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Last Updated: January 29, 2012
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REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN (RAWA)

On this page: Onnie Wilson; Mariam Rawi

Onnie Wilson

Women straddle two ways of being and have had an 'other' experience, from our species herstory as well as our present history, of being concerned for other people: of nurturing rather than destroying. I think it is vital for us to lead, to take a new path to develop those capacities and shape new ways of living. Certainly the feminism that I adhere to is of that sort.

A good example of this is the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan (RAWA). It is an amazing organization. It is an example of exactly how women can create a different paradigm.

RAWA is unique. Their model is something that could well be taken up in other societies for the better - for everybody's betterment - not just women's betterment, but for everybody's.

RAWA started in 1977. It started with one woman, Meena, who was on all accounts, very charismatic and visionary. She devoted her life to the pursuit of women's human rights in Afghanistan. This was at a time when championing feminist ideas was within a culture that was not just fifty years or a hundred years behind in such ways of thinking, as was feminism here in the 1970's, but centuries - light years behind.

But here was a woman speaking out, demanding that women be granted their human rights, knowing that the population as a whole would be better off if women had this recognition. She had a group of women who linked up with her to have this movement start and an extraordinary organization was born.

RAWA is strongly political but also active in assisting the most needy, especially women and children and runs many lifesaving programmes: health care, orphanages, small business programmes for widows and prostitutes and the like.

They support women, personally empowering them and leading them to become politically minded and active to bring about social change.

Education is a key part of RAWA. Their educational philosophy is not just about having everybody reach their potential, but about encouraging women to be politically minded, plus being concerned for others, and linking with others, and supporting others.

It is about including everybody - not having ethnic differences, financial background differences, but having everybody working together.

It is about respect and educates males to think differently about women and themselves. The revolution they want is through pen and paper - having women educated so they have the capacity to be able to bring about change in the community.

RAWA's leader, Meena was assassinated ten years after she started for being so politically outspoken. She was a threat: a threat to the fundamentalist/conservative elements, so they got rid of her. They would have presumed that this was going to be the end of these threatening, ratbag women but it worked in the opposite way.

Those who were working with RAWA just changed how they organized themselves and RAWA, the unique organisation, was developed.

They went underground and created an organisational structure that protected their security.

They abandoned the role of leader, and introduced a flatter and more widely distributed form of decision making with members working in semi-autonomous committees. This was done for security reasons, mainly, but it has been a useful way to empower more who are in the group and to give a greater number responsibility.

Within RAWA there are a lot of women who have had extremely traumatic experiences and who need a lot of emotional support, who are illiterate, who have had family members (particularly male family members) killed, so they don't have any capacity to earn an income.

These women are all taken in and supported. Everybody has a part within the organization, which is one where all teach and help those who are less able, and are then taught and helped by those who are more able.

Even if you send the organization an email, the response is warm, so even an outside stranger can notice the difference in how interaction takes place.The emotional attachment to the organisation is very strong as a consequence.

All members see themselves as 'RAWA', not individuals, and RAWA is the collective whole. The commitment the women in RAWA have to the organization is extraordinary.

RAWA is 2,000 strong at the moment. It has at least as many male supporters who are quite happy to go along with this group of women taking the lead. Some of them are husbands, some are fathers and brothers or other relatives, some are friends.

They also risk their life in being a supporter. This is extraordinary. Here is a group of women who are extremely competent - they run a refugee camp in Pakistan and their own hospital. They run mobile health care, orphanages, primary and secondary schools, handicraft programs for widows and women who need assistance, small business projects and make all the decisions. And men follow.

Where else does this happen? They also work with prostitutes. Many women are forced into prostitution because of a husband being killed. In Afghanistan this is ostracized: anyone who is a prostitute is treated as a leper. Any who work with prostitutes are also treated as lepers, but they do it.

So this group of women are doing culturally revolutionary things: they make the decisions and they have male supporters. But they are not just working in community support areas. They are outspoken for women publicly and politically.

For example, their website: it a public statement. It has been fantastic in getting human rights abuses against women in the public eye.

They have conscientiously documented and photographed instances of abuse and put them into the public arena. They are well known, even though they are under cover.

They put out many political publications. They have their 'Payam-e-Zan' or Women's Message' magazine which is a very strong political analysis of what is happening and a clear statement of the direction they want for the future of Afghanistan.

They are very strongly outspoken against the Taliban and fundamentalist warlords who have been responsible for the enormous amount of violence against women and men.

They regularly organise political demonstrations in Pakistan, despite the risk. In Afghanistan it would be much too dangerous: a women's only organisation, a publicly outspoken one at that, is completely outrageous in a conservative environment like Afghanistan.

They don't use their own names - they don't even know the names of other members, for security reasons. If anyone is caught they can't give information about anyone else. They have no headquarters and no landline phone.

