Categories of Oppressed Women - Where's all the hue and cry?  Where is the condemnation of the oppressors?  Where are women's rights organizations?  

Afghan women during the Soviet era: 

Centuries-old Afghan traditions were violated and modest Muslim women were exploited in offices; dancers and prostitutes were imported from the Soviet Union to train the Muslim women, who were then expected to join this "liberation". During the years of war, the worst atrocities were committed against Muslim women. In one widely reported incident (details here taken from an eye-witness account of the Afghan Jihad, The Lord's Remarkable Slaves (Urdu) by Mufti Rafi Usmani), six Russian helicopter gunships abducted a number of Muslim girls from a village. Hours later, these helicopters returned. Hovering over the village, they started to first throw down the clothes of these girls piece by piece, then from hundreds of feet above, they threw down their unclothed bodies covered with signs of brutal torture. Some of these girls were still alive when they were thrown down, but died very soon after. It is reported that in many cases, mothers suffered heart-failure and could not survive witnessing such brutality. This incident is but one example of many others -- some documented, and most of them (due to modesty reasons) not documented by the dignified Afghanis. It was the Muslim men such as the Taliban, who, with the help of Allah, fought against the Russian barbarians and truly liberated the women of Afghanistan. Again we ask: where is the condemnation of Russia? Where were these so-called women's rights organizations then, who are so very concerned about women now. Now that women are well-treated and protected under the merciful Taliban regime? Where were the western "champions of human rights" when the heroes of Islam (people who comprise the Taliban) were giving everything even their lives in order to protect and liberate these women?

Afghani women in the Pre-Taliban years:

Afghani women in the areas dominated by the Northern Alliance: Further, their concerns seem to be only limited to the Taliban-controlled areas, where by the grace of Allah, peace has been restored. It should be further noted that in the areas where the Northern Alliance is dominant, rape and other violations against women are prevalent even today , as well as the burqah and other restrictions.

Afghan women under the present American/Northern Alliance rule: 

Womens' life is not safe, nor is there honor, nor their property. Their homes have been bombed, their children killed, their husbands shot -- everything has been taken away from them by the American terrorists and their collaborators in the Northern Alliance. Thousands of women sit today under the open sky in the bare cold with nothing except Allah keeping them alive...But this is not the end of the story. The cities lost by the Taliban are witnessing a rise in crime not seen in history -- in Mazar-i-Shareef alone, there were confirmed reports of more than 150 cases of rape in only three days!! (weekly Dharb-i-Momin, Dec. 2, 2001). What rights have these so-called champions of women's rights restored to the Afghan women now that they have taken the cities from the Taliban?

Have the feminists all gone deaf and dumb and blind in the face of these flagrant violations of basic human rights?!  

Western women at work: 

Working women in the west are routinely subject to high stress-levels, psychiatric problems, harassment, abuse, discrimination, and related marital problems. Despite suffering all these hardships, they are still denied equal pay.  Such women are prone to suffer from high stress-levels, psychiatric problems, harassment and abuse, as well as discrimination.  More and more western women are finding out that they are happier to be stay-at-home mothers instead.  Such is the fitrah that Allah had ordained in Islam for women, and this ideal was promoted by the Taliban in the Afghan society, at the same time allowing women who do work to have jobs that do not go against their feminine nature.   

Western women in bars and night-clubs: 

It is not uncommon for women in night-clubs to be made drunk and then exploited by their boyfriends, and even in cases, gang-raped by multiple men. Most women don't even clearly remember what happened to them the night before, but many have to bear the consequences of such behaviour for a long time to come - in terms of pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases, marital problems (for those married), and a sense of inferiority and humiliation at their being used and discarded.  

The neighbours of a certain woman in America report something that should awaken those who think that boyfriends, bars, and night-clubs give women freedom. This woman had a four-year-old daughter and lived with her boyfriend on the second floor of an apartment building. She was known as frequent visitor to a certain adult  nightclub. She would usually return after 2 am, sometimes heavy on alcohol, or perhaps other drugs as well. Most of the time, her boyfriend would not let her in the apartment, and yell abuses at her instead. She, in turn, would be heard yelling and screaming and throwing things at her balcony, begging him to let her in, but to no avail, other than irritating some sleepless neighbours. Sometimes she would end up spending the night outside -- even in the extreme cold winters. Eventually, when she would finally be let in, many times arguments and even physical fights would ensue, to the point where the police would be called in, would arrest her boyfriend for abuse, only to return him unscathed after a few hours. The little four-year-old would suffer the most. A very beautiful child, but, sadly, not growing up to be a normal individual, given the conditions she was living through. Both her mother and father would take their anger out on her when they lost control. The woman, also very beautiful, the perfect picture of an emancipated woman when she would go out dressed in her mini-shorts, considered herself to be the most miserable person in the whole world, and envied her Muslim neighbours stable and happy marriage! This is but one of countless such cases... So much for American "freedom"!

