is what we got today".

You see, the Shiv Sainiks in my area today are sons of my childhood friends. That’s why I am Uncle to them. Besides, I have given free tuition to many of them in their student days, as their parents, being poor railway workers, couldn’t afford much for their education. I’ve always tried to do whatever I could to solve any problem if it came up. For example, when some of the kids were taken in by the police, I’d go to the police station, vouch for the boys’ character, and get them released without any case being registered. It meant a lot to me that in the midst of the madness in January 1993, these boys remembered what I had done for them and supported me fully during the riots. Outsiders constantly tried to instigate them, but they kept their cool.

On the night of January 9, I received a phone call around 11:30 p.m. As I mentioned above, by then the tension was becoming too much. The doors and windows of our house were bolted. Inside, my family members were full of apprehension. This is because a masjid in our locality and a few shops belonging to Muslims had been attacked and broken into. The shops were looted and then set on fire. By then, even I was beginning to feel quite scared. When the phone rang, I somehow controlled my fear and picked up the receiver.

"Firoz, do you recognise my voice?" the caller asked. Though the voice seemed familiar, I couldn’t recognise it because of my state of fear.

"Sorry, I don’t," I replied.

"Arrey, main Datta Nalawade bol raha hoon". (Datta Nalawade is a prominent Sena leader).

Dattaji and I were good friends in our youth. The tone of his voice made me feel better.

"Bol Datta," I ventured.

"Kya kar raha tha? (What were you doing?)," he asked.

"Jaag raha tha, apni family ke saath, (Staying awake, me and my family)," I said.

"That’s why I called," he responded. "I knew Bhabhi and Babuji must be worried. Have you been receiving threatening phone calls?"

"Yes", I said, "I have been getting lots of them, full of threats.

"Phir, tumne kya socha hai? (So, what have you decided?)," he asked.

"Datta, chahe mar jayen, par yahan se nahin jayenge (Datta, even if we are killed, we are not moving from here," I said.

"I am really, really happy to hear your reply. Despite all that is happening, one man is determined not to go away from us," said Datta.

Moments later, he added, "OK, now open up your windows and your door. Look outside". He promised that absolutely nothing would happen to my family or me.

I said, "Dattaji, you’re in Worli, I’m in Elphinstone. Still, if you say so, I’ll believe you".

He said, "Just open the door and windows and take a look outside."

I didn’t have the courage to open the door. When I peeped out of the window, a saw a group of 15–20 well built youth standing outside our building, talking amongst themselves. Minutes later, our door bell rang. My family thought — this is it, they’ve come finally. I told my family members to go into the inside room while I went to open the door.

As soon as I opened the door, the youngsters I had seen standing outside trooped in one by one, each one touching my (‘Uncle’s) feet. I couldn’t believe it. When they saw this, my wife and father, too, felt somewhat reassured and came out. I now recognised each of the young men who had come in. I had given free tuition to many of them.

Once inside, Ravindra Savant, the local shakha pramukh who was with the rest, came forward and said, "Uncle, we’ve come to tell you something."

I said, "I apologise, but as I’m elder than you, may I say something before you say anything?"

They said, "Sure". So, I said, "Phone pe phone aa rahe hain. Ghar chod ke chale jaao (We have been receiving an endless stream of phone calls telling us to leave our home and go away)". Have you come to say the same thing? If so, forget it. Do as you like. Now, I’ve even invited you in. Now you can do as you like with my family and me. But, don’t ask me to leave."

Savant, the shakha pramukh, laughed.

Then he said, "Uncle, bas itni hi izzat ki meri? Arrey, koun mai ka laal hai jo hamare Firoz uncle ko yahan se bahar hatayega? (Uncle, is that what you think of us? Who dare get our Firoz uncle out of his home?). We’ll have a Shiv Sainik guarding each of the 50 steps from your flat to the footpath below. They’ll have to get past 50 of us to get to your door. We’ve come to talk of your protection, not to throw you out".

When we heard that, my entire family felt very relieved. Even in such impassioned times, there were people who had not forgotten past relations. I was very moved. Whatever may have happened or was happening elsewhere in the city, at least with me, in my locality, there was no ill–treatment.

While I was speaking with them, my father blurted out, "You say, you will not allow outsiders in and the kids from here will not harm us in any way. People interviewed by newspapers keep saying, ‘We didn’t do anything, people came from the outside’. How would outsiders know exactly which building and which flat a Muslim family resides in? It would have to be someone from the mohalla who informs the outsiders".

On this, a couple of the sainiks spoke up together: "Uncle, don’t ask us about other mohallas and other people. Talk about Fitwala Road, Raja Building and the Firoz Khan who lives here in flat no.35. We will not allow any harm to come to him or his family, and that’s a promise. And if despite our best efforts something were to happen here, then this family alone will not move out from here. Several Hindu families will also leave the area with you. If Firoz Uncle’s family has no right to live here, no Hindu family has any right to live here either".

The entire area was under curfew. They asked my wife what was needed at home. They said they’d arrange for everything and assured us that as long as there was curfew, they would look after everything and there was no need for any of my children to step out of home.

And before 11 the next morning, they brought us everything we needed. I don’t know from where, because all the shops were closed. On January 9, 10, 11 so much happened in the city but we were totally safe in the midst of our Hindu neighbours and under the care of local sainiks.

Even our neighbours came frequently to reassure us that they would not allow anything to happen to us. "If you leave, that will be a great insult to us", they’d say. "We will feel that all the sweets we’ve exchanged on Diwali and Eid, all the goodwill that existed between us all these years, was a sham. Your leaving will mean you no longer trust us. And the heartbreak that that will cause will perhaps be beyond repair. If you wish, our men and women will come and sleep in your house and you can all come and sleep in ours. We are with you, we’ll do whatever you want to make you all feel safe. But, for God’s sake, do not leave".

We stayed on. Slowly, things returned to normal. After peace had returned to the city, the sainik boys who had stood by us came to say, "Uncle, we kept our promise". We gratefully agreed.

