#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #AFGHANISTAN #RAWA #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #France, #UCL AL #320 - International, Interview with #Afghan #feminists from RAWA: "The occupation has caused nothing but destruction and chaos" (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

 The Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan (RAWA) is an organization

founded in Kabul in 1977, fighting for social justice, women's rights and against
imperialism. She participated in the resistance against the Soviet invasion of
1979 while opposing Islamic fundamentalists, then fought the Taliban regime and
the American occupation since 2001. An official of this organization provides an
update on the situation after the withdrawal of the United States and the seizure
of power by the Taliban. ---- Sonali Kolhatkar: For years RAWA has denounced the
American occupation, and now that it is over, the Taliban are back. Could
President Biden have made it so that the Taliban did not take the country back so
quickly ?

RAWA:During the last twenty years, one of our demands was the end of the
occupation of NATO and the United States. Even more, that they take their Islamic
fundamentalists and technocrats with them, and let our people decide their own
destiny. This occupation caused nothing but bloodshed, destruction and chaos.
They have made our country a more corrupt, insecure, mafia and dangerous space,
especially for women. From the start, we could predict such an end. From the
first days of the American occupation of Afghanistan, RAWA declared on October
11, 2001: "The situation of the US attacks and the increase in the number of
innocent civilian casualties not only provides an excuse for the Taliban, but
will also cause fundamentalist forces to rise to power in the region, and indeed
the world."

The main reason for our refusal of this occupation was their support for
terrorism under the pretty banner of "the war on terror". From the very early
days, when the Northern Alliance killers and looters returned to power in 2002,
and until the last of the so-called Doha negotiations to release 5,000 terrorists
from prisons by 2020/2021 , it was obvious that even the withdrawal would not be
a happy ending.

The situation proves that none of the theories envisaged, the invasion or the
interference, could be realized under conditions ensuring security. All the
imperialist powers which participated in the occupation, according to their own
strategic, political and financial interests, tried to hide their own motives and
agendas, through their lies and their media power.

It is a joke to say that values such as "women's rights", "democracy ", "nation
building" etc. were among the objectives of the United States and NATO in
Afghanistan! The United States was in Afghanistan to plunge the region into
insecurity and terror, to surround rival powers of China and Russia, and to
undermine their economies through territorial wars. But of course the US
government did not want such a disastrous and embarrassing exit, leaving behind
such unrest that it had to send in new troops in 48 hours to control the airport
and evacuate its diplomats and team.

Demonstration of RAWA women in Kabul, September 4, 2021, to protest against the
Taliban.
We believe that the United States left Afghanistan that way so as not to find
itself defeated by its own creatures, the Taliban. There are two significant
reasons for this. The main reason is the complexity of the American internal
crisis. The signs of the decline of the American system have appeared in the
weakness of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the attack on the Capitol and
the great protests of recent years.[...]The second reason is that the Afghan war
was a particularly costly war, running into the billions, financed entirely by
taxes. It created such a big economic gap that they had to pull out. Their war
strategy proves that their goal has never been to make Afghanistan more secure.[...]

The Taliban say they will respect women's rights, as long as it complies with
Islamic laws. Western media believe they have changed. Do you believe it?

The mainstream media are adding salt to the wounds of our devastated people ;
they should be ashamed of themselves, considering how they have watered down the
brutality of the Taliban. The Taliban spokesman said there has been no change in
their ideology between 1996 and today. And what they say about women's rights
uses the same phrases they used during their last dark reign: "establish sharia".

In recent days, the Taliban have declared an amnesty all over Afghanistan and
their slogan is "what the joy of amnesty can bring, revenge cannot" .[...]

We think their statements could be staged to buy time until they can get
organized. Things moved quickly and they are trying to set up a government
structure, to set up a ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention
of Vice, responsible for controlling the small details of the daily life of the
people, like the length of the beard, the dress code and the need for a Mahram (a
male companion, only father, brother or husband) for a woman.[...]

The Taliban would like the West to recognize them and take them seriously, and
all of these statements help paint a whitewashed image and in their
interests.[...]These pretensions will never change their true nature, they will
always be Islamic fundamentalists: misogynistic, inhuman, barbaric, reactionary,
anti-democratic and anti-progressive. In short, the Taliban mentality has not
changed and will never change !

Why did the Afghan National Army and the US-backed government collapse so quickly?

Everything was done according to a negotiation of the cession of Afghanistan to
the Taliban. Negotiations between the US government, Pakistan and other
influential forces resulted in the creation of a government predominantly made up
of the Taliban. The soldiers were not prepared to risk their lives for a war in
which they knew there was no benefit to the Afghan people, since in the end it
was agreed, behind closed doors, to bring the Taliban in power.[...]

Most Afghans understand well that the ongoing war in Afghanistan is not the war
of the Afghans, nor in the interest of the country, but is the business of
foreign powers in their own strategic interests, the Afghans being only the
consumables of this war. The majority of the youth have joined the armed forces
because of poverty and unemployment, and therefore have no determination or
motivation to fight.

It is important to note that the United States and the West have tried for twenty
years to make Afghanistan a nation of consumers and thus slowed the growth of the
industry. This situation created a wave of poverty and unemployment, paving the
way for the recruitment of a puppet government, the Taliban and the development
of opium production. The Afghan forces were not defeated in a week out of
weakness, but were ordered from the presidential palace not to retaliate against
the Taliban and to surrender. Most of the provinces were peacefully conquered by
the Taliban.[...]

The armed forces were corrupt to an unprecedented level. Most of the generals
(many being brutal former warlords of the Northern Alliance) in Kabul have raised
millions of dollars, going so far as to use food and salaries for soldiers
fighting at the front.[...]Whenever the army was besieged and challenged by the
Taliban, calls for help were ignored by Kabul. In many cases, dozens of soldiers
were slaughtered by the Taliban, abandoned, without ammunition or food for
weeks.[...]

What is the best way for Americans to help RAWA, the Afghan people and Afghan
women today ?

We feel very fortunate and happy to have had the freedom loving American people
with us for all these years. We need Americans to raise their voices and protest
against their government's war policies and support the strengthening of the
struggle of the people in Afghanistan against these barbarians.[...]

We have seen that oppression, tyranny or violence, nothing can stop resistance.
Women will no longer stay in chains! The very morning after the Taliban entered
the capital, a group of our brave and young women painted graffiti on the walls
of Kabul with the slogan:"Down with the Taliban!"Our women are now aware
politically and do not want to live under a burqa, something they were still
easily twenty years ago.[...]

Now our fear is that the world will forget about Afghanistan and Afghan women as
under the bloody Taliban laws of the 1990s.[...]We will raise our voices louder
and continue our resistance and our fight for secular democracy and human rights.
women.

Interview by Sonali Kolhatkar on August 20, 2021

Sonali Kolhatkar is a journalist and spokesperson for the Afghan Women's Mission
(AWM), a US NGO helping Afghan women. Interview translated into French by the
International Union Network for Solidarity and Struggles, published in full on
the Laboursolidarity.org website.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Entretien-avec-les-feministes-afghanes-de-RAWA-L-occupation-n-a-cause-que
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