In clubs and bars, these pitiful women are made drunk and then exploited by multiple men in order to "socialize" or to earn a living as waitresses.  Deceived by the low status that society puts on women, they willingly subject themselves to maltreatment.  There is no honour, respect or dignity.  Women in many parts of the US, as soon as they reach the age of 21 (the legal age for drinking alcohol), are expected to meet a certain 'social standard' in order to be "accepted" and that is their first step to losing their honour, dignity, and virginity.  On the other hand, the dignity of women under the Taliban was guarded and protected in the way society viewed and treated women, as dictated by the Law of the land.

Women in Hollywood:

It is a well-known fact that many actresses who reach stardom in Hollywood end up having shattered lives in pursuing a fake idea of success.  Hollywood actresses have been known to commit suicide or make suicide attempts and suffer from numerous other problems such as family break-ups and be seen as sex-objects for the rest of their lives.  

Marilyn Monroe (who killed herself by drug overdose) was quoted to have said, [Hollywood is] a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Judy Garland, a singer, dancer and an actor died in 1969 in her bathroom after being overdosed with sleeping pills.  She was young and talented.  As her frequent costar and friend, Mickey Roony stated, "She didn't die. She just wore out." How shameful.

Carol Landis, who suffered tremendously from stress and depression after two failing marriages and in pursuit of fame, ended her life by overdosing herself.  How oppressed she must have been.

Florence Lawrence had fame, fortune and company.  But after a back injury, she was no longer able to successfully participate in her acting career, and hence lost her popularity.  After 271 movies, four husbands and her lost of fame, Florence killed herself by mixing ant paste with cough medicine and drinking it.  Was this 'liberation'?

A woman who's purpose of life lies in beautifying oneself, exposing the beauty, acquiring fame and running after the riches of this world, is a woman who lives for this temporary world.  So when these things are taken away or lost, their purpose of life, their goals and dreams are shattered resulting in the women to believe that there is no longer a 'need' to live.  To become an undue slave to one's lowly desires and the hunger for this world, is the worst form of oppression because not only do they lose in this life, but they are also amongst the losers in the Hereafter. 

Women pop-stars: 

So many of them turn to drugs and commit suicide. If they were not utterly miserable, why would they resort to suicide?  As the years go by and their beauty and singing talents start to fade away, they become even more pressured to meet the expectations of their fans.  Instead of living the last years of their lives in happiness and success as they had wished for, these women end up realizing that the years of fame and fortune as pop-stars was not worth it, and most of their lives wasted.  An example is Karen Carpenter who despite her achievements as a famous singer, died after years of suffering from Anorexia nervosa (an eating disorder) as a result of living a high-profile life as a role-model and symbol of American culture

Women Models:  

A French 'model' named Fabian said "Fashion houses made me into a mannequin, a wooden idol. The mission: to manipulate hearts and alter minds. I learnt how to be worthless, nothing on the inside, cold. We lived in a world of filth in all that filth means."  Under the Taliban, women were not treated as objects of advertisements  their honour and chastity are guarded from the manipulations of men.

Homeless women in the West:  

In 1999, there were 2 300 000 homeless nationwide.  85% of homeless families are headed by single mothers with children under age 6.  Countless stories abound in homeless newspapers and general media of the miserable plight of Western homeless women  

. Almost every issue of any of these newspapers will reveal heart-rending tales of how these women are abused, battered, gang-raped, and thrown out like banana peels, to be further stepped on by others and later trashed. The author of this article personally interviewed a blind old homeless woman, who told her how every night she is gang-raped, and nobody, not the police, not anyone else, comes to help her! One wonders none of the so-called �champions of women's rights ever saw this 70-year old white-haired Caucasian American woman selling the homeless newspaper in a crowded marketplace?! Doesn't she have any rights in the very land that criticizes Taliban for taking measures for protecting their women's honour? One wonders if the West really cares about women's rights, or perhaps, in the more likely case, has other political motives for all the hue and cry over Afghani women. The following poem taken from Street views, a homeless magazine,  is a mere glimpse of what life for America's thousands of homeless women is like:

SHE SLEEPS
Marc D. Goldfinger
for a friend with love and heartache

She sleeps in the park
a new boyfriend almost every
week like an old dishrag
passed from man to man.

