Ambassadors of Taliban
For March 8, a roundtable discussion on the topic "Woman, religion and society" was announced. The discussion was organized by "Biser" [Pearl], the International Initiative of Women in Bosnia-Hercegovina, in support of the international campaign of the Humanitarian Office of the European Union "A Flower for the Women of Kabul". The gathering, as is appropriate, started in a dignified manner; then members of the Active Islamic Youth showed up and turned the support to women stripped of their human rights into a dangerous threat: they announced that they would make sure that Bosnian women are liberated like their sisters from Afghanistan after the coming of Taliban to powerby Drago Pilsel
Dani, Sarajevo, Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, March 16 1999
I was at the roundtable discussion "Woman, religion, society" organized on March 8 on the premises of the Department of Economics of the Sarajevo University. By organizing the gathering, the members of "Biser" [pearl], the International Initiative of Women in Bosnia-Hercegovina, wanted to express their support for the women of Afghanistan and join the campaign "A flower for the women of Kabul" run by the Humanitarian Office of the European Union, chaired by Emma Bonino. I put on a suit and a tie, bought flowers (real), presented them to my wife who had been invited to discuss the position of women in the documents of the Catholic church and entered the room that was that week provided for the use of women by Krug 99 [Circle 99].
I was given two fliers. "Biser's" flier, next to the list of names of the moderator and speakers at the roundtable discussion, included a short explanation of the motives for the establishment of a Bosnian committee for support to the women of Kabul and expression of solidarity with Ms. Bonino's campaign.
Among other, the flier said the following: "The spirit of this initiative, namely its support for defense of universal principles of human rights and support for the endangered, is similar to the initiative which expressed support for the women of Srebrenica under the title 'You are not alone'. Despite moral support which confirmed international solidarity of women, the experience of Bosnia, especially the experience of the Bosnian woman during the aggression between 1992 and 1995, revealed the slowness of institutions and lack of existence of efficient mechanisms of the International Community for the protection of human rights, even when they are massively violated".
"Biser" wanted to convince us that women, as a socially vulnerable category, are almost always first to be affected by social, economic and political changes and that, implicitly or explicitly, in many parts of the world their earned rights are being reduced. The struggle for the equality and recognition of civic, political, social and cultural rights of women has become a global process; that is why, said the flier, it unacceptable that these rights are denied on behalf of any ideological and religious conviction. I must admit that I only skimmed through that flier.
The other flier, with the stamp of the Humanitarian Office of the EU was more interesting. I quote: "Imagine that you have five children. Imagine that you have lost your husband. Imagine that you've been told that you cannot get a job because that is against the law. Imagine that you have to tell your daughter that she cannot attend school any more. Imagine that you are supposed to tell your children that they have to beg in the street in order to collect enough money for bread and tea. Imagine that you live in a house with a collapsed roof and windows smashed in street fighting. Imagine a Siberian winter during which you spend nights surrounded by your family next to a small stove that tries to warm up your drafty home. The other day, you leave your home. You put on a head-to-foot veil that you are obliged to wear. You can not see clearly though the small slit in your veil (nihab). Your son manages to pull you away at the last moment from the wheels of a car with a passing patrol. You were lucky. If you had been hurt, you would have had to seek assistance in a hospital. A surgeon whose colleague has been punished by breaking of his arms because he treated a woman, may refuse to see a female patient. That is a contemporary life of a widow in Kabul."
How do Women Live Under Taliban?
And after twenty years of war in Afghanistan, the country that has been apparently destroyed four times as badly as Bosnia-Hercegovina, there are many widows. However, that is a portrait of a widow who lives well. The situation can be much worse if she is ill with tuberculosis, if she takes care of the orphans left behind by her brother, or if her children or nephews have stepped on a mine. Since the Taliban captured Kabul in September 1996, claims Emma Bonino, women have been stripped of all hitherto recognized rights and Afghanistan became the first country in the world to state, literally, that women have no rights.They are used only to give birth. They are not allowed to look at a man who is not a member of their family. They do not have the right to move around on their own. They do not have the right to education. They are not allowed to drive a car or ride a bicycle. They are forbidden to work. They are not allowed to go to hospitals. There is a hospital for women, but it is very far for some of them. If they do not have money for a cab, they have to walk for a few hours to reach the hospital for women. Their children do not have the right to play with kites and dolls. The religious police has banned television, music and picnics. Most women in Kabul fully depend on humanitarian assistance to which they do not have access because of discrimination. There are no social institutions. They need, therefore, food, drinking water, medical assistance, coal, basic building materials. Emma Bonino was there. She claims that women of Kabul have been reduced to shadows wrapped in veils from head to toe.(...)
As soon as I finished reading the flier of the Humanitarian Office of the EU the murmur in the room suddenly quieted. About ten women filed into the room. Unlike the Afghan women from the poster advertising the discussion, whose eyes could barely, but still be seen, these visitors were totally covered. At first, I was also confused. I thought that these were the wives of diplomats from Islamic countries. But no, they never go around without their husbands. These women entered as in a procession. Obviously their entrance was planned. Some of them carried small children in their hands covered with black gloves. Judging by their movements, they must have been pretty young. They went around the table and stopped right next to the blackboard behind the head of the table at which the organizers, moderators and the guests were seated: president of "Biser" Aida Daidzic, moderators Fatima Lacevic and Mediha Filipovic, and the guest Anna Maria Corazza whose task was to excuse Ms. Bonino and talk about the European initiative for support of the women of Kabul.
