[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 137 (Friday, October 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE OPPRESSED WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 11, 2001

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from 
California (Ms. Solis) for arranging this special order today. I also 
want to extend my best wishes and prayers to the women of Afghanistan.
  Just as we cannot forget the horrific events of September 11, 2001, 
we must not forget the women of Afghanistan who have been suffering 
under the brutal Taliban regime since 1996. They were the first victims 
of the Taliban.
  Today, there are thousands of widows in the capital of Afghanistan 
who are unable to leave their homes, even for food and emergency 
medical care. Women are forced to cover themselves from head to toe, 
denied access to education and proper health care, forbidden to work so 
that they may support their families, and face brutal beatings if they 
do not comply with the rules set forth by their oppressors. Amnesty 
International calls Afghanistan under the Taliban ``a human right 
catastrophe.'' These women are struggling to survive in what has become 
a police state claiming to be a theocracy.
  Nonetheless, by enacting these oppressive measures, the Taliban 
regime claim they are restoring Afghanistan to the purity of Islam. 
However, authorities in a number of Muslim countries insist that few of 
the regime's dictates have a basis in Islam. The religion of Islam 
requires all Muslims to cherish women, and requires that their status 
to be equal to that of men. It is the Taliban's interpretation of Islam 
and treatment of women that is un-Islamic. It is they who are the 
unbelievers, the oppressors, and the blasphemers. And it is they who 
continue to use violence and a distorted interpretation of Islam to 
force their ideology on others.
  My sympathies and prayers with the women of Afghanistan, and I hope 
that their ordeal will soon come to an end.

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