She drinks to make her
face puff her mind sleep
dirty clothes caught in
her disease.

She was a counsellor
who forgot that the sickness
never sleeps says she
wants to kill herself.

She is.

Not what she was
but hidden inside
she shrinks herself
to death.

A 1990 Ford Foundation study stated that 50 percent of homeless women and children were fleeing abuse. Women Battering: A Major Cause of Homelessness, via the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Thanks to Allah and then to the Taliban, for providing safety to Afghanistan's million homeless (mostly refugee) women. Remember that many of these women have been made homeless in Afghanistan (and in America) by the very powers who claim to be "the champions of women's rights. Oppression of the kind western homeless women suffer is completely unheard of in Afghanistan! May Allah bless the Taliban and the Islamic Shari`ah they had enforced!

Depressed and suicidal women in America:

Depression abounds among women in Afghanistan, and there are reports of suicidal tendencies and even attempts in some cases. Given the misery of twenty years of war, compounded by the American/UN � imposed sanctions, life, in terms of extreme poverty and poor living conditions, for many Afghani women is unbearable. So depression there can be understood. However, America one of the richest countries of the world, has 12 million women who experience depression every year (

.  That's shocking! But what's even more shocking is how the society (men in particular) are encouraging these women on the verge of suicide to "do it, bXXch!" yes, that's true! As reported in USA Today, on Thursday August 30, 2001, in Seattle WA, a 26-year-old woman distraught over a broken �love� relationship, held up morning traffic on a high bridge over a lake, threatening to jump over the bridge and commit suicide. Motorists passing by, instead of helping her, whistled at her, yelling obscenities of the worst kind at her, encouraging her to jump off, while using words so derogatory that we are unable to repeat them here. Result: she jumped off the bridge! So much is the care for women's rights and their lives in this country! One may argue that incidents such as this are not to be generalized. True, but the fact that it happened, where not one, but many motorists yelled obscenities at the suicidal woman right under the noses of the police, tells something about the prevalent mentality that simply surfaced through this incident. Surely, under the Taliban regime, depressed women can never even imagine receiving such derogatory treatment by the Muslim men of Afghanistan  not even in isolated cases, never while Shari`ah is enforced!  On contrary the family unit is structured in such a way so that the family provides support and care for women who may be depressed or undergoing other forms of hardships and health conditions. 

Teenage girls in the west and the many problems associated with their condition:

pregnancy outside of marriage:

"In the U.S., approximately 1 million teenage girls become pregnant every year."

sexual abuse:

"Approximately one in five female high school students (20.2 percent in 1997 and 18.0 in 1999) reports being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner." (

smoking:

"Women now account for 39 percent of all smoking-related deaths each year in the United States, a proportion that has more than doubled since 1965, according to a report on women and smoking released today by Surgeon General David Satcher.  The report concludes that the increased likelihood of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive health problems among female smokers makes tobacco use a serious women's health issue."  

Female college students in the West: 

"Students on some college campuses use alcohol to signify their emerging adulthood, to enhance social gatherings, and to cope with stress. As studies have revealed the extent of excessive or problem drinking, however, college administrators have become increasingly concerned about understanding and controlling alcohol use and abuse."

Not an uncommon sight: heart-broken and depressed because their boyfriend number five also �dumped� them! Facing the stress of academics, working part-time (or full-time), and of dressing up even to go to class, so they can look good and �sexy� for the men to see them.

"The greatest influence on college students' drinking is their peers. As Shore and Rivers (1985) point out, variables related to influences prior to college, i.e., family, religion and parental alcohol consumption, do not appear to be highly related to RPD (resistance to pressure to drink), but variables within the college environment, such as class standing and living unit, seem to correlate with RDP. Shore and Rivers suggest that perhaps students view college as a "time out" from the "real world," with its own rules and expectations, and look to the college world for guidance and standards.

