Message-ID: <21843644.1075860408818.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:07:00 -0800 (PST) From: jgosar@pcez.com To: winkler_regina@yahoo.com, tracy@kkjz.com, alexizann@hotmail.com, gversace@teleport.com, davidvaldez2@home.com, jtrasciatti@hotmail.com, ttorres@bioreaction.com, antonella1@flashmail.com, ticens@loswego.k12.or.us, mstir@aol.com, shad.stafford@nike.com, stansiver@earthlink.net, monicarodigues@earthlink.com, wogster@teleport.com, lisa_ralph@yahoo.com, djp@ccnmail.com, dpietro@compuserve.com, julep103@hotmail.com, lpercy@wyoming.com, susan_palmer@pgn.com, otto@gxm.com, benan-oregi@ej-gv.es, roseokada@hotmail.com, muroal@aol.com, eduardo_mendonca@hotmail.com, kmcnulty@providence.org, kgm@internetcds.com, skyy@rocketmail.com, charles@ethos-inc.com, primlmates@aol.com, cecilialarson@msn.com, landman.charlie@deq.state.or.us, kiranawest@hotmail.com, tracytkim@aol.com, kitzy@easystreet.com, berksnow@teleport.com, lisated@earthlink.net, juliaps@inetarena.com, pdxhistory@aol.com, lmhowlett@msn.com, stanleyh@uswest.net, joeykeys@aol.com, mhain@enron.com, johnh@wa-net.com, pachin1046@aol.com, sgosar@uwyo.edu, thedragonfly@hotmail.com, ronch@trib.com, igoodrich007@hotmail.com, fuger@netzero.net, freed5@teleport.com, essietbush@yahoo.com, yoshikod@hotmail.com, cindyd@adcook.com, debra@ipns.com, douglas1966@hotmail.com, jacrispin@aol.com, alvaro_criado@hotmail.com, pelagic@teleport.com, jason@wavelengthmusic.com, butler_mary@hotmail.com, bboss@advmatl.com, aterconstruction@altavista.com, barcand@mail.teleport.com Subject: Fw: This is actually tough to read Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: "jen. gosar" X-To: "Regina Winkler" , "Tracy Williams" , "Alexis Williams" , "Gary Versace" , "David Valdez" , "Joseph Trasciatti" , "Tito Torres" , "Toni" , "Steve Ticen" , "Michael Stirling" , "Shad Stafford" , "Stan Siver" , "Monica Rodrigues" , "Warren Rand" , "Lisa Ralph" , "dan pradere" , "David Pietro" , "Julie Petrokubi" , "Lenore Percy" , "Susan Palmer" , "Otto" , "Benan Oregi" , "Rose Okada" , "Alfredo Muro" , "Eduardo Mendonca" , "Kate McNulty" , "Kerry McCoy" , "Roberto MacLellan" , "Charles Lewis" , "Chris Lee" , "Cecilia Larson" , "Charlie Landman" , "Kirana West" , "Tracy Kim" , "Adrienne and David Keith-Ruud" , "Michael and Leslie Kearsey" , "Lisa and Ted Kaskan and Bennett" , "Julia" , "Dory Hylton" , "Lisa Howlett" , "Stan Hintz" , "Joe Heinemann" , "Mary C Hain" , "John Haek" , "Steve Guasch" , "Steve Gosar" , "jen gosar" , "Grace Gosar" , "Ian Goodrich" , "Heather Fuger" , "Joan Freed" , "Essiet Essiet" , "Trish Dorr" , "cindy doctor" , "Debra Dobbins" , "Douglas Cruz" , "Julie Crispin" , "Al Criado" , "Steve Christofferson" , "Jason Carter" , "Mary Butler" , "Bob Boss" , "Kirstin Hamann Ater" , "Bob Arcand" X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Mary_Hain_Aug2000_Jul2001\Notes Folders\Discussion threads X-Origin: Hain-M X-FileName: mary-hain.nsf ? -----Original Message----- From: Robert MacLellan To: Rob't MacLellan Date: Saturday, March 24, 2001 9:14 AM Subject: This is actually tough to read If you decide not to forward this, please send it back to me. I know this is too true and so dreadful. Oprah actually had a show about this atrocity. This is an actual petition, and "signatures" will be lost if you drop the line. Please take 3 minutes out of your life to do your part. Madhu, the government of Afghanistan, is waging a war upon women. Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua and have been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper attire, even if this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of their eyes. One woman was beaten to death by an angry mob of fundamentalists for accidentally exposing her arm(!) while she was driving. Another was stoned to death for trying to leave the country with a man that was not a relative. Women are not allowed to work or even go out in public without a male relative; professional women such as professors, translators, doctors, lawyers, artists and writers have been forced from their jobs and restricted to their homes. Homes where a woman is present must have their windows painted so that she can never be seen by outsiders. They must wear silent shoes so that they are never heard. Women live in fear of their lives for the slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot work, those without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death or begging the street, even if they hold Ph.D.s. Depression is becoming so widespread that it has reached emergency levels. There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide rate with certainty, but relief workers are estimating that the suicide rate among women must be extraordinarily high: those who cannot find proper medication and treatment for severe depression and would rather take their lives than live in such conditions. At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still, nearly lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their bur qua, unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything, but slowly wasting away. Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in corners, perpetually rocking or crying, most of them in fear. When what little medication that is left finally runs out, one doctor is considering leaving these women in front of the president's residence as a form of protest. It is at the point where the term "human rights violations" has become an understatement. Husbands have the power of life and death over their women relatives, especially their wives, but an angry mob has just as much right to stone or beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending them in the slightest way. Women enjoyed relative freedom: to work, to dress generally as they wanted, and to drive and appear in public alone until only 1996. The rapidity of this transition is the main reason for the depression and suicide; Women who were once educators or doctors or simply used to basic human freedoms are now severely restricted and treated as subhuman in the name of right-wing fundamentalist Islam. It is not their tradition or 'culture,' but it is alien to them, and it is extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule. Everyone has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country. If we can threaten military force in Kosovo the name of human rights for the sake of ethnic Albanians, citizens of the world can certainly express peaceful outrage at the oppression, murder and injustice committed against women by the Taliban. STATEMENT: In signing this, we agree that the current treatment of women in Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE and deserves action by the United Nations and that the current situation overseas will not be tolerated. Women's Rights is not a small issue anywhere, and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 2000 to be treated as subhuman and as so much property. Equality and human decency is a fundamental RIGHT, not a freedom to be granted, whether one lives in Afghanistan or elsewhere. 