The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is the oldest socio-political organization of women in Afghanistan that is dedicated to furthering the causes of human rights and social justice. It was founded in 1977 in Kabul, Afghanistan by a group of politically active and socially aware Afghani women intellectuals and students. One of the founders, Meena, was the driving force in the group that helped RAWA gain international awareness for its reports of the atrocious human rights abuses in Afghanistan and the general mistreatment of women.

RAWA, since its birth, has also been committed to fighting oppressive forms of government, religious extremism and all forms of chauvinism and bigotry. A year following the birth of RAWA, the Soviet Union backed a coup in Afghanistan and installed a puppet regime. In 1979 the Soviet Union launched a full fledged invasion of Afghanistan which in turn sparked a resistance movement to oust the Soviet occupation force. Many factions of the ‘freedom fighters,’ or mujahadin, were backed, trained and financed by the US, including the Muslim extremist mujahadin lead by US ally Osama bin Laden. RAWA also became active in the resistance movement, but was fighting a two front battle: one was with the Soviet occupation force that was destroying the beautiful nation and peoples of Afghanistan; the other was with US backed Muslim extremism. RAWA has been relentless in their struggle for secularism and democracy.

RAWA attacked the forces of oppression through agitation, education, direct action and other forms of resistance. Meena helped establish the group’s bilingual magazine Payam-e-Zan (Women’s Message), published in Persian and Pashto, which documented various heinous crimes done at the hands of the Soviet war machine and their henchmen in power in Kabul, and later, by the religious extremists who held power following the defeat of the Soviet occupiers in the war. The magazine also has Urdu and English publications to broaden its reader base.

Unfortunately for RAWA and for the international struggle for women’s liberation, self determination and social justice, Meena was martyred, assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan in 1987 by KHAD (the KGB’s Afghani division) agents with help from religious extremist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s followers. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, despite various war crimes committed in Afghanistan, enjoys a powerful position in the current US-installed puppet regime in Afghanistan through his political party Hezb-e-Islami. Meena’s martyrdom, however, has helped intensify the fight for social justice and women’s liberation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

RAWA has helped in many ways in pushing for democracy, secularism and liberation in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their activities have included: the building of Malalai Hospital and Malalai Clinic in Pakistan which provide free healthcare to Afghan women and children, outreach programs to give financial and social support to Afghan refugees, providing in depth coverage on continuous human rights abuses in Afghanistan, organizing demonstrations, and distributing patriotic song tapes that are anti-religious extremist in nature, creating poetry and literature groups.

The group also provides assistance to families of wrongfully accused and imprisoned people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Education is also an extremely important medium of social change that RAWA has taken advantage of. UNICEF recently published a report on literacy rates in Afghanistan; Afghan males have a literacy rate of approximately 28% and females have a literacy rate between 3 and 4%. RAWA has created over 15 schools in Pakistan for Afghani child refugees and has established countless literacy programs for Afghani girls in Afghanistan. In their education programs, RAWA teachers dedicate much attention to religious, gender and ethnic tolerance, anti-racism and anti-war beliefs, peace, environmental sensitivity. Their teaching policy stresses the belief that “There is no difference between people; no human being is superior to any other because of class, color, language, race, or religion.”
The current situation in Afghanistan is still very bleak. With US support and encouragement, Northern Alliance warlords, many of them religious extremists themselves, hold a near monopoly on the political situation in Afghanistan.

Despite American promises for bringing democracy to Afghanistan and equal rights for women, human rights violations occur incessantly, some even at the hands of the new occupation force- the Americans. True champions of human rights and social justice, RAWA has always been persistent in denouncing and fighting all forms of oppression, chauvinism and occupation. RAWA was on the front lines fighting off the Soviet invasion. They were on the front lines in fighting Muslim extremism. They are holding their place, refusing to back down and co-opt, during the present occupation and war in Afghanistan. Meena’s spirit has lived on, not only through RAWA, but through all struggles for liberation and social justice.

(visit www.rawa.org for more info)