Explanations for increases in drinking or acceptance of problem drinking include broad based changes in American society--roles of women, alternative life styles, and intergroup relations (Engs and Hanson, 1985)."  

Women alcoholics and drug-addicts in the West:

"It is estimated that of the 15.1 million alcohol-abusing or alcohol-dependent individuals in the United States, approximately 4.6 million (nearly one-third) are women."   

"The study by the Sentencing Project, a private group dedicated to finding alternatives to imprisonment, found that the drug war has had a "dramatic and disproportionate impact on women." The report further noted that two-thirds of incarcerated women have children under age 18.

According to the study, the number of women in state prisons for drug offenses increased from 2,400 in 1986 to 23,700 in 1996. For non-drug crimes, the number of women in prison more than doubled, from 17,200 to 39,400, showing that drug crimes accounted for half of the overall increase of women in state prisons.

"Thus, women's incarceration results in a disruption of children's living situation as well as creating emotional stress for both women and their children," the report said."  

Body Image:

"The media plays a big part. Surrounded by thin models and TV stars, teenage girls are taught to achieve an impossible goal. As a result, many teenage girls intensely dislike their bodies and can tell you down to the minutest detail what's wrong with it. Most teens watch an average of 22 hours of TV a week and are deluged with images of fat-free bodies in the pages of health, fashion and teen magazines. The "standard" is impossible to achieve. A female should look like, and have the same dimensions as Barbie, and a male should look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Buff Baywatch lifeguards, the well-toned abs of any cast member of Melrose Place or Friends, and music-video queens don't help.

Take a look at the 10 most popular magazines on the newspaper racks. The women and men on the covers represent about .03 percent of the population. The other 99.97% don't have a chance to compete, much less measure up. Don't forget it's a career with these people. They're pros. Many have had major body make-overs and have a full-time personal trainer. Most ads are reproduced, airbrushed or changed by computer. Body parts can be changed at will.

The images of men and women in ads today do not promote self esteem or positive self image. They're intended to sell products. In the U.S. billions of dollars are spent by consumers who pursue the perfect body. The message "thin is in" is sold thousands of times a day through TV, movies, magazines, billboards, newspapers and songs. Advertising conveys the message "You're not O.K. Here's what you need to do to fix what's wrong." Girls and boys believe it and react to it. In a 1997 Body Image Survey, both girls and boys reported that "very thin or muscular models" made them feel insecure about themselves.

Western society places a high value upon appearance. Self-worth is enhanced for those who are judged attractive. Those who are deemed unattractive can feel at a disadvantage. The message from the media, fashion and our peers can create a longing- a longing to win the approval of our culture and fit in at any cost. And that can be disastrous to our self esteem."  

Is it not oppression when the society forces a woman to pursue an impossible image of "perfection" which requires the woman to maintain a certain weight (which leads to health problems) and wear certain types of obscene clothes (which leads to societal problems) and act in a certain degrading manner (which causes emotional and physical harm to the woman)?

Women who have eating disorders in places where food is abundant:

In a society that focuses excessively on outward beauty, women have to be thin, beautiful and attractive to be accepted.  Although Allah had provided these societies with lots of food, the women ironically choose to withhold themselves from eating (and sometimes starving to death) as they are oppressed to think that women's honour and success lies in the way they physically present themselves to society.  For the Afghan women, physical beauty remains as something subjective and not restricted to a certain definition.  This is supported by the society not given the permission to witness the physical beauty of women in public, saving it from public scrutiny and criticism, at least during the Taliban rule.  

"There is a strong relationship between eating disorders and depression, and one out of every three depressed people suffer from some from of substance abuse or dependence."  

Women in Western Feminist Movements and others who are influenced by them:

These women are oppressed because they are trying to bring justice and equality for women around the world based on their limited and faulty understanding of justice and equality.  Hence, their efforts actually bring more harm towards women as what they are striving for is actually not in the best interest of womankind.  In truth, only the Creator knows that which is best for His creations and He has dictated this in His Perfect Religion, Islam.  Afghan women were governed by Islam in Afghanistan and they were given true justice and equality at the hands of the Taliban.

