[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 159 (Friday, November 16, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      TALIBAN'S TREATMENT OF WOMEN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES R. LANGEVIN

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 16, 2001

  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out against the 
Taliban's treatment of women and in support of H. RES. 281. There are 
no adequate words to describe the atrocities committed by the Taliban 
against women since 1996.
  The Taliban has denied women the right to work or go to school, to 
laugh, or to speak above a whisper. Women cannot see physicians who 
aren't female and they can't practice medicine, which effectively 
denies women the right to healthcare. Women can't wear shoes that click 
when they walk or wear white socks. And they can't leave their homes 
without a male relative, even to go to the market to buy food for their 
starving children. Worse when women disobey these outrageous edicts 
they are often brutally and publicly beaten, flogged, stoned or even 
murdered.
  But we do a disservice to the public and to ourselves if we view the 
treatment of women in Afghanistan as strictly a women's rights issue or 
a human rights issue. Women's participation in Afghan society is 
essential to its economic health. When the Taliban forbade women from 
working outside the home, Afghanistan lost 74% of its schoolteachers, 
60% of its university professors, the vast majority of its nurses, 40% 
of its doctors, half of its university students, and 30% of its 
government workers. So, it is no surprise that the Afghan economy 
collapsed as soon as the Taliban took control. As in every country in 
the world, Afghanistan's very stability depends on the labor and skills 
of women.
  The Afghan culture fomented terrorism because Afghanistan has no 
economic power--its people are poor and desperate and angry. And 
tragically, some are channeling that anger at the West. Killing Bid 
Laden and his Al Quaeda associates may stem the next round of terror, 
but it will not result in a sustainable peace. Peace is only possible 
in Afghanistan if its economy, infrastructure and government recover 
and become strong enough to provide for its people. And women are not 
peripheral to that recovery effort--they are central.
  The Taliban understood that in order to impose a totalitarian regime 
on Afghanistan, they first had to remove the women. It is imperative 
that we understand that in order to eliminate that totalitarian regime, 
we have to restore to women their rightful, and indispensable role in 
society.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in categorically condemning the 
Taliban's treatment of women, and affirming the importance of women to 
the reconstruction of Afghanistan by passing H. Res. 281.

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