AFGHANISTAN CAMPAIGN - Women's Rights Network - #NoToTaliban @WRNAfghanistan

[IwantToRetire]

Women and girls in Afghanistan are suffering terrible physical and emotional hardships since the Taliban regained control. The incessant oppressive edicts prohibit women from education, public life, cultural and social enrichment and continuously shrink opportunities for freedom of expression. It's very hard to understand what it must be like to endure the increasingly maniacal laws that Afghan women are having to deal with as prisoners in their own lives; however, the suppression of women's voices is something we can certainly appreciate in our lives as a fundamental attack on human liberty.

There is no justification for the appalling oppression of women, who are being gagged and silenced.
^^
The palpable outrage at this latest edition in the series of inhumane Taliban edicts should not pass us by without us taking action. Take a look, below, at how you can get involved and support women and girls in Afghanistan

WRN SILENT VIGILS
This will be a regular event every 4-6 weeks leading up to a mass participation Vigil event in London next Spring/Summer.

WRN groups will hold regular silent vigils in their towns and cities, to show support and solidarity for Afghan women and girls in their darkest days, show them that we will never forget, and highlight this most recent attack on Afghan women's voices.
^^
Please come and join us at your local vigil.
DATE: 7 DECEMBER 2024
TIME: 4PM
FOLLOW US ON X - @WRNAfghanistan
FOR LOCAL VIGIL INFORMATION

More details https://www.womensrights.network/afghanistan

(I am not part of this but happened to see this on their web site. So for women who have been thinking of getting involved with WRN this might be a starting point, or a worthwhile one off)

Thanks for posting. Giving this a bump.

Thank you

Just heard on BBC Radio 4 that Afghani women are now forbidden from enrolling to study Medicine

They can't even study to be nurses or midwives

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0025l4s

And good interview on WATO from a woman still in Afghanistan.

Not only have women who are just completing medical studies been told to go home but that they cant practice.

The implication is that in the near future their will be no medical care for women, as men are not allowed to treat women.

I actually dont understand how even the Taliban can think this is logical.

Are women supposed to just see getting disease an act of God and they should just die.

Let alone help with childbirth.

Its beyond barbaric.

I think this is the interview - heartbreaking and impossible to believe even hard line fundamentalist men would propose this.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy3l1035nlo

What was depressing about the WATO interview was the woman being interviewed pleaded for the UK / the west to not provide funding to support the Taliban etc..

But then they interviewed Rory Stewart who said no UK Government money goes Afghanisan Government, but goes direct to aid groups would provide support to women re health etc..

Really strange that he would pick up on that, not about what the UK Government could do to put pressure on them to protect women.

But also worth remembering that there are men, in families, in work places, etc. who totally support rules like this, and are happy to enforce them.

The WRN website https://www.womensrights.network has details of how to write to MPs to ask for action for women in Afghanistan. I’ll be going along to the vigil in my local town on Saturday and have written to my MP. We have to support our Afghan sisters, show them and the world that we haven’t forgotten them.

This means effectively no medical care for women then surely? Certainly no dignity in medical care.

Cant think of a word devoid of joy enough to describe this, those poor women and girls.

That's great.

I posted the link to this thread, on the thread started today, to suggest this WRN campaign would be an opportunity to get actively involved.

It’s just so awful, those poor women and girls.

This is exactly what happened when the Taliban was previously in power, from 1996 to 2001. Women’s lives were worthless.

And like now, one mad law followed another, each one making women’s lives harder than the last. Life in hell, ruled by misogynists who had no restraint on the miseries they could invent to torment women.

I really hope that women there have access to contraception, knowing the world their children will be born into, and die in..

I expect that is highly unlikely.

And worse with limited health care for women and children the death rate for both will increase.

And men will demand more children.

These last few years have shown however much the west thinks it is in the forefront globally, it turns out that when it gets a bit difficult they just turn their backs.

A large part is how America reacts or choses not to.

And that comes down to their own politics.

Hardly the best set of principles for making decisions about people in another country.

I didn’t think I could be any more shocked by what’s going on in Afghanistan. It turns out I was wrong. Aside from the extreme cruelty of recent dehumanising measures, I don’t see how this is a sustainable strategy for the Taliban. Maternal and infant mortality will rise. Female suicides will increase. A society this repressive for women surely has to implode and collapse at some point. Pursuing this is a dead end. No society can function or thrive in these circumstances. 😞

Thank you for linking to the WRN campaign.

Just wanted to highlight this, as not only is it a great campaign, but is an impressive number of events happening.

And, really wonderful to see grass roots feminism hasn't completely died away, and WRN shows how they can grow.

WRN Afghanistan
@WRNAfghanistan
Thread of locations for the first silent vigils for Afghan women and girls being held in the UK this weekend.

All vigils are at 4pm on Saturday 7 December 2024 unless otherwise specified.

LONDON
Wimbledon: Meet from 3.30pm on the main forecourt of Wimbledon railway station
Archway: Navigator Square, Archway, London N19
Peckham: Meet at Peckham Rye station at 3.45pm

SOUTH EAST
Oxfordshire: Bonn Square, Oxford
Surrey: Arrival time 3pm and vigil at 4pm. Meeting point and place for vigil is the Emily Wilding Davison statue in the Market Place about a 5-minute walk from Epsom station
Cambridge: Kings Parade Cambridge CB2 1SJ
Chesham: By the clock tower
Tunbridge Wells: At the Millennium Clock Tower

SOUTH WEST
Bristol: Meeting from 1.30pm at College Green
Bath: Vigil at 4pm. Venue TBC.
Somerset: Meet outside Taunton Market House

MIDLANDS
Derbyshire: Cathedral Green, Derby
Ulverston, South Cumbria: Meet at the market cross, Market Street
Bradford: (Close to) Waterstones in Bradford, The Wool Exchange, Hustlergate, BD1 1DL
Leeds: Meet in the City Square from 3.30, vigil at 4pm

SCOTLAND
Glasgow: Meet at 3.30pm on the steps of the Concert Hall, behind the Donald Dewar statue. Silent vigil at 4pm
Edinburgh: Meet at 3.30pm at the Witches Well, situated just outside the gates of Edinburgh castle. Silent vigil at 4pm.
Aberdeen: Meet up at 3pm at top end of Union Street (close to Starbucks) then walk to William Wallace statue, opposite His Majesty's theatre, Rosemount Viaduct at 4pm for silent vigil

WALES
Cardiff: Cardiff city centre at the Aneurin Bevan statue (top of Queen Street) CF10 2BU
Wrexham: Queen’s Square Wrexham
Carmarthen: Meet at Guildhall Square (outside Waterstones) at 3.30pm

EAST
Norwich: By St Peter Mancroft opposite the Forum

BELFAST: Corn Market

https://x.com/WRNAfghanistan/status/1864296089534308411

Others have been added, but tried to copy the main thread as i know not everyone has access to X

But also thought it might let some on FWR know that there are activists in their area!

Hope it went well today, and that the weather didn't hamper the events.