I know that a lot of people in Mumbai went through a terrible ordeal during the 1993 riots. Even in our mohalla, there were a few unfortunate incidents. Some shops were looted. Soon after the riots, many Muslims sold off their shops and left the area. We tried to stop them: Think of it as a storm that has blown over. It’s not going to come back. Why are you selling your houses and leaving?"

But they said: "Nahin, ab dil uth gaya hai, ab yahan nahin rahna (No, our heart is no longer in this place, we can no longer live here)." So, they went away. We couldn’t stop them. But, the rest of us live together, celebrate our festivals — Diwali, Eid, Christmas — together now.

Even before the riots we used to celebrate festivals together. Unfortunately, in the build up to the Babri Masjid demolition, young minds were being systematically inflamed. Rath yatras, cassettes with incendiary speeches of Uma Bharati and others in wide circulation, being relayed through loudspeakers in the neighbourhoods until late at night.

Firoz Khan
(As told to Javed Anand)

Archived from Communalism Combat, December 1998. Year 6, No. 49, Ethos

Saffron blight

November 30, 1998

The BJP’s rout in the Assembly polls marks a major setback for the
Sangh Parivar’s agenda

The rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections in north India last month marks a major
setback not only for the Vajpayee government in power at the Centre, but possibly, also for the long term trajectory of its ideological programme. The poll itself was inevitably dominated in a manner reminiscent of Indira Gandhi’s comeback bid in 1980, by the rise in prices of essential commodities in general and onions in particular.
But, this was only one facet of the campaign. The question common to the three states in the Hindi belt was whether or not they considered the BJP a credible governing party. The answer was in the negative, not only in Delhi and Rajasthan, but even in Madhya Pradesh where the Congress easily won back power.

Given the context of the recently concluded polls, the issues of sectarianism or pluralism were not in the forefront of public debate. This was in marked contrast to the poll scenario in some of these same states five years ago. But then, that was a time when the dust had hardly settled after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in 1992. The saffron party under Advani was a power on the rise and its own ideological agenda, in its raw, undiluted form, was up before the electorate. Since that rout, the parivar has put forward a different shade of saffron.

Even when they agree on the essence, Advani and the parliamentary leader of the party since 1996, Vajpayee, do have marked differences in terms of image and style. In that sense, the rejection of the organisation by the voter marks, if not the end, at least a serious failure for the more pragmatic or less strident approach. What happens in the coming months will be worth watching.

For the Congress, the recovery of its traditional vote base among the minorities must be especially satisfying. This was most clearly evident in Delhi. Way back in 1983, which was the last local poll it won in the city, it had co–opted the Hindutva agenda and, for the first time since independence, won the tacit backing of sections of the sangh parivar. That was the road that led on to the massacres of Sikhs in November 1984, after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. It also culminated in the bid to appease Hindu as well as Muslim sectarian sentiments through the Eighties and the early Nineties.

These results are the first indicator that the Congress’ apologies for those events, however inadequate, have begun to be appreciated by at least a section of the affected persons. In Delhi, the party won in five of the six seats where Sikhs make up over 6 per cent of the population (the state average). The Janata Dal vanished off the map, with two of its ex–MLAs fighting on a Congress ticket; one of them, has became a minister.

The return of Muslims has been accompanied by the forging of new links with the Dalits. Besides, the Congress remains a multi–class party which did well even among communities associated with trade or education, linked to the saffron platform from the days of the Jana Sangh. One major factor in this was the inability of the latter to hold together such an umbrella like alliance. Each of the three chief ministers chosen by the ruling party had a distinctive appeal: Khurana for the Partition Punjabis, Sahib Singh for the Jats and other inhabitants of the 360 odd villages on the outskirts, and Sushma Swaraj for the upwardly mobile elite. As it turned out, all three saw their constituents bolting the camp.

The picture in both Rajasthan and MP was different. In both states, the Congress has all along remained more broad–based in its social composition than it had been in Delhi or UP in the last decade or so. The Hindu card never quite left the grasp of the sangh or its political affiliate, the BJP. But, even in Rajasthan, the collapse of the base of the BJP had to be seen to be believed. Look at a map of the state and you find it has no MLAs at all even from the Kota division, an old BJP bastion, and only one seat each, in the cities of Jaipur and Udaipur.

Except in 1990, when it got a fourth of the popular vote, the BJP has not done so badly in recent times. Only one in three voters put their mark on the lotus symbol. Not only Dalits, but adivasis and women in rural areas, even middle class groups and the urban poor moved away from the party. The increase in atrocities against women became an issue that cut across class lines. Its record of rule has been such as to cause the party’s rout even in Ajmer, a city that had stayed awake in 1990 to receive the rath of Lal Krishna Advani on his way to Ayodhya from Somnath.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress and the BJP had to contend with the rise of new social forces, in particular with the expansion in recent years of Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan Samaj Party. Few realise that in terms of social profile, central India is more akin to parts of the Southern peninsula than the Gangetic plain. Tribals make up 23 per cent of the population compared to an all India average of 8 per cent. Gonds alone account for one in 10 people. This time, as in 1993, most tribal reserved seats — there are 74 of them — went the Congress way. The projection of S.L. Patwa, chief minister, 1990–92, brought back memories of his rule, when the BJP government tipped the terms of trade of forest products against the gleaners of the forests and in favour of traders.

Such identification with privilege is clearer still with the OBCs: they make up just under half the population. But, their level of representation in the Congress was increased, even higher this time than earlier, in ticket distribution. Their empowerment in the village panchayats via reservation also helped. Finally, the Dalits, though broadly in the Congress camp, have, with other marginal groups, moved the BSP way in the regions along the UP border in the north.

Did communal or secular issues matter at all? In the campaign, they did at least in two ways. The parivar hoped to cash in on the social work and the ‘shuddhi’ (Hindu conversion) campaigns in Chhattisgarh in the east and in areas like Jhabua in the west. The Jhabua rape case was played up, and the point emphasised that no RSS cadre had been involved. In turn, the Digvijay regime reminded voters that there had not been a single riot in the last five years. This was a subtle reminder of the Bhopal riots during Patwa’s ministry. What made a difference is that the Congress ministry has done a lot for the restoration of dilapidated places of worship — this has included mosques and temples, churches and gurudwaras.

