[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 16, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TALIBAN ATROCITIES IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleague, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), in speaking out for equality, 
equal opportunity, freedom of choice, and freedom to live. There was 
once a time when these words were only meaningful to men. However, more 
than 50 years ago, the universal declaration of human rights declared 
once and for all the principle of equality for women and men around the 
world. Then why is it that in the year 2000, the beginning of the year 
and the decade of hope and advancement and greater opportunity that 
there is an entire population of women who still live in constant fear 
and violent oppression?
  Since 1996, the Taliban, an extremist militia, has seized control of 
90 percent of Afghanistan and then unilaterally declared an end to 
women's basic human rights. Women are banished from working, girls are 
not allowed to attend school beyond the eighth grade, women are beaten 
for not fully covering themselves, including their eyes and ankles. 
Women and girls are not allowed to go out into public without being 
covered from head to toe with a heavy and cumbersome garment and 
escorted by a close male relative. Women are not allowed to seek health 
care, even in emergency situations, from male doctors. The Taliban has 
allowed some women to practice medicine, but women must do so fully 
covered and in sectioned-off special wards. And even these services are 
only available in very few select locations, leaving women to die from 
otherwise treatable diseases.
  A 16-year-old girl was stoned to death because she went out in public 
with a man who was not her family member. A woman who was teaching 
girls in her home was also stoned to death in front of her husband, 
children, and students. An elderly woman was beaten, breaking her leg, 
because she exposed an ankle. These are atrocious actions and they are 
real. They are happening now. They will continue tomorrow as long as 
the extremist Taliban government is still in control.
  The restriction on women's freedom in Afghanistan is not 
understandable to most Americans. Women and girls cannot venture 
outside without a burqa, a heavy and expensive restrictive garment, 
that covers the entire body, including mesh over the eyes. For some 
women, not having the means to afford and purchase this expensive 
garment will banish them to their homes for the rest of their lives.
  The effects of this decree have been severe. Many Afghan women are 
widows and have no means of income because they cannot work. And unless 
they have a close male member in their family, they have no access to 
society for food, for their families and for themselves.

                              {time}  1515

  It is no wonder that under these conditions, the Feminist Majority 
Foundation reports that the Physicians for Human Rights found that 97 
percent of Afghan women show signs of major depression.
  I join my colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), in 
condemning the Taliban regime. We must continue to speak out against 
the Taliban, on behalf of the women and girls that risk death for 
speaking out for themselves.
  We must not accept the Taliban as a legitimate government.
  We must send a strong and clear message that gender apartheid is 
unacceptable and a gross violation of the most basic human rights.
  Afghanistan may be physically located on the other side of the world, 
but the voices of the women and girls suffering there are heard loud 
and clear here.
  I urge my colleagues to continue their support of the women and girls 
in Afghanistan by cosponsoring my resolution, H. Res. 187, to prevent 
any Taliban led government from obtaining a seat in the United Nations, 
and refused any attempt to recognize any Afghan government, while gross 
violations of human rights persist against women and girls.
  In closing, I want to share with you an excerpt from a poem written 
by Zieba Shorish-Shamley called ``A poem dedicated to my Afghan 
Sisters'':

     I remember you . . .
     When you have no choice, no voice, no rights, no existence
     When you have no laughs, no joy, no freedom, no resistance
     Your pain, your agony, your silence, your loneliness
     Your anger, your frustration, your cries, your unhappiness

  To the women of Afghanistan I say, we remember you, we will not 
forget you, we will fight for you!

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