by By Sara Cantrell - Afghan Wire News
Wednesday, Sep. 13, 2006 at 2:40 AM
"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around.
Human rights invented America." - President Jimmy Carter.
Following that credo, on September 11, 2006, American women handcuffed and chained themselves to the Afghan Embassy in Washington, DC to protest against Hamid Karzai's oppressive government. A spokeswoman stated that this was "just the start of demonstrations against the Afghan Embassy in Washington to protest President Karzai's illegal imprisonment of innocent Americans and treatment of Afghan women."
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American Women handcuffed and chained themselves to the Afghan Embassy at the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center five years ago. They each had their own key hanging around their neck on a small cord. If police officers told them to un-cuff from the fence, they were going to ask him to explain why, and stand there in a line demanding to see Ambassador Jawad.
Instead they chained theirselves to the Embassy when Afghan security threatened them and said the Ambassador was not there and would not talk to them.
Shortly after handcuffing themselves to the embassy wearing burkas, Ambassador Jawad agreed to meet the women. He was there, and he did talk to them. According to sources inside the Afghan Embassy, one of the prime issues was the continued imprisonment of former Special Forces officers, Jack Idema and Captain Brent Bennett, who were found innocent in an appeals court trial in Kabul in 2005. They had been charged with entering the country illegal and wrongful detention of terrorist suicide bombers.
The Taliban executed women for wearing nail polish. A FREE THEM NOW spokeswoman said, "Mr. Hamid Karzai simply tortures them and imprisons them, not for nail polish, but for speaking out, divorce, adultery, sex outside of marriage, and many other things. Americans must never fear exercising the Constitutional rights paid for with American blood for more than 200 years." The women remained anonymous under the Burkas throughout the protest.
There is no greater symbol of the oppression and horror of Afghanistan than the Burka.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world in which the Burka is worn nationwide. Although it is also seen in some Afghan areas of Pakistan.
Speaking for FREE THEM NOW, the spokeswoman said "We demand justice, and if it takes a dozern Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on September 11th 2006, then 300 Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on October 12th, the anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on the Taliban in the war of liberation, and then 1000 more Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on November 12, 2006, the anniversary of the American liberation of Kabul, then we will do it. But the terror and oppression must be stopped."
"When a woman wears a Burka she demonstrates her subservient submission to men. This is what Mr. Karzai wants. Women and men must submit to his total authority in his government. No court, no minister, no policeman, prosecutor, or official will disagree with Mr. Karzai, for if they do, they are fired immediately, and later arrested in many cases. Mr. Karzai has built a complete dictatorship under the very nose of the international community. His secret police run rampant with political arrests, and even run torture chambers just a few miles from Mr. Karzai's palace."
Afghan security was prepared to arrest the American women until photographers showed up from the Washington Post and Polaris Images. According to media sources, Afghan security officers also threatened photographers and argued with them to stop taking pictures.
Once camerman were there and refusing to stop photographing a senior Afghan official, Mr. Fazel Fazel, Embassy Political Officer, was quoted as saying, "God no, God no, don't let the press photograph American police touching women in Burkas." The DC Metro Police refused to interfere in what the DC Chief of Police called a peaceful expression protected under the First Amendment.
The women say they will target Afghan Embassies in Washington, New York City, London, and Los Angeles next.
For more info:
www.AfghanInjustice.com
(pictures of today's Washington Demonstration courtesy of Polaris Images)
From the Afghan Injustice Website:
9/11/2006- The First Demonstrations Take Place When American Women Chain and Handcuff Themselves to the Afghan Embassy in Washington to protest President Karzai's illegal imprisonment of innocent American Green Berets
On 10/12/06- 300 More Women will Chain Up to the Afghan Embassies in London and Washington.
On 11/12/2006- 1000 More Women will form a chain around the Afghan Embassies in London, Washington, and New York City. Each month it will grow until they hear our voices.
www.AfghanInjustice.com
