Afghanistan Women: What is RAWA?
© Moira Richards
Afghani women established the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan in 1977. Their main purpose was to lobby for social justice and for the human rights of the country's women.
Then Russia invaded Afghanistan a year or so later and so RAWA changed its focus to anti-Soviet demonstrations until 1992, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since 1992, RAWA has been campaigning once again for women's basic human rights; against the criminal activities of the warlords and against the anti-women atrocities of the fundamentalists.
RAWA's leaders have been threatened and also assassinated, but their work has continued regardless. They have a number of diverse activities that they carry out in both Afghanistan, and in neighbouring Pakistan where many thousands of their women live in refugee camps.
RAWA provides education for children in the Pakistani refugee camps and literacy training for the women there (not even 5% of the Afghan women are literate). In Afghanistan, RAWA runs secret schools for girls who are now forbidden by the Taliban to be educated. Besides basic education and literacy skills, the women and girls are taught about women's rights, democracy, civic freedoms and the dangers of fundamentalisms.
Their mobile health teams are active in the refugee camps and they have even managed to open and run a hospital in Quetta. In Afghanistan, these health workers are essential for providing health care and first aid training to the womenfolk who are not allowed to go out and see a doctor.
RAWA workers try to offer physical, economic and psychological support and aid to the female victims of war crimes. It assists the families of prisoners, helps them to get information and legal advice. It tries to help and shelter women victims of domestic violence. RAWA has also established women-centered production projects like chicken farms and handcraft projects to enable women to feed their families.
An important part of RAWA's work is publicity generation. The organization is determined that the world must know what is happening to the Afghani women. In 1981, it launched a magazine called Payam-e-Zan (Woman's Message) that educates women about their rights and exposes the crimes of their persecutors. This magazine still exists today, although funds are so scare that publication is erratic.
RAWA issues regular press releases and maintains a very active and informative website. It has lobbied internationally to try and get funding from the United Nations or NGO's - but without much success.
Then Russia invaded Afghanistan a year or so later and so RAWA changed its focus to anti-Soviet demonstrations until 1992, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since 1992, RAWA has been campaigning once again for women's basic human rights; against the criminal activities of the warlords and against the anti-women atrocities of the fundamentalists.
RAWA's leaders have been threatened and also assassinated, but their work has continued regardless. They have a number of diverse activities that they carry out in both Afghanistan, and in neighbouring Pakistan where many thousands of their women live in refugee camps.
RAWA provides education for children in the Pakistani refugee camps and literacy training for the women there (not even 5% of the Afghan women are literate). In Afghanistan, RAWA runs secret schools for girls who are now forbidden by the Taliban to be educated. Besides basic education and literacy skills, the women and girls are taught about women's rights, democracy, civic freedoms and the dangers of fundamentalisms.
Their mobile health teams are active in the refugee camps and they have even managed to open and run a hospital in Quetta. In Afghanistan, these health workers are essential for providing health care and first aid training to the womenfolk who are not allowed to go out and see a doctor.
RAWA workers try to offer physical, economic and psychological support and aid to the female victims of war crimes. It assists the families of prisoners, helps them to get information and legal advice. It tries to help and shelter women victims of domestic violence. RAWA has also established women-centered production projects like chicken farms and handcraft projects to enable women to feed their families.
An important part of RAWA's work is publicity generation. The organization is determined that the world must know what is happening to the Afghani women. In 1981, it launched a magazine called Payam-e-Zan (Woman's Message) that educates women about their rights and exposes the crimes of their persecutors. This magazine still exists today, although funds are so scare that publication is erratic.
RAWA issues regular press releases and maintains a very active and informative website. It has lobbied internationally to try and get funding from the United Nations or NGO's - but without much success.
Go To Page: 1
The copyright of the article Afghanistan Women: What is RAWA? in Abuse Against Women is owned by Moira Richards. Permission to republish Afghanistan Women: What is RAWA? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
