Amnesty International Urges Pakistan to Protect Activists

Amnesty International urged Pakistan's government to take steps to protect the women who will protest against the Taliban's abuse of Afghan women and girls on International Women's Day, March 8.

Amnesty International reported that a particular activist group, Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), has received "continued threats" from warring factions in Afghanistan and may be especially vulnerable. RAWA has been very vocal in its protest of Afghanistan's repressive Taliban regime and provides education and health care to Afghan women and children at refugee camps in Pakistan.

Agence France Press reported today that Taliban officials has not marked International Women's Day with any special statement or activities, as happened in major Afghan cities before the Taliban gained power in 1996. Instead a Taliban official disparaged Hillary Clinton for criticizing the regime's treatment of Afghan women and girls. The official stated. "It is surprising that Hillary Clinton, shamelessly ignoring the recent White House sex scandal and inhuman treatment of female prisoners in her country, has deemed it fit to talk of Afghan women's rights."

Media Resources: AFP - March 5 and 8, 1999

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