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American Morning

Target: Terrorism: Discussion with Member of RAWA

Aired October 03, 2001 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Ever since the September 11th attacks, we've been telling you about the Taliban's repression of women in Afghanistan, and CNN has broadcast a special called "Beneath the Veil," which graphically shows what happens to women there.

But it also introduced a group of women in Afghanistan who were putting themselves at risk just by teaching young girls, something forbidden by the Taliban. The group is known as RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

And joining us right now is a member of that group. We cannot identify her for fear of reprisals.

Thank you for joining us.

If you could, for starters, just describe to us how average women lived in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: Well, women in Afghanistan never had their full rights as men have in Afghanistan, but under the Taliban, they were deprived of the very basic rights that they had before. They do not have the right to get an education. They do not have the right to work outside. They can not go outside alone unless they are accompanied by a clothed member of the family (ph), such as brother, husband, son or father. They have to be totally veiled when they go outside. They even have to be paint the windows (UNINTELLIGIBLE) so they could not be seen by the outside people.

And all these restrictions have made the life for Afghan women very, very difficult. That's the reason that the majority of the population and female population, especially in the cities, are with psychological programs. According to some statistics, 90 percent of Afghan women suffer from mental and psychological problems, and there is such an increase in the suicide cases, especially young women in their 20s.

ZAHN: Yes, and as depressing as those statistics are, though, you have helped with a lot of other women, these women develop an underground society, which obviously, you are risking death when you do this. Describe to us how the women live in the underground?

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: You mean the women of RAWA?

ZAHN: Exactly. UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: Well, RAWA is an organization, actually the oldest feminist organization in Afghanistan, which was established before the Russian regimes, before the Taliban, but since our inception, we have to keep our activities underground. And currently under the Taliban and other fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan, we cannot hope to have open activities, even in Pakistan. And obviously, inside of Afghanistan, all of our activities are totally underground. We have educational projects for women and children. We have health care services. We have income-generating projects for women, especially widows inside Afghanistan, as well as projects are carried on among refugees in Pakistan. And in both countries, we have to run them in secret.

ZAHN: So they not only have the fear, obviously, of getting killed if they get caught. Now there is great concern over potential military strikes. How widely believed it is there among these women that Afghanistan will suffer some military blows?

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: Yes, in fact in this situation, that is the biggest fear for the most of the population living inside Afghanistan, but also Afghans living in Pakistan and other countries who have relatives and friends inside of Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have already been the victims of terrorism for more than two decades.

And if there is a discriminative military attack in Afghanistan, that would be another catastrophe for the people of Afghanistan.

ZAHN: So in the meantime, life goes on in the underground. What kind of help are women of RAWA giving the other women, who are illegally teaching children and trying to elevate the status of women?

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: yes, we have different social services for women. As I mentioned before, some of them, they are secret home- based classes, literacy courses for women, income-generating projects, such as carpet weaving or other handicrafts, especially for widows, because we have a very big number of widows, especially capitol hill in the capital city Kabul. It estimated that around 70,000 women are widows. And with all the restrictions that the Taliban have imposed on them, and they don't have the right to work, they don't have any other option to live, to survive and to feed the children.

Majority of the women have turned to vagary and prostitution as the only way to survive. So in order to prevent these women from going to those painful occupations, we provide them with our income- generating projects and services, and we also have these activities for refugees in Pakistan, because the situation of refugees in Pakistan is also very bad, especially for women and children, and especially last year, that we had a very big flood of refugees, and after the -- when people heard there would be the possible military attack, they -- hundreds and thousands of them escaped Afghanistan coming to the neighboring countries, Pakistan, leaving everything behind there.

So all these refugees (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as the only organization who would be able to provide them with the basic needs that they need in their life.

ZAHN: Termina (ph), Just need a quick answer to this, how bad off are the children there now? We know about the talk of sites being set up along the Pakistani border to help the crush of refugees. But what is the health of an average Afghan child?

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: Well the children of Afghanistan also have been victims, as women in Afghanistan. And according to some statistics, 15 percent of Afghan children do not live to the age of five. They die before reaching to the age of five. Or 85,000 children die of the very critical diseases every year, or 95 percent of Afghan children do not have the opportunity to get education, and this includes the children in Pakistan, the refugee children in Pakistan and Iran, or 90 percent of Afghan children are victims of the daily brutalities happening in Afghanistan.

ZAHN: Well, I think you have brought the story painfully home to us today and made it painfully clear what these women and children are up against.

Termina Farwul (ph), we appreciate your candor this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED RAWA MEMBER: Thank you.

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