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Perspicacity:
[pers-pi-cass-ity] Clear
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Perspectives; Viewpoints;
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TERRORISM
Taliban
Rule in Afghanistan Is a
Horrible Reign of Terror
Monday, September 24, 2001
By Rand Green
P&P Editor & Publisher
[Editor's note, March 31, 2002: This article, which Perspicacity & Paradigms was actually researching prior to 9/11, was one of the first published in-depth reports on the atrocities that prevailed in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. The initial reaction of many of our readers was incredulity. But in past six months, the grim truth of life under the Taliban, as described herein, has been corroborated by thousands of first-hand accounts, first from refugees and then, after the toppling of the Taliban, from the liberated people of Afghanistan. This article, we are pleased to say, has been the most widely read, most frequently requested, most frequently forwarded, and most often cited article Perspicacity & Paradigms has ever published.]
IMAGINE, if you can, living in a society where a woman can have her fingers amputated as a punishment for wearing nail polish and a man can be beaten senseless and imprisoned for shaving. Where singing or listening to any kind of music is forbidden. And where the mere possession of literature deemed objectionable by the government is an offense punishable by death.
Imagine, if you will, the horrors of life under the Taliban.
The United States is about to go to war with the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan because it harbors Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida terrorist organization which are responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the deaths of more than 3,000 innocent people.
Those attacks on us, and on freedom itself, are loathsome and despicable beyond description, and so are the people and the organizations that perpetrate such atrocities.
It is important to realize that the Taliban does not simply tolerate the presence of bin Laden and his terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. It is part and parcel of the same evil alliance. Al-Qa'ida and the Taliban are two different heads of the same monster, and they share the same fanatical obsession: imposing a strict and distorted brand of Islam on all Muslims and and bringing death to all who oppose them.
The Taliban, which now controls 90 to 95 percent of Afghanistan, is headed by Mullah Omar who, as it happens, is married to the daughter of bin Laden.
They Oppose the Very Concept of Freedom
The Taliban carries out its reign of terror at home and seeks to expand its sphere of influence by military conquest to its neighbors. The role of al-Qa'ida is to recruit terrorists from throughout the Muslim world to join its ranks and then conduct a war of terrorism and ruthless slaughter against free peoples everywhere for the simple reason that they are fundamentally opposed to the very concept of freedom. The United States, as the bastian of freedom, is their prime target.
Few people except those who actually live under the rule of the Taliban have more than a vague conception of what a cruel, horrible regime the Taliban is. There almost certainly is no more oppressive or brutal regime on the face of the earth today, nor seldom has there been in recorded history. Its brutality is on a par with that of Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia or China under Chairman Mao during the Cultural Revolution or Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
These people who call themselves the Taliban, and who claim to be establishing a "pure Islamic state," are horrible, horrible creatures, driven by ethnic hatred and religious bigotry, who routinely carry out acts of unimaginable cruelty toward their own people.
The oppressive hand of the Taliban comes down most heavily on women. Numerous restrictions are placed on women, on the pretext of protecting their honor and virtue and preventing them from corrupting males.
Heavy-handed Oppression of Women
Women are basically prisoners in their own homes. They are not allowed to leave their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative (called a mahram) such as a father, brother or husband. For a woman to be found in the presence of a male other than a mahram is a serious offense.
Even in their own homes, they are not allowed to appear on a balcony, and the Taliban has made the painting of all windows compulsory so that women cannot be seen from outside their homes. When they do go outside of the home, it is required that women wear a long, bag-like garment called a burqa that covers them from head to toe. They are forbidden from wearing cosmetics of any kind, or any brightly colored clothing, even under their burqas.
They are not allowed to shake hands with or talk to non-mahram males. They are forbidden from laughing or talking loudly enough that a stranger can hear their voice. They are prohibited from wearing shoes that make noise as they walk, as a man must never hear a woman's footsteps.
Women are forbidden to sing, participate in sports, ride bicycles or motorcycles, or drive automobiles. And they are not allowed to attend public gatherings of any kind.
A Ban on Educating Females
Women and girls are prohibited from going to school, and any attempt to educate females has been banned by the Taliban.
Except for a handful of female nurses and doctors that are allowed to work in some hospitals in the capital city of Kabul, women are forbidden to work outside the home.
Women are not allowed to be treated by mail doctors or even dentists. And since there are so few female medical personnel in Afghanistan (and no new ones being trained), it means that most Afghan women are deprived of any professional medical care whatsoever.
