Taliban - Were they tyrannical to women ?

Just came across this article on how the women were exploited under the pakistan backed Taliban : Is it true :

Lifting The Veil On Taliban Sex Slavery
Of all the ways the Taliban abused women, this may be the worst


TIME, February 18, 2002
BY TIM MCGIRK/SHOMALI PLAIN

Widow Shah Jan sits in an icy room with mud walls in a snowfield on the edge of Kabul. She wipes her tears with the edge of her grimy sweater as she recalls the day in August 1999 when the Taliban set fire to her home in the vineyards of the Shomali Plain and kidnapped her best friend, Nafiza. "The Taliban burst in with their guns and torches," says Shah Jan. "None of us even had time to put on our veils."

With the women stripped of their burkas, it was a simple task for the Taliban invaders to cull the young beauties. Nafiza was one of them. Green-eyed, with raven-black hair that grazed her waist, Nafiza had rushed to help Shah Jan get her three kids out of the burning house. A Taliban fighter spotted the woman with the emerald eyes. She was his prize. With the butt of his AK-47 rifle, he slammed Nafiza into the dust and dragged her, crying and pleading, to the highway. There, Arabs and Pakistanis of al-Qaeda joined the Taliban to sort out the young women from the other villagers. One girl preferred suicide to slavery; she threw herself down a well. Nafiza and women from surrounding villages, numbering in the hundreds, were herded into trucks and buses. They were never seen again.

Only now, two months after the Taliban's fall, are the dirtiest secrets of their persecution of Afghan women coming to light. The Taliban often argued that the brutal restrictions they placed on women were actually a way of revering and protecting the opposite sex. The behavior of the Taliban during the six years they expanded their rule in Afghanistan made a mockery of that claim. The United Nations and relief agencies picked up warning signals of these abuses from women refugees fleeing the conquering Taliban. Now it is clear from the testimony of witnesses and officials of the new government that the ruling clerics systematically abducted women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other ethnic minorities they defeated. Stolen women were a reward for victorious battle. And in the cities of Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Khost, women victims tell of being forced to wed Taliban soldiers and Pakistani and Arab fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, who later abandoned them. These marriages were tantamount to legalized rape. "They sold these girls," says Ahmad Jan, the Kabul police chief. "The girls were dishonored and then discarded."

In the mud-fortress villages above the Shomali vineyards, more than 600 women vanished in the 1999 Taliban offensive. Yet these abductions are considered such a great dishonor that the victims' families almost never mention them. Says Qadria Yasdon Parast, leader of Freedom Messengers, a Kabul women's rights group: "If you ask about the missing, they'll say, 'Our daughter's dead,' or that she's off married in Pakistan." Many of the women probably did end up in Pakistan--but were sold to brothels or kept as virtual slaves inside homes, say officials from relief agencies. None have come back. Even if they could escape, these women would probably calculate that their families would no longer welcome them.

The trail of the missing Shomali women leads to Jalalabad, not far from the Pakistan border. There, according to eyewitnesses, the women were penned up inside Sar Shahi camp in the desert. The more desirable among them were selected and taken away. Some were trucked to Peshawar with the apparent complicity of Pakistani border guards. Others were taken to Khost, where bin Laden had several training camps. The al-Qaeda Arabs had a hard time finding voluntary brides among the Afghan women, but they did have money. One Arab in Khost spent $10,000 on a teenage Afghan beauty, says Ahmad Jan, but abandoned her a week later, when the U.S. air strikes began.

Orders to abduct women came from the Taliban leaders, say the Kabul police, but not all commanders obeyed. In the Shomali Plain, Taliban commander Nuruludah says, he saw women being forced onto trucks by Pakistani members of al-Qaeda, so he gathered 10 men, ambushed the trucks and released the women. In Jalalabad too, a few local Taliban eventually stormed the camp and freed the women who remained there. These were the heroic exceptions. For others, apparently, the profound degradation of women seemed perfectly tolerable.