Women who cover their hair but leave the rest of their bodies uncovered:

Such women think that hijab is just about covering the hair.  They are oppressed to think they are obeying Allah and His Messenger SAW by the people around them who tell them hijab is just covering the hair.  Hence they would not attain the reward of being obedient towards Allah in the matter of women's dress in Islam, as the Afghan women would, insha'Allah if their intention is sincerely for Allah.   

Women in India:

Women in India are oppressed in a variety of ways in their societies. Because of the very low status that women have especially among those who are of lower castes, there have been increasing cases of female infanticide in India. Unlike in Islam, Hindu parents are expected to pay the dowries for their daughters when they get married instead of the husband, and this adds to the loathing of having daughters. As wives too, Indian women suffer from marital violence at the hands of their husbands at a considerably high scale and often abuse by their own families when women become divorcees. When the Taliban came into power, laws were implemented to prohibit honour killings of women and those proven to commit such crimes were punished severely. Women were given the right to choose their own husbands, and no longer treated as property exchanged among warlords. As a result, such despicable treatments of women were decreased to almost zero cases and women were given back their dignity and high status in society.

"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- In parts of India, husbands regard their wives as property that apparently can be disposed of at will. Indian police say that every year they receive more than 2,500 reports of bride-burning -- a form of domestic abuse often disguised as an accident or suicide. These women are burned to death over wealth -- because their husbands or in-laws are unhappy with the size of the dowry that accompanied them into the marriage. The number such cases reported to police is rising, due either to an increase in the number of burnings or to more willingness by victims to report them. And should the woman survive, the toll is heavy.

Three years ago, Sunita Bhargava was married with children -- and, she said, emotionally abused by her husband and mother-in-law. "My mother-in-law used to say that my husband was too educated for me, that he didn't get a fair dowry," said Bhargava, who now lives alone in a New Delhi slum. The emotional abuse eventually turned physical, she said, when her husband and his mother scalded her with boiling water. Desperate and in pain, Bhargava dowsed herself in kerosene and set herself on fire, severely burning 40 percent of her body. "I miss my daughter and fear the evil that may befall her," she said. "Though I passed these times, somehow, to my children I am dead."  --- Pacific News Service, June 16, 2000.   

Why haven't the feminist and human rights organizations publicize such atrocities against these women and try to end their oppression?  Why accuse the women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule of being oppressed, when in reality they were the ones with dignity and honour and freedom to live without any fear of being burned or undergo pressures of giving dowries to their husband's family?  In Islam, the women are entitled to ask for a mahr (dowry) of their choice from their husband. "Give women their dowries as a gift..." [Qur'an: Ch. 4, v. 4].  Even in the case of divorce, Allaah subhana wa ta`ala said, "...it is not lawful for you (men) to take back anything you have given to them (your wives) except when both marriage partners fear that they cannot keep to the limits set by Allah.  If you fear that they cannot keep to the limits set by Allah, there is no sin on the two of them if she returns it (the dowry) in order to end the marriage.  These are limits set by Allah, and so do not transgress them.  Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah is one of the oppressors."  [Qur'an: Ch. 4, v. 20-21].  How beautifully Allah (Subhana wa ta`ala) has laid down the rules, making the Muslim woman to live respectably and in comfort!  

How blatantly oppressive it is in the India, that the wife's family is forced to give a high dowry to the man's family and in many cases end up loosing all their wealth and property, while 'paying' the man and his family to take their daughter away!  On top of that, instead of the man's family appreciating the marriage, they end up humiliating, abusing and many times, even burning the woman!!!   

Women in Egypt: 

Similar to Turkey, the Egyptian puppet regime practices laws that serve to please their Kaafir allies at the expense of Islam and the Muslims. One reason why women in Egypt are more oppressed than women under the Taliban rule is that female students are prohibited from covering their faces or wearing the niqab to school when they choose willingly to do so out of their strong devotion towards the religion. In fact devotion to al-Islam is now seen as 'extremism' and 'fundamentalism' whereas compromising Islamic teachings with Kafir ideologies in order to please the Kuffar is desired instead. As the Prophet sallallahu `alaihi wasallam said, "So give glad tidings to the strangers" as the time has come that Islam has returned to the strange state in which it first began.