1) Giuliana D. Black, Daly City,CA,USA 2) Mariam Nayiny, Palo Alto,CA,USA 3) Sunaina Gulati-Ruh, Palo Alto,CA,USA 4) Megan McCaslin, Palo Alto,CA,USA 5) Blake Hallanan, San Francisco,CA,USA 6) Kit Henderson, Sacramento,CA,USA 7) Sara Myers, San Francisco,CA,USA 8) Ellen Tilden, San Fransisco,CA,USA 9) Vanessa Ross, San Francisco,CA,USA 10) Jenna Shaw- Battista, San Francisco,CA,USA 11) Jeanne Racik, Berkeley,CA,USA 12) Julie Silas, Oakland,CA,USA 13) Renee Longstreet, Tarzana,CA,USA 14) Susan Johnson, Encino,CA,USA 15) Kenneth Johnson, Encino,CA,USA 16) Terri Treas, Los Angeles,CA,USA 17) Amy Retzinger, North Hollywood,CA,USA 18) Babette Crooms, Los Angeles,CA,USA 19) Olivia Kienzel; Santa Barbara,CA,USA 20) Sean Dexheimer, Los Angeles,CA,USA 21) Elio Chavez, Jr., Pasadena,CA,USA 22) Gregory Kastigar, Los Angeles,CA,USA 23) Robert Collie, Los Angeles,CA,USA 24) Jeff Garvin, Brea,CA,USA 25) Tricia Allen, Sherman Oaks,CA,USA 26) Joleen Nordstrom, Hollywood,CA,USA 27) Theresa Donahoe, Martinez,CA,USA 28) Jennifer Horn, Concord,CA,USA 29) Roxanne Ryan, Alamo,CA,USA 30) Miriam Tyler, San Jose,CA,USA 31) John Burns, San Jose,CA,USA 32) Kristin Lynn Minick, Fort Worth,TX,USA 33) Jeff Neal, Marietta,GA,USA 34) Anna Neal, Marietta, GA,USA 35) Frances Murley-Fort Worth,TX,USA 36) David Murley-London,England,UNITED KINGDOM 37) Jillian Dykhouse, Colleyville,TX,USA 38) Bonnie Dykhouse,Colleyville,TX,USA 39) Nancy Williams, Colleyville,TX,USA 40) Georgene Farr, Sterling Heights,MI,USA 41) Joanne Arensberg, Riverview,MI,USA 42) Luann Ouellette, Vermillion,SD,USA 43) Sandie Sullivan, Vermillion,SD,USA 44) Troy Nelson, Minneapolis,MN,USA 45) Joseph Miller, Minnepolis,MN,USA 46) Kathleen Miller, White Bear Lake,MN,USA 47) Jerry Marquis, Mpls.,MN,USA 48) Jul ie Stokes, Coon Rapids,MN,USA 49) Tracy Ford, Blaine,MN,USA 50) Sheila Lawrence, Monticello,MN,USA 51) Brenda Kitchen, Westlake Village,CA,USA 52) Teresa Burke, Sherman Oaks,CA,USA 53) Bruce Ehrlich, Sherman Oaks,CA,USA 54) Yllania Francis, Los Angeles,CA,USA 55) Drew Hedin, Los Angeles,CA,USA 56) Laura Paridon, Laguna Woods,CA,USA 57) Jeanie Hagedorn, Des Moines,IA,USA 58) Sue Christensen, Des Moines,IA,USA 59) Sybil Finken, Glenwood,IA,USA 60) Luke Finken, Earth 61) Doug Gerace, Lincoln,NE,USA 62) Cheryl Gerace,NE,USA 63) Sheri Lew,CO,USA 64) Raven Grace,Boulder,CO,USA 65) Martha M.Mertz,EL,MI,USA 66) Colleen R. Cooper,Okemos,MI,USA 67) Barbara J. Sawyer-Koch, East Lansing,MI,USA 68) Margaret A. Meyers, Okemos,MI,USA 69) Mary Helen Espes, Okemos,MI,USA 70) Maureen Kirchhoff, Allenspark,CO,USA 71) Bart Johnson, Err, FRANCE 72) Sharon O'Connor, Olympia,WA,USA 73) Nancy Irving, Tbilisi, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA 74) Martha Lindley, Seattle,WA,USA 75) Judith Alexander, Woodinville,WA,USA 76) Arlene B. Hawkinson, Seattle,WA,USA 77) Christine E. Mobley, Bothell,WA,USA 78) Trudie Breen,CA,USA 79) Catherine Standiford,CA,USA 80) Beverly Truett,AZ,USA 81) Christine Meehan,AZ,USA 82) Janice Gilbert, Valley Center,CA,USA 83) Dawna Upchurch, Anchorage,AK,USA 84) Roxanna Groves, Olympia,WA,USA 85) Lynda Lynde, Helena,MT,USA 86) Constance Gelu, University Place,WA,USA 87) Jodi Woolett, Tacoma,WA,USA 88) Lisa I. Reeves- Lynden,WA,USA 89) Amanda James-Bow,WA,USA 90) Kelli J. Smith, New Port Richey,FL,USA 91) Chris Poirier, Largo,FL,USA 92) Mike Carpenter, Palmetto,FL,USA 93) Alice Pryor, Melbourne,FL,USA 94) Ellen Catano, Manchester,NH,USA 95) Bevely Jennings, Cincinnati,OH,USA 96) Linda Feely, Norwood,OH,USA 97) Sherry Stidham, Norwood,OH,USA 98) Brittany Brown, Cincinnati,OH,USA 99) Sandy Brown, Cincinnati,OH,USA 100)Tim Br