The fact is that the secular credentials of the Congress were really on the test in Delhi. Here, it has begun to break with the past. But, the break is far from complete.

In a post–poll discussion in Delhi University, AICC general secretary, Oscar Fernandes, reiterated that none of the 1984 accused would be given ministries nor would the party come in the way of the law. But, he was being less than frank: Sajjan Kumar, former MP for Outer Delhi, remains a power to reckon with in the party. HKL Bhagat, once the uncrowned king of East Delhi, was on the campaign committee of the state Congress. The struggle for justice for the victims of 1984 is not over and must continue. This is not a party political issue but one of the rights to life.

But, if at all there has been any renewal of the Congress’ link with the minorities, including Sikhs, with Sonia Gandhi, the BJP has only itself to blame. The Saraswati Vandana issue alarmed sections of the Sikhs and the attacks on Christians have raised fresh doubts about the Vajpayee regime’s ability to maintain law and order. In this situation, the Congress seemed to many a better bet.

What happens next, is the inevitable question. For the Congress, a more liberal cultural stance has begun to yield electoral dividends. It now needs to consolidate these gains and do so in those parts of north India where it has been reduced to a marginal presence. The fact that it was the runner–up in the Agra East assembly seat and ate into Mulayam Singh Yadav’s vote banks is significant. For the Third Force groups, this raises fresh questions about their role in the polity.

Contrary to what Advani says, they are not about to vanish. And if the Third Force groups do decline and it is to the Congress’ benefit, it is clearly his own party that stands to lose the most. But, while the Left and the regional parties will be around for a long time, the Mandal–based parties of UP and Bihar will have to respond to the challenge of a rejuvenated Congress.

In a sense, this is a positive development, for, voters who reject the sangh parivar should surely have a range of choices. The people have shown that even in the absence of such a choice, the BJP can be kept out of power. But it is better to have a choice between parties that profess pluralism rather than between two large parties that promise different kinds of communal agendas. More than all this, the message from the voters in Madhya Pradesh indicates that a centrist party can combine the defence of pluralism with empowerment.

Archived from Communalism Combat, December 1998. Year 6, No. 49, Verdict

Giving Saraswati a bad name

November 30, 1998

Could it be that the insult to the goddess of learning in keeping millions of people illiterate is sought to be compensated by forcing school children to do in ritual what the government won’t do in reality?

It is reported that the Kalyan Singh government in UP intends to make Saraswati Vandana compulsory in
schools. At least three questions arise in this connection. Can a government that is supposed to owe allegiance to a secular Constitution be religiously partisan? Is coercion legitimate in religious matters? What does it mean for Saraswati Vandana to be turned into a political ploy? Of these, it is only the last question that concerns us here.

The wry humour of the situation becomes apparent when we recall that Saraswati is supposed to be the goddess of learning. UP is a state where illiteracy is endemic. Universal education for all children under 14 years of age, as mandated by the Constitution, has not been a priority with any of the successive governments this state has had since Independence. There is no basis to assume that the present government is an exception. Could it be that the insult to the goddess of learning in keeping millions of people illiterate is sought to be compensated by forcing school children to do in ritual what the government won’t do in reality?

My concern in this context is neither political nor legal. It is strictly religious. I am worried that the political misappropriation of the mythology, ritual and symbolism of Hinduism will do enormous harm to this great and tolerant faith. In this process the profound treasures of this way of life could be altered and corrupted beyond repair and recognition. Their symbolic meanings belittled, they could be employed as instruments in the service of fundamentalist interests. So we could soon have the mockery of turning the goddess of learning into a means for aggravating the educational backwardness of a particular community! Coupled with the mullahs’ proverbial penchant for knee–jerk reactions, the state imposed worship of the goddess of learning could result in increasing illiteracy, especially among the Muslims in the state, who are already educationally most backward. That would be Saraswati Vandana indeed!

There can be no doubt at all that worshipping Saraswati is a laudable thing. But what does Saraswati signify, and what does it mean, therefore, to worship her? Saraswati, as she is usually portrayed, is clad in pure, snow white, which symbolises purity. This is born out of the Eastern intuition that learning is inseparable from purity.

The book and veena held in her hands signify knowledge and artistic skills that harmonise in a holistic approach to education. The swan, the symbol of discernment, is her vehicle. Appropriately too; for what is education worth if does not train people to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong?

That being the case, to worship Saraswati is to be committed to her three–fold attributes of purity, all-round education, and discernment in our way of life as a whole. It is to endeavour to nurture a culture that upholds these values. Now think of the sacrilegious irony of forcing people, with impure and political motives, to worship the goddess of purity! It is an insult to Saraswati to be turned into a pawn in the hands of politicians who care little either for literacy (book) or for fine arts (veena).Insofar as their political move is based on the presumption that people have no discernment (swan), it perfects the insult to the goddess in question!

It is very astonishing that those who care for Hinduism do not voice their protest against this blatant misuse of the idea of religion in general, and of Hinduism in particular. The very purpose of religion, especially the genius of Hinduism, is to affirm and celebrate the oneness both of the human species and of the Ultimate Reality. There is nothing surprising about politicians wanting to ‘divide and rule’; for it is one of the oldest tricks in their trade. But can that be so for the religious–minded?

We have not seen a better Hindu in this century than Gandhiji. The essence of his Hinduism expressed itself in a life–long endeavour to hold the various religious communities together in the Indian context. Ingredients of this very religion now stand in danger of becoming instruments of alienation in the hands of politicians and religious fundamentalists.

To understand what this entails, let us consider what has happened to the symbolic meaning of ‘saffron’, if only as an illustrative instance. Not long ago saffron symbolised sacrifice, purity and commitment. It was a colour associated with sadhus and swamis. Not so any longer! Now in popular imagination this colour is more intimately associated with the Sangh Parivar! When journalists write glibly of ‘saffronizing’ education, surely they do not intend this to be a complimentary description. As one clad in saffron, I cannot help feeling awkward. My worry is that the fate of Saraswati Vandana will not be any better; and I protest!