"After banning the niqaab more than a year ago, Mr. Bahaeddin issued a decree that would also have barred schoolgirls from wearing the hijab -- which covers the hair and neck, but not the face -- without parental approval. But the decree was challenged in court by militant lawyers. The minister was forced to withdraw it, just as this school year opened, after a ruling that said his order was an infringement on personal liberties. "If they force me to choose between going to school and wearing the hijab, I will leave school," said Margo Abdel Ghani, 16, who was wearing a brown hijab and clutching her books as she stood outside the Al-Siniyaa school in Cairo."

"An 11-year-old Egyptian girl has been banned from classes at the French school in Alexandria for wearing the Islamic headscarf, the French embassy and sources close to the school said Sunday. The Lycee Champollion d'Alexandrie was enforcing secular principles in force under the French government's national education program, whether at home or abroad, the sources said.

Azza Omar Mohammed Zaki has been confined to study rooms at the school and her parents have been informed that she is not permitted to wear a headscarf, sources close to the school said. Azza Zaki had gone to class several times wearing the headscarf, which is common in Muslim-majority Egypt, since school reopened on September 5 after the summer holiday, the sources said. The school's principal is trying to resolve the problem while respecting education regulations and the interests of the child, the French embassy in Cairo added. Under a 1994 French government decree, pupils are banned from wearing or carrying any signs of a religious or political nature."  

Women in China: 

"When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned -For what crime she was killed"
(Quran 81:8)

No matter how poor the people of Afghanistan had become through the rough and challenging years of war and natural disasters, the Taliban had never imposed on its people to limit their children to only one per household. Women are free to give birth to as many children in Afghanistan as they want because Allah has already ordained the amount of sustenance a person will receive in his/her lifetime. Allah said: "And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you..."(Quran 17:31)

Unfortunately for women in China, because of the One-Child policy that has been installed for years, many have resulted to killing or abandoning their own daughters for preference towards having a single male heir who according to their culture, would carry on the family name and be responsible for taking care of the parents when they get old. Allah has made infanticide haram more than 1400 years ago (when the pre-Islamic arabs were similarly killing their own daughters) as Islam came to liberate the women to the true meaning of liberation:
"...Surely, the killing of them (your children) is a great sin." (Quran 17:31)
 

Women in Turkey: (letter from 17-year-old sister imprisoned for Hijaab facing the death penalty, along with her mother and two sisters! + more)

Ironically, although 99.8% of the population of Turkey is Muslim, its secular government continues to deny the right to practice Islam among its citizens for fear of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.  Charged with trying to "overthrow the system", Huda Kaya and her 3 daughters (ages 16-19) are facing the death for participating in a protest against the ban of hijab in universities and state buildings.  As a result of the hijab ban, thousands of Muslim children and students are prohibited from going to school and Muslim women are fired from their jobs for wearing the hijab in government institutions.  This oppression of Muslim women in Turkey further shows the hypocrisy of the west, as it remains silent in its strong support for secularism at the expense of democracy in which it claims to promote.    

"In October 1998, four million protestors demonstrated in various cities in Turkey in support of female students who had been suspended from universities for refusing to remove their hijab. The police attacked thousands of the demonstrators for peacefully participating in the protests, which were staged at night. Many women and young girls were taken away.

Several journalists, lecturers and students were charged with treason, and many people were tortured by the police - even youth at the mere age of 13 and 14 - and treated as if they were criminal suspects.  Political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Turkey are not allowed free and open access to their visitors; they have been forced to speak to them through a series of bars and reinforced plastic sheeting.

According to IHRC Rapporteurs, various methods of torture have been used against some of the prisoners at the hands of guards, including:

� The use of electric shocks on different parts of the body, including their genitalia;
� Beating prisoners while they are blindfolded;
� Exposing naked prisoners to winter weather through open windows after dousing them with cold water;
� Raping women, young girls and even children.

Feliz Beyaz, born in Istanbul in 1975, passed the university entrance exams in 1996 and was arrested in 1998 during demonstrations against the banning of hijab. One week after her release from jail, at half past midnight, Feliz and her friend died on an Istanbul highway after being knocked down by the secret service in a hit and run accident. This method of murder is common in Turkey.

The following story is that of a young Turkish girl who has been asked to choose between attending school and her religious beliefs:

"Today, my school looks at me as [though I am] a stranger and tells me that I am a stranger. However, yesterday, I was the owner of these lands. Tomorrow? I do not know what will happen tomorrow. Will the corridors of the hospital that I have walked [through] for many times claim me again? Will the garden that I have sat for many hours of the guard nights take me to its bosom?