Someone may think that I am exaggerating, but after all that happened on that Sunday I am now convinced that I spotted fear on the faces of many people in the audience. That was not the expression of awed respect that I recognized in women, for example Muslims, upon meeting pope John Paul II, or the expression on the faces of some of my female friends when we go to visit our friend Danijela who also lives "covered" (only her face and arms can be seen) behind the bars as a Catholic nun in the monastery in Kloster Ivanic near Zagreb, or during the first meeting of unsuspecting Catholic women from Croatia with orthodox Muslim women in Sarajevo. No. These expressions hinted at a sudden feeling of insecurity and confusion. The second emotion imposed itself and soon the murmur continued to roll through the room. I remained staring at the group of women who did not accidentally stop next to the poster with "endangered" Afghan sisters. No one addressed them or showed any sign of realization of what they were doing at such a gathering.
Women With a Mission
And that was not difficult to figure out. One only had to take a peek at numerous men who were gathering children in the closed yard of the Economics department for a group photograph. That was supposed to be a photo in a photo. Namely, the parents placed in their children's hands photocopies of photographs taken about fifty years ago in Ferhadija street. On the photo, there is a group of women. Not all of them are dressed in black, but the photo looks as if it were taken in Kabul. And, above the photo, someone wrote with a hand: "Sarajevo was a European city with multi, multi... but also a city with Muslims with Islamic characteristics."I recognized the house in which my father lived during WWII, 2 Ferhadija street. Definitely, that was Sarajevo. I approached one of the boys. Soon, I was surrounded by about fifteen young and middle aged men and pulled in, at first journalistic and then increasingly theological discussion about the intentions of "Christian Europe" with respect to "Islamic Afghanistan". That discussion was unremarkable. What is more interesting was the behavior of these, as I found out, members of Active Islamic Youth who had warned their co-religionists for Christmas not to wish happy holidays to Christians and were now discussing with a Catholic theologian and journalist the meaning of the Bible. To be honest, that was not a discussion but a shouting match in which they overpowered me with loud and very shallow theological arguments.
I did not have to wait for the continuation of the round table discussion to realize why in the conversation with me they so emphatically insisted that the Taliban "liberated" Afghan women and saved them from mass rape, prostitution and AIDS that would have arrived thanks to "Christian-Communist Russian aggression" and "crime of mafia-like and humanitarian organizations". That Sunday that "Active Islamic Youth" and those women were on a mission: to announce the liberation of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and all of Europe based on the Taliban model.
Truth Through Power of Tekbir
After the roundtable finished, a discussion was supposed to start. Ejla Vickovic from Tuzla spoke first, protesting because women who could testify "the real truth about Kabul" had not been invited. "The real truth" was that the women of Kabul have "freely chosen" their present status. We could see Ejla's face. It was fed by frustration and bitterness with respect to hypocrisy of Europe, which did not know to recognize the drama of women in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kashmir, Turkey (where Islamic dress is forbidden), and now also in Kosovo. She talked for a while. She read from a notebook her report about the truth of Kabul and a new "Crusade" against Islam. Shocked, the representatives of that "Europe frightened by the advance of Islam" could not find right words to bring the discussion back to normal. Soon that effort became superfluous. Shouts "Allahu Ekber!" rang through the room. "Active Islamic Youths" were shouting together in an obviously practiced manner.Nevertheless, a representative of the Taliban good will ambassadors spoke again. Alma Osmanovic spoke behind her black veil and after her Nihada Sahinovic Avdic took the floor. They read their overlong and from Catholic perspective intolerant speeches and were interrupted by the organizes and shouts of their own men. Thus, one by one, Nermin Kabahija, Musa Sanjin and many others got to address the gathering. Amila Omersoftic and other women who tried to speak up were shouted down. Some of them lost their nerves and left the room. One of them Prof. Nela Rubic, with a cigarette in her hand, said out loud that she would hurt herself if she stayed in such company. The boys continued doing their jobs. They denounced fake emancipation of women in the West, criticized Western governments, among them France for organizing mass slaughter in Algiers, teachers indoctrinated by Communists who will be expelled from schools, naïve Bosnian Emma Boninos etc. etc. etc...
After Professor Vladimir Premec promised that he was going to "intervene" to "make sure that sisters in nihab who are not allowed to attend the University" are allowed to do so if they fulfill the general criteria, finally the Islamic theologian Nermina Jasarevic asked to speak. She managed to say one sentence that gave a logical ending to that whole sad atmosphere. Giving up a minute of her allocated time to a bearded youngster who abused that time with his intolerant excesses, she finally told him: "I agree with you that you should be allowed to express you frustration but, in God's name, I do not agree with the manner in which you and your friends behaved today. It has nothing to do with true Islam." You are right, the organizers agreed, "the truth cannot be defended with shouting".
However, all of us will be mistaken and this article will be misunderstood if it is not realized what this fundamentalist group and their children represent for the near future. They are more than raw material for well-known terrorism, if the pro-Islamic parties become opposition thanks to the intervention of the "rotten world". They are already a veritable detonator that can make members of various religions turn their backs to each other. I saw that on that Sunday. On the day when women were supposed to stick together, some of them were hiding behind God, while others were hitting Him in order to grab the former.
Translated on 2/16/2000