Hinduism is neither Islam nor Christianity to flourish under state patronage. At the best of times, state protection and patronage were dubious blessings even for these religions. They were infected with the spirit of triumphalism, and Christianity in particular got enmeshed with colonialism to its own detriment.

In the unholy alliance between politics and religion, there is often a powerful tendency for politicians to abuse religion as a handmaid in the service of their whims and fancies. Religion becomes an accessory to political game plans. If we forfeit discernment at this juncture, Saraswati Vandana could well end up as a litany in the cult of political power that cares neither for education nor for Hinduism.

It is regrettable that those who are responsible for the well being of millions of people rake up non–issues at a time when we are beset with many burning issues. Perhaps the best way to sideline real issues is to fabricate spurious ones. The issues that fester on the body of this nation are poverty, illiteracy, the death–dance of preventable diseases, deteriorating quality of life, and the rise of religious fundamentalism and obscurantism that perpetuate our mental and material backwardness.

The need of the hour is to harness the energy and enthusiasm of every Indian to the cause of nation–building, and not aggravate alienation to dissipate our collective resources. Discrediting the discernment of the common man, politicians try to lead the people from gimmick to gimmick, and assume that they can keep the nation in appalling poverty and cancerous corruption without having to face the consequences. As long as this outlook does not change, the name of Saraswati will remain in our mouths an insult to her significance, and her vandana, a bit of ritualistic mockery in the political charade that goes on.

Archived from Communalism Combat, December 1998. Year 6 No. 49, Controversy 1

Hell on Earth

November 1, 1998

The secular demand for a strict separation between state and religion is often countered by the argument that this amounts to a call for politics with out values. Without even going into the long history of the debate, the secularist may well ask the proponents of religion–based politics what values underlie the barbarities and inhumanities committed in the past decade alone by those who aspire to or actually rule in the name of God.

If the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Bosnia tells us a lot about the ‘Christian values’ of Serbians, and developments in India before and after the demolition of the Babri Masjid have given a foretaste of what to expect from Rambhakts under their promised ‘Ramrajya’, Afghanistan continues to provide evidence in shocking doses of the bestiality the ‘soldiers of Allah’ are capable of committing even on their own co–religionists. Ironically, the foundation for all the horrors that have happened in Afghanistan since early 1992 were laid in the ’80s through the collaboration of the secular USA and Islamic Pakistan — under the late general Zia–ul–Haq — in their joint attempt to contain the ‘communist devil’.

America’s missile attack on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Afghanistan, its outrage against ‘Islamic terrorism’ and Uncle Sam’s ostensible commitment to human rights globally notwithstanding, the Clinton administration continues to be soft on the Taleban — the latest brand of Muslim fanatics who today rule over most of Afghanistan and under whose dispensation life for the average Afghani, women in particular , continues to be a living hell. A more cynical and ‘Satanic’ collaboration between the practitioners of the secular (US) and the sacred (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) will be hard to imagine.

Dr. Najibullah and the communist government he headed in Afghanistan, until his violent overthrow in April 1992, were certainly no angels. But the bestiality and the barbarity shown by various ‘Islamic’ outfits claiming to speak and act in the name of Allah — the Most Beneficial and Merciful — against their own co–religionists should particularly horrify Muslims far more than what the followers of ‘another God’ did to fellow Muslims in Bosnia not long ago.

The gullible believer might be lulled into comfort by the recent Saudi or Iranian castigation of Taliban misdeeds as good examples of bad Muslims. But the brutal fact remains that the era of gross and mass scale rights violations, in particular the physical and sexual abuse of women with impunity, was inaugurated by an assortment of Islamic parties in Afghanistan enjoying the full moral and material backing of Saudi Arabia, or Iran or the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The Taliban (Students) movement emerged on the Afghan scene only in the summer of 1994 and seized Kabul in just two years — September 1996. But the horror stories began the moment the Mujahideens and other co–custodians of Islam came together in an uneasy coalition under President Burhanuddin Rabbani to overthrow Najibullah’s communist regime in April 1992.

Immediately thereafter, the Mujahideen and the army generals who were their allies started fighting each other for control of Kabul and other major cities. Of the two major political alliances fighting for control of territory and political authority in Afghanistan, one was the Shura-e Nezar (Supervisory Council) led by Ahmad Shah Masoud. It was a coalition of commanders and leaders belonging to the Jamiat–e–Islami, besides a number of smaller parties. The other was the Supreme Coordination Council, an alliance of the northern–based forces of general Abdul Rashid Dostum and the southern–based Hezb–e–Islami (Party of Islam), led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. It also included the Shi’a party, Hezb–e–Wahdat.

It is well–known that the struggle for supremacy within Afghanistan was fuelled by various international patrons from the Islamic world. Hekmatyar was supported by Pakistan’s notorious ISI in the hope of seeing a pro–Pakistani head the post–communist government in Kabul. Abdul–Rab al–Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of another smaller Pashtun-dominated group, the Ittehad-e-Islami (Unity of Islam), enjoyed the full backing of Saudi Arabia with the prime object of promoting an anti-Iran Wahhabi Islam. Abdul Ali Mazari and later Abdul Karim Khalili headed the Shite Hezb-e Wahdat with full support from Iran.

The bloody struggle for power, inspired partly by personal ambitions and rivalries between the contending
leaders was also fuelled by traditional ethno–linguistic tensions. The Burhanuddin–led Jamiat–e–Islami supported by general Ahmad Shah Massoud was dominated by ethnic Tajiks who formed about 30 per cent of the country’s population and constituted the core of the Afghan intelligentsia. The Hezb–e Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, on the other hand, comprised mostly of ethnic Pushtuns, who form about 50 per cent of the population.

In the backdrop of the warring political groups, more often than not, all members of a particular clan or all residents of a locality affiliated to a rival political group were treated as enemies, and targeted irrespective of whether or not they were combatants. And women have been the worst victims.

