Part 2: Canada in Afghanistan – What Should Our Role Be?

Who Are Our Troops Struggling Against Who Are Our Troops Struggling Against in Our Efforts to Help Afghanistan?in Our Efforts to Help Afghanistan?

Is this a fight Is this a fight worth fighting?worth fighting?

Key Questions:Key Questions:-What is an insurgency?What is an insurgency?- Who are the Taliban?Who are the Taliban?

By:ChristinaLindsey

Instructions: Who are the Taliban?

• Fill in the following slides which ask questions about the Taliban in Afghanistan by clicking on the following Wikipedia link.

• You will also be asked to find school appropriate photos to illustrate the information you will be asked to find. You will have to create hyperlinks to the pages where you found your photos.

http://info-wars.org/2009/04/26/american-taxpayers-finance-the-taliban/

Who Are the Taliban?• Read the first paragraph on the Wikipedia page

about the Taliban and then answer the following questions.

• 1. What does the word Taliban actually mean? It means “students” in Arabic• 2. When did they form the government of

Afghanistan and who forced them from power? They formed the government in September,

1966 Operation Enduring Freedom forced them from

power• 3. Click on the links for the following concepts

and then define them in your own words:– Insurgency Rebellion against a “constituted” authority:

those in the rebellion are not seen as hostile– Guerilla War Civilians using military tactics like

ambushes, etc.

• 4. The Taliban as a social and political “movement” (group) is made up of “volunteers” from which Afghan tribe and people of what neighboring countries to Afghanistan?

It is made up of “volunteers” from the Pashtun tribe and from Pakistan, the Arab military and Central Asia military.

• 5. Where does the US government believe that the Taliban’s headquarters is (city and country).

They believe their headquarters is in Quetta, Pakistan

Taliban Leadership and Organization

• 1. Who is considered by many as the current “leader” of the Taliban?

The current leader of the Taliban is Mullah Mohammed Omar.

2. Follow the link to his page and then answer the following questions:

– This man is on the US government’s most wanted list for what 3 activities?

He is wanted for hiding Osama bin laden, and some al Quaeda militants prior to the 9/11 attacks. As well as directing the Taliban insurgency against NATO forces and the Karzai administration.

- What is one of the only physical details really known about this man?

He is known to be missing one eye.- How did he get this physical feature?

It is said that after his eye was wounded by a piece of shrapnel in a battle, he cut his eye out and sewed it up.

Its not easy to get a picture of Mullah Omar because there are few pictures of him, those we do have are under question that they are really pictures of him.

Origins of the TalibanScroll down the main Taliban Wikipedia page

until you find the heading Origins in order to answer the following questions:

3. What are the two competing stories about the creation of the Taliban?

Two teenage girls were captured and raped multiple times. 30 Taliban (with only 16 rifles) freed the girls, and hanged the governor from the barrel of a tank

2 militia men were fighting over the right to rape a young boy and the Taliban came in to free the boy

• THINKING QUESTION: – Of the 2 stories a supporter would choose to

believe which one?

A supporter would believe in the story about the Taliban saving the 2 girl who got raped

– Of the 2 stories an opponent would probably choose to believe which one?

An opponent would believe the story about the boy being saved.

http://middleeast.about.com/od/afghanistan/ss/me080914a.htm

Taliban Treatment of Women• For the following slides

please follow this link – Taliban Treatment of Women2. Read the very first paragraph and

then summarize the Taliban’s quotation about its reasons for harsh treatment of women below:

Their intent was to make an environment in which women’s chastity and dignity would again be held as though it were sacred.

• Under the Gender Policies heading, summarize the 8 points about the treatment of women by the Taliban provided:

• Women not allowed out without a burqa or a blood relative.

• women not allowed to wear high-heeled shoes, so as not to distract men.

• not allowed to speak loudly; no one should hear a woman’s voice.

• ground and floor view windows- must be screened or blocked, so that women can not be seen from the street.

• no photographs of women allowed anywhere.• any name that has the word “women” in it

must be changed to something else.• women not allowed to be seen on outside

balconies.• women not allowed on radio broadcasts.

Dress Code and Mobility• 1. Scroll back up the page to find the definition

of “mahram”. An unmarriageable kin with whom sexual

intercourse would be considered incestuous, a punishable taboo

• What are some other restrictions that women faced regarding moving around the cities and countryside in Afghanistan under the Taliban? (3)

Women cannot ride motorcycles or bicycles, even with their mahram

Women can’t ride in taxis without a mahram Males and females could not travel on the same

bus• Why would an all girls’ orphanage be practically

a prison under this system? It would be a prison because women have no

basically no rights and if they have no family they cannot appear in public, etc. All windows on ground level would be blacked out and they would not be allowed to do even the limited amount of thing those women with families and their own houses would be able to do.

• Dress code stuff:– What is the name for the traditional outfit

that women had to wear in Taliban Afghanistan?

They had to wear a burqa– What was the main reason for this strict

control of women's’ dress? The main reason is so they could not be

showing off their womanly features, lest the men become distracted, swayed, etc.

http://www.irc-india.com/ViewActivities.aspx

Employment and Education• Were women allowed to work at all under

the Taliban rules (tricky question)?

