RAWA
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan RAWA (of English. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan ; Persian : جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, Jamiyat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanan-e Afghanestan , Pashto : د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) is a women's rights organization , which was founded in 1977 in Kabul in Afghanistan to fight for human rights and social justice and to participate in the building of a social and democratic government in Afghanistan and the separation of religion and state. To achieve this goal, RAWA tried to involve more women in political and social activities. The activities of RAWA soon expanded into other areas such as education, training and medicine. Your work is financed solely through donations.
After the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA began to participate in the resistance struggles. In contrast to the armed resistance, the organization tried to achieve its goal through democracy and education. More and more women joined RAWA and their influence increased.
In refugee camps in Pakistan , RAWA activists started building hospitals and schools for the Afghan refugee women and children. Soon they also offered reading and writing classes for illiterate people and training for some professions, e.g. B. that of the nurse. The fundamentalists “fought” the democratic and anti-fundamentalist RAWA because of this attitude and because the RAWA women did not adhere to the work ban imposed on Afghan women by the Taliban . This cost many activists dearly. The founder and leader of RAWA, Meena Keshwar Kamal , was murdered in 1987.
Even today RAWA tries to build their country in a democratic, secular way, although they are still exposed to violent attacks by the Taliban and other fundamentalists. She calls for the warlords to be removed from the government, the private armies to be disarmed and all (war) criminals to be brought to justice. RAWA supports the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
literature
- Anne E. Brodsky: With All Our Strength. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan , Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-93492-3 , reviewed by Negin Almassi, Yes! Magazine, July 18, 2004
- Melody Ermachild Chavis: Meena. Heroine of Afghanistan , Bantam edition published 2004, ISBN 0-553-81710-8
Web links
- RAWA (German)
- RAWA statement on the attacks of September 11, 2001, September 14, 2001, summary in the journal Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism , Volume 2, Number 2, 2002, pp. 266-267
- Afghan feminists fighting from under the burqa , Jon Boone, The Guardian, April 30, 2010
Individual evidence
- ^ " Pages in German on the RAWA website ." RAWA.
- ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 417.