It is forbidden for anyone to photograph a woman, to print a picture of any woman in a newspaper or book, or to hang a picture of a woman on the wall of a shop or even on the wall of one's own house.
Even Music is Banned under Taliban Rule
In addition to those restrictions on women, the Taliban has also banned everyone, male and female alike, from listening to music, watching movies or television, or using the internet. Singing is allowed for men only if it is unaccompanied and consists of singing Islamic prayers.
All Islamic men are required to wear prescribed Islamic clothes and a cap. It is forbidden to have a non-Islamic name. Non-Muslims minorities must stitch a yellow cloth onto their clothing to identify them as pagans.
Men are not allowed to shave or trim their beards, and the beards must be long enough "to protrude from a fist clasped at the point of the chin."
Many games and sports have been banned, including flying kites and keeping or playing with pigeons. At those games or sporting events that are allowed, onlookers are forbidden from clapping or cheering but may only encourage the sportsmen by chanting "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great).
Five times every day, every person is required to attend prayers in a mosque.
Terror Squads Enforce Compliance
Patrolling the streets of the cities and villages throughout the areas of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban are compliance squads from what is euphemistically called the Ministry of Fostering Virtue and Suppressing Vice. These are groups of young Taliban militia armed with guns and whips who ride around in trucks in search of anyone who they deem may be violating Taliban orders.
Depending on the offense, the violators may be lashed or beaten on the spot, taken to a public place for a whipping, imprisoned, subject to amputation of fingers, limbs, or publicly executed.
The penalty for adultery is execution by stoning. The penalty for preaching any religion other than Islam is death. The penalty for possessing objectionable literature is death. The penalty for converting from Islam to any other religion is death. The penalty for organizing a class to educate girls over the age of 12 is death by hanging, and the same penalty is imposed on the students.
Courageous Resistance
In spite of these unimaginably oppressive restrictions and the severe penalties exacted for violators, there is defiance and courageous resistance throughout the country.
In June 2001, BBC News aired an undercover documentary film giving some insight into the oppression suffered by Afghan women under the Taliban. The footage was shot by Saira Shah, a half-Afghan British journalist who dressed in a burqa and risked her life to document the life of ordinary Afgans by means of a hidden camera.
According to BBC, Ms. Shah described the burqa she wore as being "so thick that it was difficult to breath," and "the little crocheted grill for her eyes" made it difficult for her to see well enough to even cross the road.
Cheering at Public Executions
Among other things, she secretly filmed footage of a public execution in a football stadium in which a woman was "shot dead to the cheers of the watching crowds."
No cheering is allowed at sporting events, but at executions, apparently, it is encouraged and expected.
In a remote village, Ms. Shah encountered three young girls who described how earlier this year the Taliban had come into their village and rounded up and executed dozens of civilians including their mother.
Ms. Shaw, who was, herself, raised as a Muslim by her Afghan father, described the cruel and oppressive form of Islam she saw enforced under the Taliban regime as being very different from the more liberal and enlightened Islam of her upbringing.
In her effort to film the realities of life under the Taliban, Ms. Shah was aided by an underground women's group, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, which, among other things, runs secret clinics and schools for girls.
Case Histories of Taliban Atrocities
The RAWA has also been instrumental in documenting for the outside world many incidents of the atrocities committed by the Taliban. Here are a few specific examples from RAWA and several other sources as well.
On April 27, 2000, several Taliban went into the dental office of Dr. Nader Sina in the city of Herat. There being no female dentists in Herat, the doctor was filling some women's teeth. The women were whipped, the dentist was jailed, and the clinic closed.
On May 22, 2001, an unmarried couple accused of having sex were taken into a sports stadium in Kabul and each given 100 lashes in front of thousands of cheering spectators, most of whom were members of the ruling Taliban militia.
But lashings are also administered to couples who have committed even minor offenses such as walking together.
On April 16, 1999, a young woman accused of "immoral behavior" was publicly subjected to 100 lashes, and she cried out in agony with every stroke. Then her mother was given 39 lashes for failing to report the affair to authorities.
On the same day, nine men accused of gambling were given 39 lashes each.
It has been reported that preachers in some areas keep lists of all people attending each mosque and read the list five times a day to make sure everyone is present at prayer time. They then go to the house of anyone who was not present for prayers and punish them.