With reporting by Hannah Bloch/Islamabad

Edited by Vivek Sharma - 07-Sep-2006 at 06:13

Originally posted by Vivek Sharma Just came across this article on how the women were exploited under the pakistan backed Taliban : Is it true : Lifting The Veil On Taliban Sex Slavery Of all the ways the Taliban abused women, this may be the worst TIME, February 18, 2002 BY TIM MCGIRK/SHOMALI PLAIN Widow Shah Jan sits in an icy room with mud walls in a snowfield on the edge of Kabul. She wipes her tears with the edge of her grimy sweater as she recalls the day in August 1999 when the Taliban set fire to her home in the vineyards of the Shomali Plain and kidnapped her best friend, Nafiza. "The Taliban burst in with their guns and torches," says Shah Jan. "None of us even had time to put on our veils." With the women stripped of their burkas, it was a simple task for the Taliban invaders to cull the young beauties. Nafiza was one of them. Green-eyed, with raven-black hair that grazed her waist, Nafiza had rushed to help Shah Jan get her three kids out of the burning house. A Taliban fighter spotted the woman with the emerald eyes. She was his prize. With the butt of his AK-47 rifle, he slammed Nafiza into the dust and dragged her, crying and pleading, to the highway. There, Arabs and Pakistanis of al-Qaeda joined the Taliban to sort out the young women from the other villagers. One girl preferred suicide to slavery; she threw herself down a well. Nafiza and women from surrounding villages, numbering in the hundreds, were herded into trucks and buses. They were never seen again. Only now, two months after the Taliban's fall, are the dirtiest secrets of their persecution of Afghan women coming to light. The Taliban often argued that the brutal restrictions they placed on women were actually a way of revering and protecting the opposite sex. The behavior of the Taliban during the six years they expanded their rule in Afghanistan made a mockery of that claim. The United Nations and relief agencies picked up warning signals of these abuses from women refugees fleeing the conquering Taliban. Now it is clear from the testimony of witnesses and officials of the new government that the ruling clerics systematically abducted women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other ethnic minorities they defeated. Stolen women were a reward for victorious battle. And in the cities of Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Khost, women victims tell of being forced to wed Taliban soldiers and Pakistani and Arab fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, who later abandoned them. These marriages were tantamount to legalized rape. "They sold these girls," says Ahmad Jan, the Kabul police chief. "The girls were dishonored and then discarded." In the mud-fortress villages above the Shomali vineyards, more than 600 women vanished in the 1999 Taliban offensive. Yet these abductions are considered such a great dishonor that the victims' families almost never mention them. Says Qadria Yasdon Parast, leader of Freedom Messengers, a Kabul women's rights group: "If you ask about the missing, they'll say, 'Our daughter's dead,' or that she's off married in Pakistan." Many of the women probably did end up in Pakistan--but were sold to brothels or kept as virtual slaves inside homes, say officials from relief agencies. None have come back. Even if they could escape, these women would probably calculate that their families would no longer welcome them. The trail of the missing Shomali women leads to Jalalabad, not far from the Pakistan border. There, according to eyewitnesses, the women were penned up inside Sar Shahi camp in the desert. The more desirable among them were selected and taken away. Some were trucked to Peshawar with the apparent complicity of Pakistani border guards. Others were taken to Khost, where bin Laden had several training camps. The al-Qaeda Arabs had a hard time finding voluntary brides among the Afghan women, but they did have money. One Arab in Khost spent $10,000 on a teenage Afghan beauty, says Ahmad Jan, but abandoned her a week later, when the U.S. air strikes began. Orders to abduct women came from the Taliban leaders, say the Kabul police, but not all commanders obeyed. In the Shomali Plain, Taliban commander Nuruludah says, he saw women being forced onto trucks by Pakistani members of al-Qaeda, so he gathered 10 men, ambushed the trucks and released the women. In Jalalabad too, a few local Taliban eventually stormed the camp and freed the women who remained there. These were the heroic exceptions. For others, apparently, the profound degradation of women seemed perfectly tolerable. With reporting by Hannah Bloch/Islamabad

Viveks intentions here were not to display the talibans wickedness, but to accuse Pakistan for them. Very transperent old chap.

I can't read Viveks mind, but I can read his posts, this and the ones before them.

The whole world knows which are the countries where the women are least empowered & most exploited & also the cause of this. My thread was just to debate the state of affairs in a particular geography which is one of the most aggrieved.

I will not let myself be drawn into a meaning less discussion with some pakistani members (i still dont understand, what a pakistani is doing in paraguy) who are ready to start crying wolf, wolf at every drop of the hat. on the superiority of their country over India in all aspects. I wish to acknowledge their superiority over me & my country in all matters. I have no qualms in bowing down as it wont make me shorter or less dignified. Truth ultimately Prevails.