This report is, firstly, not concerned with who is right and who is wrong among the various warring factions in Afghanistan. Instead our concern is to show how, so far as the issue of the guaranteeing of most basic human right — security and liberty of every citizen irrespective of race, religion, language, gender – is concerned, there is little to choose between the different segments of the Islamic coalition that overthrew Najib in 1992 and the Taleban who pushed them out of power in Kabul and much of Afghanistan in 1996. Secondly, while tens of thousands of unarmed, non–partisan men have suffered in numerous ways — brutal torture and killing being the most serious of them — life under the Mujahideens and the Taliban has been specially hellish for women. It is for this reason that a large chunk of the report is focused on the fate of the daughters of Islam.

A 1995 report of Amnesty International titled Women in Afghanistan, A Human Rights Catastrophe, stated:
“The lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghan women and children have been shattered in the human rights catastrophe that has devastated Afghanistan in the past three years. Thousands have been killed in artillery attacks aimed deliberately at residential areas by the various political factions who have been fighting for territory since April 1992 when the Mujahideen groups took power. Thousands of others have been wounded.

“Armed groups have massacred defenceless women in their homes, or have brutally beaten and raped them. Scores of young women have been abducted and then raped, taken as wives by commanders or sold into prostitution. Some have committed suicide to avoid such a fate. Scores of women have reportedly “disappeared” and several have been stoned to death. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been displaced or are living as refugees abroad. Many are traumatised by the horrific abuses they have suffered or witnessed.

“These gross human rights violations of so many unarmed civilian women have been committed with total impunity. The Constitution has been suspended. Laws have become meaningless. The judicial structures have been destroyed. The central authorities have become virtually defunct. As a result, there has been little prospect of any of the perpetrators being brought to justice.”

If the above sounds like anti–Islam western propaganda, this is how an activist from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) summed up the situation for women in Afghanistan during an interview to Paikar–e–Zan (Women’s Struggle), a publication of militant Iranian women, in an interview in May 1998:

“After the tragedy of April 28, 1992 when Jihadi beasts (Mujahideens) perpetrated their aggression on Kabul and other cities, their depravity focused on ravishment of women, girls and children. They resembled savage dogs unchained after years of starvation. The Jihadi miscreants (“Jihadi” is the name they called themselves by, i.e. Warriors in the War of Islam Against Infidelity) didn’t even stop at raping seventy–year–old mothers and old men, let alone orgies of “birth watching”. A large number of women and young girls committed suicide rather than become victims of Jihadi depravity. All this added to massacres, looting, wanton destruction and an assortment of treacherous crimes committed by fundamentalists have resulted in the development of numerous forms of mental disorders, amongst women, especially the women of Kabul. It can be asserted that there is no Afghan female above the age of 10 who has not somehow been traumatised by the living nightmare of the past five years”.

Both Amnesty and RAWA’s reports are based on accounts of either the victims themselves or fellow Afghanis who were eye-witnesses to the atrocities who subsequently fled to Pakistan. Numerous reports highlighting Mujahideen atrocities against women have appearing from time to time in the western media as also in sections of the Pakistani press have the same gory stories to tell.

What has the ousting of the mutually–squabbling Mujahedeens meant for the ordinary citizen of Afghanistan and for women? Mercifully, there has been a decline in the sexual abuse of women, but the oppression of women in other forms has been intensified beyond imagination. Restrictions on women working outside their homes and the compulsory wearing of the hejab, measures introduced by the Mujahideen have been enforced by the Taliban with a vengeance.

“Although incidents of rape did not increase after the coming to power of the Taliban, there was no relief for the perpetual agony and sorrow of our women”, the RAWA activist added in her above–mentioned interview with the Iranian Paikar–e–Zan. “The Taliban brethren of the Jihadi miscreants replaced the previous form of excruciating agony with a deadlier form of mental torture by unleashing a terrorising religious inquisition, humiliating women and depriving them of the basic vestiges of human life. Even now, women are banned from going to educational institutions or government offices, working for a livelihood or even visiting women-only public baths or medical facilities; in short, they cannot step out of their houses without a religiously prescribed chaperon. This is a situation which does not have any precedent, neither at present nor at any time in the past in any fundamentalism or medievalism–blighted country in the world”.

The horror that Afghanistan has been in the last several years is best illustrated through the accounts of victims and eye-witnesses in the accompanying stories in these pages.

Communalism Combat, Hell on Earth, November 1998

Women under Mujahideen rule

Rape as reward
Leaders of the different warring factions appear to treat rape of women from the vanquished populace as reward for its own ‘Islamic’ soldiers

l Several refugee families told the story of a woman in labour who had been taken to a hospital in Kabul by her husband one evening at about pm in early 1994. There was a curfew in force at the time and cars were not allowed in the streets of Kabul. Armed guards reportedly stopped the car at a checkpoint, telling the husband that they would take the woman to the hospital themselves and that he should go back home. The next day, the husband was told at the hospital that the woman had not been taken there. The husband went to the guards to ask where his wife was. They reportedly showed him the dead bodies of the woman and the newly-born baby, telling him that since they had only seen videos of women delivering babies, they wanted to see how a baby was delivered in real life. (AI)

l In March 1994 a 15–year–old girl was repeatedly raped in her house in Kabul’s Chel Sotoon district after armed guards entered the house and killed her father for allowing her to go to school: “They shot my father right in front of me. He was a shop–keeper. It was nine o’clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. They then came and killed my father. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father.” (AI)

l A young woman who left her home in Mycrorayan 3 in Kabul for Peshawar after the January 1994 fighting told Amnesty International of a rape which her father had described to her: “One day when my father was walking past a building complex, he heard screams of women coming from an apartment block which had just been captured by forces of General Dostum. He was told by the people that Dostum’s guards had entered the block and were looting the property and raping the women.” (AI)

Rape and revenge
Some armed guards target women from ethnic minorities they regard as enemies.
l The following testimony was given by a 40–year–old woman who came to Peshawar in late 1993. In Kabul, she lived in Deh Dana area:

