[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21577-21579]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in America, for all the advances that have 
been made, women still have a little ways to go. They still earn only 
74 cents for every $1 a man makes doing the exact same work. Women pay 
68 percent more in out-of-pocket costs for health care than men. Almost 
half of all large health plans do not cover any form of contraception. 
Although women make up over half of our population, Federal funding for 
specific illnesses that relate to women has not kept pace with health 
needs. That is an understatement.
  While I cannot overstate the importance of achieving gender equality 
in the United States, these issues pale in comparison to the gender 
apartheid the Afghan women experience under the Taliban. The difference 
between the problems of American and Afghan women is the difference in 
height of Mount Everest and Death Valley. The separation is as large as 
it can be on this Earth, the difference between night and day.

[[Page 21578]]

  Gender apartheid is not unlike racial apartheid in South Africa where 
the black majority suffered appalling human rights violations. In South 
Africa, people of color were deprived of legal and economic rights, 
mixed marriages were forbidden by law, residential areas were 
segregated, and many were forced to live in slums. One of the most far-
reaching consequences of apartheid in South Africa was its impact on 
education. Children of color were educated at a very low level, if at 
all. Children were taught things such as dishwashing and weeding flower 
beds.
  It is difficult to imagine a system worse than apartheid in South 
Africa. Sadly, this is the case for Afghan women suffering unthinkable 
violations of their most basic human rights. While I don't in any way 
diminish what went on in South Africa, what is going on in Afghanistan 
is every bit as bad as, if not worse than, what went on in South 
Africa.
  Why do I say that? By virtue of decrees by the Government in power, 
the Taliban, every aspect of a woman's right in Afghanistan, from their 
behavior to their dress, is under edict, under rule. For example, women 
cannot work outside the home. Women are not allowed to receive any 
education. They cannot even be home schooled; that is a violation of 
law. Women in Afghanistan today cannot leave their homes unless they 
are accompanied by a close male relative such as a father, a brother, 
or a husband. When they do leave their homes, women must be covered 
from head to toe in a burqa. When I say head to toe, I mean they cannot 
have a strand of hair showing. Their eyes do not show.
  Every Senator will get in the next day or so a little package that 
shows this piece of cloth with holes in it. This is what the women wear 
over their eyes so that people cannot see their eyes. Think of how 
unsanitary, how humiliating it is to have every inch of their skin 
covered. But that is the way it is in Afghanistan. Every woman must 
have every part of her skin covered.
  So when they do leave their homes, they are covered from head to toe. 
Women who disobey this rule will be subject to verbal abuse, beatings, 
whippings. There was a film put out by the Feminist Majority, and I 
watched Friday in my home this videotape of the treatment of women. It 
is hard to comprehend in this modern world that women are beaten with 
sticks; they are stoned, stoned to death on occasion, for doing things 
that are not within the rules.
  Women cannot deal with male shopkeepers. If they go out, even with 
their husband or brother or father, they still cannot buy anything 
unless the transaction is made by somebody who is with them. They 
cannot be treated by male doctors. Women who let their ankles show for 
some reason--they stumble, they fall, they sit, and an ankle shows--are 
whipped, and they are not whipped privately; they are whipped in 
public. Women accused of having sex outside of marriage--accused of 
having sex outside of marriage--by their husband or someone else will 
be stoned. I saw this on the videotape. They are killed by being 
stoned.
  No cosmetics. This includes deodorant, and certainly nothing on their 
face. Women who have their nails painted have had their fingers cut 
off. Women are banned from talking or shaking hands with men. Women are 
prohibited from laughing. No stranger should hear a woman's voice.
  I wish I were making this up, but I am not. Women cannot wear high 
heels. But even to carry this to a further extreme, you cannot hear a 
woman when they walk. A man must not hear a woman's footsteps. They 
cannot ride in a taxi without a close male relative. A woman's presence 
in radio, television, or public outings of any kind is forbidden. Women 
certainly can't play in sports, enter a sports club. Women are banned 
from riding bicycles or motorcycles, even with a close relative. And 
remember, that is the only mode of transportation in some places.
  Women cannot wear brightly colored clothes, even though the burqa 
covers every part of their body, because in Taliban terms these are 
considered sexually attracting clothes--bright colors. Women are 
prohibited from gathering for festive occasions or for any recreational 
purpose. Women cannot wash clothes in rivers or in public places. Women 
are banned from appearing even on balconies of their apartments or 
houses. And to carry it even further, in homes where the women live, 
you have to paint the windows so that people cannot see in, for fear 
you could see a woman inside the home. Male tailors cannot take women's 
measurements or sew women's clothes.
  One of the few things women could participate in was to take baths. 
They don't have private baths but they have public baths. No more. 
Since 1995 that is all through. No more public baths. Males and females 
cannot travel on the same bus. Public buses are designated ``males 
only'' or ``females only.'' Flared or wide-legged pant legs even under 
their burqas are not allowed. Women cannot be photographed or filmed. 
Women's pictures cannot appear in newspapers or books or even be hung 
on walls in houses or shops.
  The only thing worse than these restrictions that the Taliban 
Government has placed against women is the punishments of those who 
dare to disobey. Penalties include public beatings, torture, stoning, 
as I have already talked about, and of course executions.
  Let's be very clear. This is not a question of cultural differences. 
The Taliban's inhumane treatment of women has nothing to do with 
religion and everything to do with power. Nowhere does the Islamic 
religion say women cannot be educated or employed. In fact, the 
President of the world's largest Islamic nation, Indonesia, is a woman.
  The toll the Taliban's rule has taken on Afghan women is profound. 
The rate of illiteracy among girls now is over 90 percent. Women have 
no access to health care. As a result, an estimated 45 women die every 
day from pregnancy-related causes.
  Afghanistan--there may be other countries--is the only country I know 
where the life expectancy for a woman is shorter than for a man. To 
show what that country has gone through and is going through, the 
average life expectancy for a man is 48 years. For a woman it is lower.
  Ninety percent of Afghan women suffer from severe depression, and the 
suicide rate among the Afghan women is too large to count. Sadly, many 
women resort to killing themselves, and what they have found is, they 
use caustic soda that burns away the throat; it takes 3 torturous days 
for a woman to die. The only surgeon who can do anything about this in 
Afghanistan is in a hospital that is closed to women.
  In Kabul there are over 40,000 widows as a result of the war. Because 
the Taliban forbids women from working, they are forced into begging, 
and under penalty of death some of these women resort to prostitution; 
it is the only way they can support themselves and their children. That 
does not last very long because they normally are caught and killed.
  The tragedy is intensified by the fact that prior to the Taliban 
takeover of the country, Afghan women were 70 percent of the Nation's 
schoolteachers, 40 percent of the Nation's doctors, 50 percent of the 
civilian government workers, and 50 percent of the college students in 
Kabul were women.
  Just a few years ago, Afghan women were scientists, professors, 
members of Parliament, and university professors. They led corporations 
and nonprofit organizations. Today, these same women cannot show their 
faces in public or leave their homes alone.
  In spite of the Taliban's harsh edicts, some Afghan women are risking 
their lives and some have lost their lives trying to run home schools 
and health clinics.
  Let me read a few accounts of Afghan women. This is a woman who 
escaped a Taliban death decree. She said:

       ``The Taliban's take over of Afghanistan affected women 
     more than any other sector of Afghan society. Women suffer in 
     Afghanistan because they are forced to abandon their social 
     lives and live as prisoners in their own homes. Women suffer 
     in Afghanistan because they no longer have their freedom of 
     movement, freedom to work, freedom to be educated and the 
     right to live free from

[[Page 21579]]

     violence. Widows, often times are the sole providers for 
     their families and suffer even more because of the Taliban's 
     edicts that outlaw women's employment. Women watch their 
     children suffer from malnutrition, disease, and even death. 
     Women in Afghanistan suffer from war crimes because they are 
     raped, murdered, trafficked, kidnapped, and forced to marry 
     against their will.

  A lot of them are 10-year-old girls. This is an account of a teenager 
when the Taliban took control of her village.

       The Taliban's rule in Afghanistan has been the most 
     terrifying experience in my life. I remember with fear that 
     day in 1995 when the Taliban took over my city, and life for 
     women forever changed. I remember the day that I was forced 
     to wear the burqa, the day schools were closed to women, the 
     day learning and work became forbidden to women; and darkness 
     engulfed the lives of all women living in Afghanistan. I 
     remember that I was beaten by the Taliban for going to the 
     public bath and the day women in my city demonstrated against 
     the closing of public baths and schools. The Taliban 
     retaliated by murdering ten of those women and arresting 
     forty others, who since that day have not been seen nor 
     located.

  This is by an Afghan woman who was beaten by the Taliban.

       ``During the first week of the Taliban's capture of Kabul, 
     friends and neighbors helped my family with shopping because 
     I only had sisters and no brothers and my father was dead. 
     One day I decided to go for shopping alone because my 
     neighbors could no longer help out with shopping. I wore a 
     long dress and covered my face and head with the chadori. I 
     went shopping for food at a market near my home. When I 
     arrived at the market I was approached by a man with a long 
     beard, a black turban, a gun on his shoulder, and a long 
     stick in his hand. This man was Taliban. He asked me why I 
     was out alone and who else was with me. When he saw that 
     there was no man with me, I immediately tried to explain that 
     I had no man in my house and that my family was without food 
     to eat. The Talib would not listen to my explanations. He 
     began to beat me with his stick as he shouted at me to go 
     home and leave here. My entire body ached from the bruises 
     and slashes of the stick.
       In Afghanistan, women have been stripped of their most 
     basic human rights. The Taliban has prohibited women and 
     girls from working, attending school and leaving their home 
     without a close male relative. Women's punishment for 
     violation of Taliban decrees include brutal beatings, 
     imprisonment and even death.

  As we continue life after the terrible day of September 11 and try to 
bring our life to some degree of normalcy, we cannot forget that the 
women of Afghanistan are the first victims of the Taliban. Every day, 
we are doing things to free that country and to restore its government. 
Our Government has no desire to have any degree of governmental control 
over Afghanistan. Our war is not against the people of Afghanistan, but 
it is against the Taliban. They are cruel and unusual in their dealings 
with people. But they are worse than that in their dealings with women. 
Every day that we do something to bring about the restoration of the 
Afghan Government which doesn't involve the Taliban, we are doing 
society a favor. The women are the first victims of the Taliban.
  We must demonstrate our support through humanitarian relief for the 
women of Afghanistan and the scores of Afghan refugees in the 
surrounding regions. As we look toward the future of Afghanistan, we 
have to recognize that women must play a role in rebuilding of the 
post-Taliban Afghanistan.
  There are people who were educated, and they are still educated. They 
are not being educated, but they are educated. They are women who were 
teachers, doctors, nurses, and scientists. They should play a part in 
that new government. And there will be a new government.
  We simply can't forget that women are being brutalized by the 
Taliban, and we must redouble our efforts to help restore human rights 
to the people of Afghanistan, and especially the women of Afghanistan.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming is 
recognized.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I certainly appreciate the comments of my 
friend from Nevada. I agree with what he has to say. He certainly 
describes one of the reasons that we are involved in seeking to find 
out where those terrorists are, and those countries that harbor them, 
and doing something about terrorism around this world.

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