I dont suffer from any inferiority complex, that I should try to read allegations & motives behind any general post made. Neither does the status or image of my country depend on certification from any immature logic. The world knows the truth about India & whatever it may be, I respect that. My superiority is defined as my ability to meet  & decimate my problems, for my well being. As I understand this, I dont need to compare with anybody.

Although I am resourceful enough to be able to cite numerous examples, analogies & incidents, logically superior & in agreement with the present international opinion to counter the above claims / allegations / posts, I shall refrain from doing so for I realise its futility upon a trait called lack of maturity.

My understanding of the AE project & its significance is its being a multi-national, multi-cultural forum, it's our duty to rise above bilateral issues & partisan attitude & appreciate the human concerns with an objective of evolving an intellectual debate so as to lead to the betterment (or at least better understanding) of everybody.

The objective of this thread is  to highlight the history of suffering of the Afghan women & I shall request the members to kindly observe decorum & to the topic.

My paki friends need not stress themselves further, as I have already conceded defeat to them. Rejoice in your victory & feel good, but please stick to the spirit of the subject.
 




Edited by Vivek Sharma - 11-Sep-2006 at 05:59

Well, then I guess, I should also change my location. I may go for US or Israel as these are the countries I admire. Thanks for informing me about the tradition.

BTW I was so far under the impression that you are actually from pakistan. Where are you from ?

Belive me US is really adventure & at times it can be very funny too.

Originally posted by Maziar Spartan be honst, weren't no Pakistani fighters among Talibans? for sure they were, and we know what they have done to afghans. But no one will judg here that Pakis people are wicked and vail. Not all of them. Come on you know that in all socities there are people who are able to do crime. Why should The Pakis be by way on an exception?

I think you misunderstand what he's saying. He's not saying that there were zero Pakistani fighters in the Taliban, there were some, but the majority were Afghani fighters. The Pakistanis in the Taliban were probably the same in number as the central Asians, Chechen, Arabs, Africans. It's possible the account is true, and noone is denying you get criminals in Pakistani society - I havent got a clue how you got this impression that he was saying there were zero Pakistanis in the Taliban from the dialogue so far  

Spartan be honst, weren't no Pakistani fighters among Talibans? for sure they were, and we know what they have done to afghans.

Since you brought it up, the answer is no, the Taliban was not comprised of Pakistanis. A definite minority of fighters, yes (JUI supporters), but the majority of the Taliban were Afghanis - even Uzbek, central Asians, Russians, Africans, almost from all over the world. The commanders were all Afghani (a lot were refugees in Pakistan due to the Soviet invasion and got training there). You had a lot of nationalities in the Taliban basically, but the majority were Afghani. There was a Pakistani connection in that these Afghani fighters fled the Soviet invasion to Pakistan and some of them were refugees in Pakistan who decided to go back. These are not Pakistanis in my opinion, they're Afghanis who have every right to go back. That's my opinion, would be interesting to hear Sparten's, but you can also hear what Benazir Bhutto's opinion was.

Benazir Bhutto: The Taliban were actually students in university who decided to go back to Afghanistan after the Russians left. My reports were that the Taliban were being welcomed by the people and that they were building peace. Initially we thought the Taliban was a stabilizing force. My government was keen to establish ties with Central Asia, so we were quite pleased and we encouraged them initially.... We wanted to import wheat and export cotton to Central Asia and wanted a route that would give us access to Central Asia through Kandahar [where the Taliban is headquartered]. We were trying to bypass Kabul and establish an enclave in the south. The Taliban were supposed to give us safe passage.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3067655/

Composition

The Taliban are primarily composed of Sunni Muslims belonging to Afghanistan�s ethnic Pashtun majority, while those opposed to the Taliban represent other ethnic groups or include Shiite Muslims.

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct100301.html

But small amounts of Taliban soldiers were from all over the world

Edited by TeldeInduz - 14-Sep-2006 at 23:16

Originally posted by Vivek Sharma The whole world knows which are the countries where the women are least empowered & most exploited & also the cause of this. My thread was just to debate the state of affairs in a particular geography which is one of the most aggrieved.

Edited by TeldeInduz - 14-Sep-2006 at 23:44

I was not suggesting that there were zero Pakistanis in the Taliban. My point was that to suggest that it was an alien movement as some are wont to do is absolutly not bourne out buy the facts.