“First, the forces of Hezb–e–Islami began to fire rockets on our residential area from the Chel Sotoon mountains. After that, the forces of General Dostum came to the city. They are known as Gelim Jam (carpet–takers). These guards were only looking for Pashtun people, and would not actually kill non–Pashtuns. We were not Pashtun, so at least our lives were spared… The next day armed guards of Hezb–e–Islami came to us. They carried out a lot of atrocities. For example, a number of young women in our street were raped by them. One young woman was taken away by them and a few days later her body was found somewhere in the city.” (AI)

l A family who left Afghanistan in mid–1994 told Amnesty International how one night in March that year, members of General Dostum’s forces had entered their house in Old Mycrorayan area of Kabul and killed their daughter: “There were about 12 of them all carrying Kalashnikovs rifles with their faces covered. They asked us to give them our daughter. We refused to give her to them. They did not accept that, and asked us to bring our daughter to talk to them. We asked her and she came and told them she did not want to go with them. One of them then lifted his Kalashnikov and shot my daughter dead in front of our eyes. She was only 20 and was just about to finish her high school. We buried her body. There were eight surviving members of our family.” (AI)

l An elderly couple described how their 19–year–old daughter had been killed in front of them in March 1994 because she refused to go with armed guards. The guards then looted the house and forced the family to leave. (AI)

Suicide to escape rape
Several Afghan women have reportedly committed suicide to avoid being raped.

l In at least one case, a father who saw the Mujahideen guards coming for his daughter reportedly killed her before she could be taken away.

l A number of families told Amnesty International the story of Nahid, who threw herself to her death to avoid being raped: “Nahid was a 16–year–old high school student living with her family in Mycrorayan. In mid–1992 her house was raided by armed Mujahideen guards who had come to take her. The father and family resisted. Nahid ran to the fifth floor of the apartment block and threw herself off the balcony. She died instantly. Her father put her body on a bed frame and wanted to carry it in the streets to show the people what had happened to her, but the Mujahideen groups stopped him.” (AI)

Commanders with 10 ‘wives’
Scores of Afghan women have reportedly been abducted and detained by Mujahideen groups and commanders and then used for sexual purposes or sold into prostitution. Young girls have suffered the same fate.

l Women and girls were not safe. Girls were abducted by commanders and forced into marriage, that is raped. Commanders were reported to have as many as ten “wives”. If the girls or their families objected or resisted they were often killed. Many families sent their girls and women away, often to Pakistan. (The News, Pakistan, November 11, 1995).

l A woman told Amnesty International that her 13–year–old niece was abducted by the armed guards of a Hezb–e–Islami commander in late 1993: “They said their commander wanted her. They took her away. She was resisting and screaming but they dragged her away. We were frightened that if we did anything we would all be killed. Several months later, the commander was killed during fighting and the girl was able to come back to her father’s house. Abducting young girls has been very common in recent years. They would kill any girl who refused to go with them.” (AI)

l A family who had lived in Iran for five years and went back to their home in Farah province after the Mujahideen took power in April 1992, told Amnesty International how armed guards of a Jamiat–e–Islami commander entered their house in early 1994 to take their daughter for the commander: “We were a farming family. There were 10 of us in the family. One Jamiat–e–Islami commander who had three wives came with his armed guards to our house asking to marry my sister who was 15–years– old. My brother objected and told him that as a white–bearded man he should not seek to marry such a young girl. But the commander’s guards beat my brother. One of the guards pointed his Kalashnikov at my brother’s arm and fired a shot. His shirt was covered in blood. We were forced to give my sister away.” (AI)

Pushed into prostitution
Scores of young women have been abducted and then raped, taken as wives by commanders or sold into prostitution.
l Beside professional prostitutes, some Afghan women were forced by circumstances to sell their bodies to make both ends meet. Their power–hungry leaders and commanders are responsible for pushing them into the flesh trade because continued fighting in Kabul and elsewhere in the war–ravaged country has killed their breadwinners and destroyed their homes. Women who lived in purdah had to come out to beg or prostitute their bodies to feed themselves and their children. (The News, Pakistan, November 3, 1995).

l On July 4, 1994, an Afghan woman, Zhala Ejlal burnt herself in front of the UN office in New Delhi as a gesture of protest against the inhuman treatment of the jehadi traitors. Three jehadi criminals wanted to drag Zhala towards prostitution to satisfy their lust. But she in order to save her honour set herself ablaze and died. She is one of the hundreds of ill–fated Afghan women who in fear of rape and dishonouring in the hands of Afghan fundamentalists had resorted to suicide to avoid gang–raping. (Payam–e–Zan, No.38)

(AI– From Amnesty International’s 1995 report, Women in Afghanistan, A Human Rights Catastrophe)
Leaders of the different warring factions appear to treat rape of women from the vanquished populace as reward for its own ‘Islamic’ soldiers

(Communalism Combat Archives: Story from November 1998.)

Taleban: More ‘Islam’, more misery

November 1, 1998

Propaganda
Observance of the Islamic Hejab or Veil
To comply with the Islamic code of Hejab, as well as to reduce the degree of threat to the personal safety of women, the Islamic State of Afghanistan is asking the women to observe the Islamic Hejab, and cover their faces in public. This is a measure that is undertaken for the simple reason of protecting the honour, dignity, and personal safety of the women in Afghanistan.

Deed
l “Turpeki was taking her toddler to the doctor. The child had acute diarrhoea and needed to be seen by a doctor soon. Turpeki was dressed in a burqa. She reached the market area when a teen-aged Taliban guard noticed her. The guard called her. Turpeki knew that if she stopped she would be beaten for appearing in public. She was also frightened that her child might die if she did not hurry. She began to run. The Taliban guard aimed his Kalashnikov at her and fired several rounds. Turpeki was hit but did not die. People intervened and took the mother and the child to the doctor. Turpeki’s family then complained to the Taliban leaders. But were simply told that it had been the woman’s fault. She should not have been appearing in public in the first place; one she did, she should stop, when told to and not run away.”

l “A Taliban guard stopped an Afghan woman who had gone out of the house, and beat her severely with a cable rod for not wearing a burqa. The woman cried that she could not afford to buy a burqa but the guard did not stop beating her”.