They have been extremely competent in adapting following what that happened to Meena. They had to find a different model to function, and this is how they have chosen to do it. Amazing!

Here, we are a bit shy about thinking of a group of women as a legitimate entity. We are a bit embarrassed that we are just women. We don't stand up with the confidence, for example, of a male football club and feel that what we say and what we do has validity.

In RAWA they don't find this is a problem at all. They have no problem in being an organization made up of women, and being quite strong about it.

This is why I find RAWA such an extraordinary organization that we can learn much from.

Mariam Rawi, the RAWA member who was here in Melbourne quite recently, gave the annual human rights oration of the Mornington Peninsular Shire.

The CEO was standing in front of the audience, introducing the opening address in a very neat, well-tailored suit, with bow tie and expensive glasses: obviously on a good salary. I am not meaning to knock him but he looked conspicuously different compared to Mariam.

She was standing beside him in borrowed clothes with her coat, a community coat from RAWA, her jeans from a secondhand shop and her second hand shoes really ready to be throw out, she told me. They were not holding together well because they were mice eaten.

What Mariam receives for her work is food and board: a very modest sum. Here is a woman who is a key figure in an organization of 2,000 members, 2,000 local supporters and an extensive international network of support and she gets close to nothing.

She works all night because she is a married woman with a child and night is the best time for her work, and the electricity stays on all night (if they are lucky) so the internet works best then.

During the day it doesn't function too well at all. They work in the night but when things are functioning, in the day as well . The amount of time she works and the amount of effort she puts in, like all RAWA members it seems, is extraordinary.

The work she does has a major effect on many, many women who are in extreme, often life and death, situations.

I was acutely aware of the stark contrast as to how we value lives and how we value work from one side of the globe to the other: where you are located, counts. Someone in Afghanistan, particularly a woman, is not given the same value in spite of her amazing efforts.

It is really quite moving when you think about it. I gave Mariam her Australian tour timetable and asked if it was too much, but she said "Whatever you give me, I will do". For a whole month she worked 'full speed ahead' with never a request for a breathing space.

Her passion and commitment left me spellbound. Actually her audiences were spellbound, too. After the presentation at Toorak College, from just one person who heard her speak, a cheque for $10,000 was put into the RAWA account.

Talking about her experiences, the commitment of RAWA and the future they want for women and Afghanistan, just knocked people out of their socks. They really are quite extraordinary women.

People really wanted to get behind what they are doing at RAWA and to be supportive. They could see the great significance of these women's work. And this is what I am hopeful will happen here in Australia as well: that we will have a rejuvenation of women actively following women's wisdom (you can call it that), looking for new directions and building new social alternatives rather than trying to change the male paradigm. That doesn't work .

And we can do better than a mould an ocean of Margaret Thatchers. I think we can learn a lot from RAWA - that women have the capacity; that we can take a different direction which is outside the male model; that we should have the confidence in what we are and who we are; that we matter and that we should be taken notice of. RAWA has arisen out of adversity and whether this always has to be the case to stimulate new thought and action, I don't know.

Perhaps the more comfortable we are, the less likely we are to create something as effective and 'revolutionary' as RAWA, but hopefully we can learn from it.

RAWA strongly acknowledges its herstory, and Meena and her contribution are a constant part of RAWA's present.

EXCERPTS FROM MARIAM RAWI'S TALK

During the past 26 years, despite unimaginable difficulties, the Revolutionary Afghanistan Women's Association (RAWA) has been at the forefront of the struggle for democracy and human rights and against fundamentalist terrorism.

It has made sacrifices, been continuously persecuted and harassed. Since the overthrow of the Taliban, though women in Kabul and some other cities are free to go to school and have jobs, armed warlords have their own rules and local governments in other parts of Afghanistan.

These warlords brutalize people and particularly women. In most parts of Afghanistan women are still banned from going outside their homes unaccompanied and no education is provided for girls.

Because of their continued oppression, a large number of young girls commit suicide, unable to bear the hardships. Tens of self-immolation cases are reported every month in Herat city and its surrounding provinces. Women and young girls are being raped or forced into marriage by the Northern Alliance commanders.

There is no sign of any improvement for women in rural areas and access to education is still a dream for many women.

Even in Kabul where thousands of foreign troops are present, women do not feel safe and many continue to wear the disgusting "Burqa" (Veil) for protection. The Karzai government has established the Women's Ministry just to throw dust in the eyes of Afghan women and people of the world.

In reality this Ministry has done nothing for women and there are complaints that money donated by foreign NGOs for the Ministry is grabbed by powerful warlords in the Karzai cabinet.

There is no stability or security in the country, nor has there been any significant relief for its population.

It is painful to hear some Western leaders and media speak frequently about the "liberation" of Afghanistan.

But Afghan women are definitely not silent victims and there has always been strong opposition from women.

The fundamentalists who misuse religion and ancient tradition to oppress women are still prevalent.

As a result RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and our work continues.

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