On July 20, 1998, members of the Taliban, including some Tailban women, conducted a house-to-house search for televisions, VCRs, dish antennas, tape recorders and cassettes in one Kabul neighborhood, and one of the Taliban women stole a substantial amount of money from a family. When a woman of the family complained about the confiscation of the money, the other Taliban members beat her up.
RAWA members have since reported similar robberies by the Taliban all over the city.
Women Beaten for Eating Ice Cream
On one occasion, an ice cream vender was beaten up by Taliban for selling ice cream to women and girls. Members of the Ministry of Fostering Virtue and Suppressing Vice have also been known to beat up and whip women caught eating ice cream.
One resident of Kabul who worked as a conductor on a bus was dragged out of the bus and beaten savagely by the Taliban, then imprisoned for a week. His crime was being too "dressed up."
In the city of Mazar, Taliban entered a house belonging to three brothers of Hazara ethnicity who lived there with their wives and children. The Taliban demanded that the brothers turn over any weapons in their possession, and they complied. Later, the Taliban returned to the house and searched it. After discovering another weapon, they viciously beat the three brothers and then murdered them in front of family members.
Rape, Murder & Mayem
When the son of a military commander was killed, the commander accused a member of the Jamali tribe of the murder. He imprisoned every member of the tribe except for a 70-year-old man. Then he slashed the bodies of two young men in the family and put salt on their wounds, and finally he hacked the two men to pieces in front of the other prisoners. The commander's brother then confiscated all of the property belonging to the tribe.
For all their pretenses of piety and sexual purity, there are also numerous reported cases of members of the Taliban raping women when they enter a house to conduct a search. In one case, on August 11, 1998, in the province of Mazar-e-Sharif, a woman complained to members of the Taliban who were searching her house that her husband and son had been wrongly imprisoned. The members of the Taliban responded by raping the woman's two daughters in front of their mother and threatening to kill her husband and son in prison if she told anyone.
In October 1998, a man in the village of Talguzar was accused of possessing illegal arms and severely tortured. Being unable to find the arms they were looking for, the Taliban demanded his daughters instead.
In another case, in July 1998, a young woman was taken into custody on charges of immoral behavior. During her 15 days in custody, she was raped several times by her Taliban captors.
Ethnic Terror
On August 27, 1998, the Taliban arrested a 65-year-old school security guard of Hazara ethnicity and without asking his name or telling him what his crime was, threw him over a bridge into the Amou River. Being able to swim, the man made it to shore, but the Taliban, watching from the bridge, then shot and killed him.
On August 10, 1998, the Taliban shot another person of Hazara ethnicity, this time a young boy, and then dragged his body through the streets of Karta Sulha for the local people to see.
On one occasion, a nine year old boy was forced by the Taliban to execute his own father by pulling the trigger on a gun at close range.
Public hangings are frequently conducted with the use of cranes, after which the cranes are driven through the streets with the body dangling, for all to see, a warning of what happens to those who refuse to comply with the Taliban's edicts. There can be no purpose other than to terrorize people into submission.
These and countless other horrible atrocities are the reality of life under Taliban rule. The terrorism in New York and Washington DC which the world witnessed on live television on September 11 is merely a macrocosm of the kind of thing the Taliban does every day to the people of Afghanistan. And this is the "pure Islamic state" that the Taliban seeks to spread throughout the Middle East and, ultimately, throughout the world.
It is a reign of terror almost without equal in the world's history, and it must be stopped!
Copyright © 2001 by Rand Green Communications
| Under the pretext of establishing a "pure Islamic state," the Taliban routinely carry out acts of unimaginable cruelty toward their own people. |
| Al-Qa'ida and the Taliban are two different heads of the same monster, and they share the same fanatical obsession: imposing a strict and distorted brand of Islam on all Muslims and and bringing death to all who oppose them. |
| There almost certainly is no more oppressive or brutal regime on the face of the earth today, nor seldom has there been in recorded history. |
| Depending on the offense, the violators may be lashed or beaten on the spot, taken to a public place for a whipping, imprisoned, subject to amputation of fingers, limbs, or publicly executed. |
The penalty for organizing a class to educate girls over the age of 12 is death by hanging, and the same penalty is imposed on the students. |
A nine year old boy was forced by the Taliban to execute his own father by pulling the trigger on a gun at close range. |
| A man in the village of Talguzar was accused of possessing illegal arms and severely tortured. Being unable to find the arms they were looking for, the Taliban demanded his daughters instead. |
Public hangings are frequently conducted with the use of cranes, after which the cranes are driven through the streets with the body dangling, for all to see. |
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