l “The young woman was carrying her baby, her two friends walking beside her. All three were veiled, their faces completely hidden from view. Suddenly a passing car braked to a halt and two men jumped out…It was clear they were the Taliban from Kandahar. Each was brandishing a stick They set about beating the women on the legs. As their arms rose and fell, they shouted that the women should never come out in public dressed in such immoral fashion again. A few inches of bare leg were showing above the women’s ankles between their shoes and the bottom of their pajama–style trousers. The woman with the baby staggered and swayed beneath the blows, desperately trying to stay upright. None of the three dared to utter a sound as the sticks whipped their legs. Then the men got back in the car and drove off. The incident lasted less than 5 minutes, but it was sufficiently brutal to leave the women quaking as they limped silently away.”
(Amnesty International, November 18, 1996, reported in the RAWA publication, Burst of the “Islamic Government” bubble in Afghanistan, January 1997).

l “A woman comes into a Kabul hospital with burns over 80 percent of her body. An official of the Taliban, the fundamentalist group ruling most of Afghanistan, prohibits the doctor from undressing her. The doctor says she will die if he does not treat her. “Many Taliban die on the battlefield,” replies the official. The woman, untreated, dies.”
(New York Times, Editorial
Nov. 6, 1997).

l Doctors working in Taliban-held Afghanistan were ordered Thursday to deny treatment to women not accompanied by a close male relative, state–run Radio Shariat announced.
“The department of regulation and inspection of the public health ministry announces to all doctors and medical personnel not to examine and treat women without their legal Mahram present,” Radio Shariat said.
The ruling is the latest in a long series of tough measures aimed at reforming public health structures, in which the puritanical Moslem militia has attempted to minimize contact between men and women. It is also likely to pose serious problems for the Afghan capital’s estimated 30,000 widows, many of whom have no male relatives to accompany them. All public hospitals have already been tightly segregated and are subject to regular inspections by religious police squads from the ministry for the fostering of virtue and prevention of vice.
It also comes amid a crisis of foreign–aid medical projects in the Afghan capital, many of which have been suspended following militia threats to locally recruited female staff.
(AFP, Kabul, June 25, 1998)..

Propaganda
Restoration of Women’s Safety, Dignity and Freedom
Being highly concerned about the well–being of its female citizens, the Islamic State of Afghanistan, soon introduced measures to put a stop to the miserable living conditions under which the women lived in Kabul. After the communists took over in Kabul, they began to exploit women for the purpose of advancing their political and social agendas. In spite of war condition in the country and with no work in the offices, the communist regime forced a large number of women to attend government offices only for their amusement.

The Islamic State decided to pay the salaries of these women at their homes, so that they could stay home and take care of their families and children. The purpose of this policy is to help revive the Afghan family and household, as the foundation of the Afghan society, a foundation that was intentionally destroyed by the communist regime.

The Islamic State of Afghanistan is determined to provide educational and employment opportunities for the women of Afghanistan.

Deed
l The United Nations called for an emergency meeting with Afghanistan’s Taliban religious army after its decision to close more than 100 private schools, many of them educating girls. “The closure will have a devastating impact on welfare of many of the … neediest people — particularly women and children,” the UN said in a statement released in neighbouring Pakistan. Scores of small, home–based vocational training programmes are also to be shut.”
(AP, June 18, 1998)

l KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Concealed in giant swaths of blue cloth, an Afghan woman steps out of the shadows and whispers in accented English: “I am an educator. Do you have a job for me, not in Kabul, in the provinces?”

The rancid smell of an open sewer hangs heavy in the mid–afternoon heat and the bark of stray dogs makes the whisper barely audible.
Another woman outside a blue-tiled mosque eyes a foreigner. Quickly she tucks her chin to her chest and stoops her shoulders trying it seems to bury herself deep inside her burqa. She steps forward, her hand outstretched.

“I’m not a beggar, but I have no choice. I need food for my family,” says a voice from within. In the capital, ruled by Afghanistan’s hard–line Taliban religious army since 1996, women have been on the receiving end of most of the militia’s harsh Islamic edicts. They can’t work and are forbidden to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. Taxi drivers routinely are beaten if their fare is a woman alone.

l Kabul, May 17, 1998: Aid workers in Taliban–controlled Afghanistan have reported a dramatic increase in the number of women committing suicide because they can no longer bear the country’s all–pervasive Islamic code.
In the worst cases, women have taken their own lives by swallowing caustic soda — an agonising and lingering death. In addition, the number of women admitted to mental hospitals with severe depression has more than doubled since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, 20 months ago and forbade women to work.

There has also been a rise in domestic violence as frustration builds up in families, already in dire economic straits. And there are reports of prostitution among street children as young as eight or nine.
(Julian West, International News Electronic Telegraph,
17 May 1998, Issue 1087)

l Islamabad (AFP): Pakistan has banned the importation of bones from neighbouring Afghanistan after reports that human remains were being sold as animal bones, officials said Thursday. An investigation has also been ordered into allegations suggesting the human bones were being brought into Pakistan in the guise of animal remains, they said.

The ban on import of all kinds of bones from Afghanistan will remain in force until the completion of the probe. The Sunday New York Times reported this week that desperate Afghan children retrieved human bones from graveyards for export to Pakistan, where they were used for making cooking oil, soap and chicken feed. It quoted merchants in Kabul as saying the human remains were mixed with bones from dogs, cows, horses and donkeys and sold to middlemen who trucked them to Pakistan.
(Published by The Frontier Post, Pakistan, January 17, 1997)

l All token humanitarian relief assistance are under the control of the ‘government’ authorities. Distribution of relief supplies to pauperised widows and their families provides golden opportunities for the depraved fundamentalists to take pious advantage of the destitute ‘beneficiaries’. They begin with asking for bribes and then work their way to more carnal gratification, culminating in the prostitution of the miserable women.
(‘The Burst of the ‘Islamic government’ bubble in Afghanistan, RAWA publication No. 2, January 1997).

l ‘Chief Minister’ of Heart, Mullah Yar Mohammed, leading member of the Taliban, married with two women in a week. He also paid about Afghani 10,000,000 to his third wife’s father.
(Payam–e–Zan, No.44, Sept. 1996)

Rebel and her cause

November 1, 1998

MEENA Keshwar Kamal (1957-1987) was born in 1957 in Kabul. During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating women.

In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities, Meena laid the foundation of RAWA in 1977. This organization was meant to give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan. She started a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in 1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion.

