RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, has been fighting for women’s human rights and for a secular government for over 20 years. RAWA was established well before the Taliban came to power. Even in the suffocating political atmosphere of the seventies in Afghanistan, the women of RAWA became involved in improving education and healthcare and political agitation.

Before the 1978 Moscow-directed coup in Afghanistan, RAWA’s work centered on women’s rights and democracy, but afterthe Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance. ButRAWA always set itself up in opposition to the vaunted Islamic fundamentalist “freedom fighters” of the anti-Sovietwar of resistance supported by the US government. Now they are struggling against both the Taliban and theU.S.-funded Northern Alliance.

Guest:

• Tahmeena Saryal, member of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.