Taliban Evict Women From Villages

Women and Children from the region in Shoamali, Afghanistan are being forced from their homes by the Taliban regime, who controls 90% of Afghanistan. An estimate by the United Nations says that up to 20,000 women and children have been forced from their homes in the last month. "There emerges a systematic pattern of men arrested, a few killed, and women and children separated and put into buses," states Radhika Coomaraswamy, special U.N. envoy.

One woman, known as Urya, was forced into a pickup truck packed with other women and sent to Pakistan. Urya was taken to Jalalabad, 60 miles east of Kabul on the road to Pakistan, but residents did not welcome refugees. "They offered to pay the Taliban to send us back to our homes, but the militiamen refused." Some Shomali women were not transported by truck but were forced to walk the days journey to Kabul. "They just told us to get out," said a woman who gave her name only as Qudzia.

Media Resources: New York Times and AP - September 20, 1999

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