Afghanistan - Fashion

Females have become the latest pawns in the war in Afghanistan. Reacting to a report by DP's co-resident at the UNICA guesthouse Zohra Rasekh, the Physicians for Human Rights and other junket journos have declared war on the Afghan people. By focusing on the burqa as a symbol of evil (something Zohra, a woman, forgets to mention she didn't have to wear in Kabul), she has demonized Afghan culture and blamed it on the Taliban. Any visitor to the north will tell you that the burqa is a part of Afghan life except in once-cosmopolitan Kabul.

The report goes on to clinically document the lack of health care for women as if the author has comparable statistics from Afghan women in Rochester, Minnesota. "PHR explored the reasons for decreased access to health care services. Of the 40 women interviewed, 87% (33 of 38) reported a decrease in their access to health services. The reasons given included: no chaperone available (27%), restrictions on women's mobility (36%), hospital refused to provide care (21%), no female doctor available (48%), do not own a burqa (6%), and economics (61%)." Taken the other way DP finds it amazing that 52% of afghan women had access to any doctor male or female. Women and their rights are being used as a pawn in this war but the endgame is they have lost either way. The lack of aid because of the way their unelected government treats them and another generation lost to poverty and hopelessness.

http://www.rawa.org/

http://www.phrusa.org/campaigns/af_exec1.html