Three Afghan women, traveling under pseudonyms and wearing the all-enshrouding burqa, visited the French parliament last week in their campaign to raise international awareness about gender apartheid in their country. The women has visited the European parliament earlier that week, and visited France at the invitation of the President of the French Assembly, Raymond Forni. The women spoke of the atrocities committed against the women and girls of Afghanistan by the terrorist Taliban regime, including the story of a woman whose feet were beaten until they bled because the was wearing white shoes Ð the color of the Taliban flag. They pleaded that the visit be just the first step in a political campaign against the Taliban, and called for the French to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which support the Taliban, and the United States. “”We took a risk coming here,” said one of the women, “but we don’t care because what we go through every day is like death, so real death doesn’t scare us. How else could we continue our struggle for the women of Afghanistan?”
TAKE ACTION! Urge the Bush administration to continue U.S. opposition to the Taliban.
TAKE ACTION! Urge the United States to provide emergency assistance to Afghan refugees.