"Our efforts to save the lives of patients, taking their blood pressure.... my friends that I have competed with to take an EGG... My heart beats that I felt when I first made an IV injection... Will they take place in my life, again?

"For five years, I have attended this faculty with the excitement, which I felt the day I first wore the white clothes... I have become eager by listening to the dreams my father had about me. I have striven to see the happiness and pride in my father's eyes and to take my mother's blessing.

"When I saw the patient losing his life due to lack of medical care, I decided to work harder and prayed more. I prayed to Allah not to keep me away from my way and to let me be a real doctor that helps the others.

"But suddenly, someone said, "STOP"! You have no chance to enter here with these clothes, especially the funny thing you wear on your head. And then the doors were closed to my face roughly. The police stopped me entering my school that I had reached by the first lights of the day.

"My friends that I had shared the same desks for many years were able to do nothing. The professor who had been expressing his gladness about my success to the classroom was, now, at the door near the policeman. He was sorry... I could see this in his ashamed eyes. The only thing I can do was to cry out my innocence.

"I am really sad to see the ugly face of my elders. But I am not hopeless, I know and I believe that these days and oppressions will end somehow, someday. They will become 'memories' from the past."    

Although there are many other examples of oppression against women in Turkey, another example proves the evil manifestations of a system of law that contradicts the Shari`ah of Islam.  In future marriages starting January 1 2002, men will no longer be the head of the household in Turkey.  To reinforce their efforts in denying the natural feminine roles women play as Allah created them, the Turkish government enacts a law to ensure the "total equality"of men and women, much to the detriment of its citizens.  This is a form of the ultimate oppression of women as women in Turkey are denied to be women.  Instead, women are told they can never achieve equality with men if they remain in their feminine nature and that they will never be as good if they don't take on the roles of men.   

Women in Tunisia:

"In Tunisia, the situation of Muslim women is almost the same as in Turkey despite the claims of President Ben Ali about his social achievements and the improvement in the status of women in Tunisia over the last decade.

In an interview with "Al-Hawadeth" Magazine in 1997, after the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Movement of Change, President Ben Ali said, "In this respect, we are moving forward, on the basis of a complementary conception, in such a way as to safeguard the dignity of women while preserving the interests of the family and the security of society. We have been concerned to ensure an equality of opportunity between men and women and to renew legislation regulating the sphere of women."

These statements were made while Muslim women wearing Islamic hijab were being banned from schools and work places across the country. 

Out of a total population of around nine million, there are more than 3,000 prisoners of conscience - most of whom are Islamists - and there have been dozens of deaths due to torture, and food and sleep derivation.

Human rights organizations have found it increasingly difficult to carry out their activities in defence of human rights in Tunisia. The Tunisian government often targets them, accusing their public opposition to its widespread violation of human rights of being against democracy and in favour of the Islamists.

PCOT defendant Iman Darwiche reported that guards incited her mental illness by torturing, choking, and spitting on her, and defecating on her personal effects. The government does not permit the media or international organizations to inspect prison conditions.

The regime targets women purely for their marriages to or blood relations with Islamists. Violations against them include harassment, interrogations, dismissal from work, torture, sexual abuse and rape. Anyone, including relatives, who assists wives of prisoners or exiled political opponents is liable to prosecution.

Many reports have affirmed that Security Services uses different forms of inhumane torture and degrading treatment against prisoners of conscience. The torture includes methods such as electric shock, cigarette burns, beating them with police batons, submersion of their heads in water and/or chemicals, and food and sleep derivation. Other methods of torture have been used against Islamists in prison that are hard to describe - even harder to imagine.

Over the last few years, many prisoners - particularly women and children - have become mentally, psychologically and physically ill because of the cruelty and inhumanity that they have suffered at the hands of regimes who are obsessed with using their power in a conspiracy against their own people.

Is this what President Ben Ali meant by "the improvement in the status of Tunisian women and the security of society?" Is this what he meant by "the equality of opportunity between men and women?" 

Maybe he was talking about equality of opportunity inside prisons, where all prisoners face the same methods of torture without differentiation between men and women."  ) 

Women in Germany: (how they are made truck drivers and porters, made to do as heavy work as men, given their natural physical weakness, also utter shamelessness in that country ,pornography /excessive alcohol consumption and related problems (Americans look "conservative" compared to them get proof of all the above).

