Last year the international community sponsored a petition to protest the brutal and savage actions taken by the Taliban militia against the women of Afghanistan. Women not wearing the chadori (veil) are beaten. Employment is forbidden and girl's schools remain closed. Women are imprisoned in their homes and in some areas have disappeared from public life altogether.
A Woman's Voice, International joined this protest and to date we have collected over 300 signatures. Several Congressmen also expressed their condemnation of these barbaric actions after receiving letters of concern from us regarding any extension of foreign aid or recognition of these guerrillas by the United States government.
The petition also urges the US Congress and other governmental and intergovernmental bodies to appropriate development assistance moneys in support of Afghan women's education, skill building, capacity-building, health-related programs and other basic needs. The effort to gather signatures will continue until the year 2000.
Siliguri, West Bengal
Students enrolled at the literacy training center
We introduce our recently opened literacy training center where women are taught to read and write while being warned about the deceitful practices of sex traffickers. Strategically located, this commercial hub is a well known clearing town for those involved in the flesh trade.
Lecherous men trick desperate women and young girls with empty bellies into believing they can get them jobs. Instead, these naive victims end up in Bombay's brothels where they are imprisoned, beaten and then forced to "service" up to twenty clients per day.
We are planning to expand this facility into a safe haven where returning victims, often AIDS patients, can live without fear and humiliation.
National
A Woman's Voice, International joined the Texas Council on Family Violence and attended their annual conference in Houston, Texas. As court advocates for the East Texas Crisis Center we share our concern and support for local victims of domestic violence.
Every fifteen seconds a woman in America is battered and every three to six minutes a woman is raped. According to our government statistics, violence is the number one cause of death for females between the ages of fifteen and forty-four, and the number one reason for women being treated in our hospital emergency rooms.