Another great service rendered by her for the Afghan women is the launching of a bilingual magazine, Payam–e–Zan (Women’s Message) in 1980. Through this magazine, RAWA has been projecting the cause of Afghan women boldly and effectively.

Payam–e–Zan has constantly exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also established Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially.

I’m the woman who has awoken

I’ve arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children

I’ve arisen form the rivulets of my brother’s blood

My nation’s wrath has empowered me

My ruined and burnt villages replete me with hatred against the enemy

O’ compatriot, no longer regard me weak and incapable,

My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women

My fists are clenched with fists of thousands compatriots

To break together all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery.

I’m the woman who has awoken,

I’ve found my path and will never return.

— Meena Keshwar Kamal

Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was assassinated by KGB agents and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987.

(Amnesty International’s inves-tigations subsequent to her killing “strongly indicate that the assassins may have been closely linked to the Hizb–e–Islami)..

The government RAWA wants
Our concept of a government in Afghanistan is very sim ple: it should be based on democratic values and it should ensure freedom of thought, religion and expression and safeguard womens’ rights. It is an obvious fact that the fundamentalists of all kinds use the name of Islam to justify and legitimize their violent madness. Therefore RAWA stands for separation of religion and political process in Afghanistan. Though the fanatic groups label secularism as a ‘communistic’ idea and ‘faith of the infidels’, RAWA firmly believes that only a government with secular orientation can thwart the nefarious designs of these reactionaries from the Dark Ages. It is only through a secular government that the religion of Islam can be prevented from being used as a retrogressive tool in the hands of fanatics. The people of Afghanistan, are Muslims for the past many centuries and they would not let gangs of rapists, murderers and traitors to teach them their faith with a stick once again.
RAWA on the hejab
Besides being mentioned in the Holy Quran, veil is also a part of our culture as it is indeed in Russia and other non-Muslim countries of this region. However, it is the inability of the fundamentalists to understand and improve the economic conditions of the masses which makes them engage themselves in a shameless, cruel and inhuman drive to impose hejab. This is an attempt on the part of the fundamentalists to suppress our women and deprive them of their basic rights. We hold that nobody has the right to instruct Afghan men to grow beard or force the Afghan women to wear hejab. As a token of defiance, and without assigning any priority to it, we will resist wearing veil in the manner the fanatics want us to.

(Communalism Combat Archives: Story from November 1998.)

Match for the mullahs

November 1, 1998

(We reproduce below, a news report published by a Pakistani newspaper on a RAWA demonstration)

Police restrain Taleban attacking RAWA procession
(The News, April 29,1998)

PESHAWAR: Police resorted to teargas shelling and baton charge Tuesday to disperse Afghan Taleban who
attacked a procession of Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and caused injuries to several women.

The Peshawar police, which accompanied the procession right from Shaheen Town to the Defense Colony, swung into action soon after the Taleban attacked the process-ionists and chased and beat them up. The police also arrested 13 of them.

The RAWA procession comprising some 250 women and girl students of the local Afghan schools was attacked near Tambwano Chowk on Jamrud Road by a group of over a dozen stick–wielding Taleban. At least 10 women received injuries, three of whom were rushed to hospital for first aid.

The women showed extreme courage by raising highly charged slogans against the ‘fundamentalists’ and retaliated with sticks and stones in self–defence rather than running for shelter. They were joined by some of the men, both Afghans and Pakistanis, accompanying the procession. “We wanted to convey to the ‘fundamentalists’ that women can fight for their rights,” remarked an emotional RAWA leader Nasima Bareen. The attackers were overpowered by police in no time.

Mindful of the wrath of the Taleban and other Afghan groups, the RAWA organizers had arranged bundles of sticks in advance for observing the “6th black anniversary” of what the organization termed “swarming of fundamentalist criminals into Kabul on April 28,1992.”

Despite tension and fears of recurrence of the happening, the processionists did not disperse and reached their destination chanting slogans and playing patriotic songs through a loudspeaker. “Nothing can be achieved in today’s Afghanistan without sacrifice,” commented another RAWA leader, Jamila Habib.

The situation would have taken yet another ugly turn had the 300 stick–wielding Taleban both Afghans and Pakistanis from the nearby Jamia Imdad–ul–Uloom Islamia of Masjid–I–Darwish reached the scene of incident on time. After having heard about the incident, the Taleban rushed there but by then the Afghan women had dispersed peacefully.

The angry Taleban blocked the main Peshawar–Jamrud road near Peshawar Club for sometime and searched the passenger buses for the Afghan women who took part in the procession. The Taleban procession marched to the Tambwano Chowk and disrupted traffic on the busy University Road.

The prominent feature of the RAWA procession, which traversed a distance of two kilometres, was the hanging of the effigies of five Afghan leaders atop a vehicle. They included Taleban spiritual leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Hezb–I–Wahdat chief Ustad Karim Khalili and Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum.

The RAWA leaders said these Afghan leaders “playing in foreign hands” were responsible for the on–going genocide in Afghanistan. The Taleban chief Mullah Omar was depicted as a “pirate.”

The Afghan women were all praise for the local police who took timely action to trace down the attacking Taleban despite the fact that no proper permission had been secured for staging the demonstration in Peshawar by RAWA.

It was the Quetta–based RAWA’s third show in the city. The main target of the speeches and sloganeering of the processionists were the Taleban, who were blamed as “stooges of Pakistan”.

The young schoolgirls were more vocal in condemning the Afghan leaders. “Marg bar (death for) Taleban, marg bar Rabbani, marg bar Hekmatyar, marg bar Masud, marg bar Khalili, marg bar Dostum, marg bar Sayyaf, marg bar Akbari” were the slogans which echoed all the way on the route of the procession. The RAWA members also condemned the alleged interference by Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia in Afghanistan’s affairs.

(Communalism Combat Archives: Story from November 1998.)

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‘Firoz uncle, we kept our promise’

Saffron blight

Giving Saraswati a bad name

Hell on Earth

Taleban: More ‘Islam’, more misery

Rebel and her cause

Match for the mullahs

Uncle Sam sins

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