Meena Keshwar Kamal

Meena Keshwar Kamal ; Pashtun مینا کشور کمال, also known as "Meena" ( February 27, 1956 - February 4, 1987 ) was an Afghan women's rights activist and founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

Childhood, time of study and beginning of political activities

Meena Keshwar Kamal, the daughter of an architect, attended a school based on the French education system in Kabul and, like many women's rights activists, was inspired by the story of Joan of Arc . As a student at Kabul University, she founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in 1977 . The meetings had to be kept secret because it was not common for women to meet people who were not part of their family. The activist hid banned books and brochures from the police and fundamentalists under a burqa.

Meena Keshwar Kamal was married to Faiz Ahmad , a Maoist politician and doctor of medicine , whom she met at university and who supported her political endeavors.

Life after the Acid Revolution

After the 1978 Saur Revolution , a coup carried out by members of the Afghan Communist People's Party, which was close to the Soviet Union, intellectuals and other opponents of the new regime were persecuted. Faiz Ahmad fled to Pakistan, Meena Keshwar Kamal hid in Afghanistan, sometimes lived in men's clothes or wore a burqa and during this time gave birth to a child. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979, women's rights were strengthened, but this was done at the instigation of a foreign power. Activists like Meena Keshwar Kamal stood between their rejection of Islamic fundamentalism and their patriotic resistance to the invasion.

public relation

In 1981, Meena Keshwar Kamal founded the women's magazine Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message). This campaigned for a free and democratic Afghanistan on an international level and documented the riots of the regime. In 1982 the activist visited Europe and campaigned for Afghan women in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway.

Moves to Quetta and works for refugees

In 1982 Meena Keshwar Kamal moved to Quetta, Pakistan on the Pakistani-Afghan border and founded schools, orphanages, a hospital and handicraft centers for the refugees from her home country. That boys and girls were taught at these schools was a thorn in the side of the fundamentalists. They discredited the women around Meena Keshwar Kamal because of their commitment to democracy and women's rights as Islamic prostitutes and lesbians. Faiz Ahmad was able to visit Meena Keshwar Kamal in Quetta and they had twins. Faiz Ahmad was captured, tortured and believed to have been killed by fundamentalists in 1986.

death

After receiving a message with unknown content on February 4, 1987, the activist left under unexplained circumstances with a driver and a companion. All three disappeared. Six months later, two men were arrested for another crime and confessed to murdering the three and hiding the bodies in the garden of a house in Quetta. The murderers were hanged in a prison in Baluchistan by the Pakistani authorities without having been charged with the murder of Meena Keshwar Kamal and her companions. It is believed that the two men were agents of the Soviets or of the fundamentalist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyār ; The latter was probably also responsible for the death of Faiz Ahmad.

literature

Melody Ermachild Chavis: Meena - Heroine of Afghanistan . 2003, ISBN 0-312-30689-X .

Web links

RAWA (German)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 417.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 418.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 419.

personal data
SURNAME	Meena Keshwar Kamal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	مینا کشور کمال
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Afghan women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH	February 27, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kabul
DATE OF DEATH	4th February 1987

[Adams417-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 417.

[Adams418-2] Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 418.

[Adams419-3] Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 419.