Afghan Farishta in Germany 

It was a day of May, 1998. Black clouds were still overspread in the skies of Europe. In the vast hall of the Central Court of Frankfurt in Germany, before the judge was sitting an Afghan woman on a chair beside her husband.

The woman was round about thirty. She was wearing a black scarf and her countenance showed stress and worry. At some distance from them sat an Afghan interpreter to interpret, ready the conversation between them and the judge. The judge first questioned the husband about his plea for political asylum in Germany. Hearing some remarks of the judge from the interpreter the husband unwillingly made a long speech against the Taliban. No sooner did the speech end the judge signed some documents and congratulated the husband for his application was acceded.

Now it was the woman's turn. The judge asked her the reason of coming to Germany. Though it was expected that the woman would also say the similar things against the Taliban, made a long speech and prove that her life was in danger in Afghanistan that was why she was forced to seek asylum in Germany, but she kept silent. Her husband and the interpreter urged her very much to utter just a few words, revealed on her the harms of her silence which might spoil all their endeavours but what she could only say in her hoarse voice was, "what should I say?"

Both her husband and the interpreter advised her to speak against the Taliban if she wanted political asylum there but the woman replied:

"No. My conscience does not permit me to do this. How can I speak against the 'truth'. The Taliban have brought peace and tranquillity in the country. These are the Taliban who, crushing the astray, beast-like commanders the violators of women's honour, have given the Afghan women back their lost honour. These are the Taliban who have given the women their real right which is chadar and chaar diwari (scarf and domestic life). The Taliban is such a brave nation who grew the tree of unity with their blood and united the dispersed nation under one banner. How is it possible that in front of an infidel court I can speak against my lion-hearted countrymen who have revived the history of Mahmood Ghaznavi, Ahmad Shah Abdali and Mir Wais Khan Hotki? I cannot do this"

The German judge sitting behind his table was watching all this show. The husband and the interpreter were beseeching the women, persuading her to say what they wanted. They told the woman that her each and every word was true, all her feelings were praiseworthy but they were helpless. It was their dire need. "You shall have to tell a lie willy nilly. For God's sake tell a lie but don't spoil our work" they urged.

The woman stood up from her chair. She cried and wailed, repeating some words over and over in Pushto. "No. Never. The Taliban are righteous people and I cannot speak against the right, the truth. I don't want to live in Germany in lieu of telling a lie. I would like to live in the same daisyland (Afghanistan) with the turban-wearing people. I will bear all hardships and difficulties there but I will never live in this country on the basis of false statements and hypocrisy."

Astonished at the woman's attitude the judge inquired about what she was saying. The interpreter, in the German language, tried to convince the judge that all her wails and moans were a demonstration against the Talibans' cruelty and barbarism. But the judge suspected the interpreter's clarification which ultimately led her application to be held in abeyance for nine months. However her husband's application was immediately acceded and he was conferred on the status of a political refugee. After a great struggle the woman's plea got approval and she was also granted asylum. Meanwhile the woman did the German language course and passed many a examination securing high marks. She got appointment as a teacher in a local school.

The Afghan woman continued her job very efficiently while clad in Afghan dress and scarf. But her wearing scarf was unbearable for the school staff as well as the local administration. Thus after some time she received a notice which read that she was not in an Islamic country but was working in a non-Muslim country where wearing scarf was prohibited. It demanded of her either to give up wearing scarf or stop coming to the school. But the woman paid no heed to the notice. She was determined that she would neither abandon scarf nor quit her job. Hence she stepped into a long legal war against the local administration. But Alas! The claimants-of-justice authorities did not side the woman. And how could they second the woman when all they were blind with religions prejudice? How can one expect any good from them?

Thus a few days ago, the Supreme Court of Germany demonstrating its partiality, narrow-mindedness and bias attitude gave verdict against the woman and ordered her not to wear scarf in the school or otherwise leave the school. Therefore the woman quit her job but did not let anyone point a finger at her religions honour and Afghan pride.

Yes! The name of this proud, honourable, modest and brave woman is Farishta Lodien (Farishta=angel) whose person was raised from Kandahar's soil and whose misfortune led her to Germany. But despite living in an infidel country she hoisted the banner of Islam and Afghanistan.