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Tahmeena Faryal said if she had obeyed the orders of the Taliban government, she would never have gone to school. Despite government warnings that all schools were “gateways to hell” for girls, she attended secret schools run by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, known as RAWA. 

The young woman visited UC Berkeley on Monday using a fake name, in order to protect her and her family from Taliban retaliation. But death threats would not keep her from talking about the terrorist attacks that began long before Sept. 11, she said. 

“Their freedoms have been attacked for years, by the same hands,” Faryal said of the women struggling with her country’s fundamentalist government. “Were it not for Sept. 11, there would not have been any attention toward women in Afghanistan.” 

Faryal condemned both the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States as well as the abuse of women in Afghanistan – attacks including rape, public execution for females accused of infidelity, dismemberment and forced marriage.  

Faryal told stories of some Afghan women who committed suicide rather than being forced to marry Taliban “beasts.”  

She also showed a video of a public execution of a woman who had killed her abusive husband. This woman, was forced to kneel in the street in her burqa before being shot in the back of her head, was the mother of seven children. 

“Ninety percent of women now have mental and psychological problems,” Faryal said. “We can rebuild the towns, but it will take many decades to rebuild the people.” 

During her talk at a full-to-capacity Evans Hall lecture room, Faryal said despite her fear of the Taliban, she is also worried about the current bombing campaign and American collaboration with the Northern Alliance. She said while Osama bin Laden is still alive, despite weeks of bombing, children and civilians are being killed.  

Faryal said the people of Afghanistan are scared because the Northern Alliance has “also proved themselves as terrorists,” and should not be allowed to take power. 

“Terrorism and fundamentalism should be eliminated,” she said. “But even if Osama is killed, there are hundreds of Osamas in other countries.” 

In order to solve the current crisis, the RAWA Web site urges a peace-keeping mission in Afghanistan led by United Nations’ forces, the disarmament of all fundamentalist groups, and the installation of a government that keeps fundamentalists from using “the name of Islam to justify their madness.”  

Her organization also calls for the separation of church and state, and allowing women to make their own choices about whether to wear the hejab. 

A representative from Women in Black, a group of women who dress in black and stand silently in locations around the world to protest the Israeli occupation, spoke against the war before Faryal took the stage. Similarly, RAWA does not advocate violence.  

Faryal warned that many Taliban soldiers were orphaned in Afghanistan’s Soviet invasion, and grew up in religious schools where they were “brainwashed” to become fundamentalists, and taught to “hate women.” She said many are willing to die for the Taliban. 

Faryal now lives in exile in Pakistan, but recently visited Afghanistan in disguise to see what it had become.  

Audience members said they appreciated being able to hear from someone who has lived in the country. 

“I just feel there’s a lot of people speaking for Afghan women who aren’t Afghan women,” said Jason Oringer, a 34-year-old labor organizer. “We have trouble getting basic information out of the U.S. government. There’s a lot of censorship going on right now.” 

Oringer said he attended the event to hear an independent perspective. 

Faryal showed films capturing rare images of life in Afghanistan. In addition to the street execution, footage showed a palace and other huge buildings crumbling onto the streets. 

RAWA has plenty of horror stories, such as tales of women whose fingers have been cut off for wearing nail polish. But RAWA also tells about resistance to the Taliban.  

Faryal said one Afghan woman who had difficulty breathing lifted her veil in public and was caught. But the soldier who spotted her was alone and couldn’t do anything to her because he was surrounded by her friends. 

“She took off the burqa and threw it on his face,” Faryal said. “She even threatened to take off her clothes.”  

RAWA Web site: www.rawa.org