Representatives from the Feminist Majority Foundation screened a video depicting the plight of Afghan women and described their humanitarian efforts in the country to about 40 people at the George Sherman Union last night. The event was sponsored by Boston University’s Women’s Center.
“$1.8 billion in aid will be going to Afghanistan this year, but only $297 million of that will be from the U.S.,” said FMF campus organizer Jessica Terlikowski. “We owe it to them to give more aid and assistance.”
Terlikowski said the United States was partly responsible for allowing the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan, by funding and providing them with weapons and not staying to rebuild the country after the Soviet Union stopped fighting Afghan rebels.
FMF had to rally protesters against UNOCAL, a California petroleum company that wanted to build an oil pipeline that would have provided the Taliban with $100 million a year, Terlikowski said. UNOCAL has suspended the project.
Even though the Taliban has been driven from Afghanistan, many of its effects still remain, according to FMF organizer Amber Wobschall.
“There’s still a lot of fear, still a lot of problems,” she said. “A lot of women are not taking off their burqas (full-body shrouds).”
An FMF video, Shroud of Silence, examined the restrictions the Taliban placed on women during its rule. Women were unable to show their faces in interviews for fear of reprisals. Other women who had allowed their faces to be seen were later hung.
“70 percent of teachers, 40 percent of doctors and 50 percent of college students were women before the Taliban took over,” Terlikowski said. “They were made to be prisoners in their own homes.
“Try to imagine a small piece of screen — that’s what you have to see the world through,” Terlikowski said, referring to the veil on Afghan burqas. “Children separated from their mothers often couldn’t tell which one was theirs, because all women looked the same.”
The Taliban is still harming women, according to Terlikowski. Thousands of women were abducted by the fleeing Taliban and sold into prostitution.
“One of our most pressing concerns now is building orphanages for the little girls who were left without families,” Terlikowski said. “If they’re not looked after, they could be sold into sex slavery.”
FMF, which organized numerous clandestine schools to educate women under the Taliban, is still engaged in providing schools, Terlikowski said.
Fahema Rahman, vice president of the Women’s Center, agreed education was important in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
“As feminists, we want a great amount of education available to women in Afghanistan,” said Rahman, a senior in the College of Engineering.
Treasurer Colden Ray, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, agreed.
“You need to learn options so you can participate in government,” she said. “You need to learn the basic freedoms.”
Karen Reinman, a CAS freshman, said she would continue to support FMF.
“I saw a notice about the event in Warren (Towers), and thought I’d come check it out,” Reinman said, signing a petition asking for more aid to be sent to Afghanistan. “I definitely learned a lot.”
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