Many were not allowed to work, yes, but some female physicians were exempt from this ban. Also women in a rural area went on as usual- working their crops etc.

• What industries were particularly hit hard by the Taliban’s work policies for women? Pick 2.

The medical industry as well as the education industry.

• Were women allowed to be educated under Taliban law? What age did they have to stop going to school?

Women could be educated only until they were 8, after that education stops.

• Find the quote that illustrates that the Taliban actually thought that they had increased women’s rights in Afghanistan.

“ no other country has given women the rights that we have given them. We have given women the rights that God and his Messenger have instructed, and that is to stay in their homes and gain religious instruction in hijab.”

Health Care and Forced Confinement

• Give 2 reasons it was really tough for women to receive health care when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

Men were not allowed to touch women for consultation and the number of female doctors was significantly low.

Women used to be able to attend a “women’s only” wing of a general hospital until they decided to ban women from general hospitals altogether, allowing them only to go to a hospital in Kabul.

• A study done in 1991 concluded that roughly what percentage of Afghan women they surveyed were showing signs of mental distress and depression?

About 97% of women surveyed showed signs of serious depression.

• Describe 3 other cultural prohibitions that were imposed on women or about women if Taliban ruled Afghanistan

Women were not allowed to wear nail polish or make-up

Places with the word “women” in the name were changed so that the word was not used.

Women weren’t allowed to laugh loudly because it was “inappropriate for a stranger to hear a woman’s voice”

Punishments for Breaking Taliban Laws• Read the information about the types of

punishments women (and men) were subjected to in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule and summarize 2 extreme examples below:

• one woman had the tip of her thumb cut off because she wore nail polish.

• 225 women were punished for breaking the Taliban’s dress code. They were whipped with a whip 1.5 meters in length.

• Who is the woman in the photo on this part of the web-page?

• She is the mother of 7 kids living in an abusive marriage.

• What is happening to her?• She is being executed publically(Zarmina).• Where is it happening?• Its happening in the Ghazi Sports Stadium.• What crime is she accused of? • She has been accused of killing her

husband in his sleep.• What happened to her for 3 years before

this event? • She was imprisoned for three years. • What organization took the film this

photo is a screenshot from? • The Revolutionary Association of the

Women of Afghanistan.

Women’s Resistance to the Taliban• Explain what the Golden Needle Sewing

School was. This was an underground school established for

women so that they could learn in secret under the Taliban’s law forbidding women to be educated. It is under the guise of a sewing club.

• How did women “sneak in” 2 details. They would come into the “sewing club” with

their sewing supplies in their bags, and with writing utensils and notebooks hidden beneath.

Professors would give lectures to the women and if some religious officials should happen by children posted outside would alert the women and proceed to hide their books and stat sewing.

• Why was the area that this school was in one of the most oppressed by the Taliban? 2 reasons.

It was a cultured city (Taliban opposed) Most people are Shi’a (also Taliban opposed)

• What is RAWA? The “Revolutionary Association of the Women

of Afghanistan” is a women’s organization that promotes women’s rights and secular democracy

• Who was the founder of RAWA and what happened to her?

Meena Keshwar Kamal founded RAWA. She was assassinated in February 1987 for her political activities.

• What does RAWA work for? 3 main things. To involve women of Afghanistan in both

political and social activities aimed at acquiring human rights for women

Multilateral disarmament Women’s rights to participate in secular

democracies

Now that you know … • Write a personal reaction on this slide (3-4 sentences) in which you express your opinion about the

treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban. How does it make you feel? Why?

After reading all this I believe that the men of the Taliban are ultimately afraid of women. I think it is very unfair to allow their men all these rights and freedoms but to take away those very same rights from the women who live there. Both men and women should be able to wear bright clothing, walk around the streets with those not only of their blood and have a good education. No woman should have to hide her pride in herself behind a burqa because that is what will give her life. Afghanistan would be able to thrive like never before, if only the women could have the same treatment as the men, and allowed to be educated and work in their fields of choice.

• What the Taliban is doing is wrong. Women are not meant to be manipulated and restricted. The Taliban think that they are protecting women with these laws, but what they are doing is isolating them, making women to be ashamed of who and what they are. Making them lesser than men. The Taliban needs to start thinking of women as people, equal to men, not as assets, but rather something to cherish. If only they could see what women had to offer to this world.

Do we … • As citizens of a country in which we are relatively free, safe, and equal do we have the

responsibility to help places like Afghanistan become more like us? Why or why not? Explain your answer in 3 – 4 sentences.

In the sense of safety, equality and freedom, I believe that we should do everything in our power to help Afghanistan become like us. This would not be the same as assimilating them because this should be the basis for which every person lives their lives, not having to hide out of fear and having the same rights and freedoms as the next person. If we have the power to help those living in Afghanistan why should we not offer it to those that would accept it?

• Yes, I do think that we do have a responsibility to help the women, and or men who are oppressed in Afghanistan. it would be very difficult to do, but if we were to succeed I do think it would be very worth it. Everyone deserves a chance to live their life the way they want to. In Canada we have these freedoms, why shouldn’t other countries benefit from copying our system?