With all our strength : the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan / Anne E. Brodsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brodsky, Anne E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan--History.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

Women--Political activity--Afghanistan.

Women.

Women--Political activity.

History.

Afghanistan.

Women--Afghanistan--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xvi, 318 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

The events of September 11 catapulted Afghanistan and the plight of Afghan women under Taliban fundamentalism to the front pages of the world press. While the attention was new, the crisis for Afghan women has been ongoing for decades. Since their founding in 1977, members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) have risked life and limb daily to help their tortured sisters in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With All Our Strength is the inside story of this women-led underground organization and their fight for the rights of Afghan women. Anne Brodsky, the first writer given in-depth access to meet and interview their members, Afghan supporters, and the people they serve as well as visit their operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, shines light on the gruesome lives of Afghan women under some of the most brutal sexist oppression in the world. Amazingly, though there are many tragic stories here, there are also stories of courage, incredible resilience, and even triumph.

A skilled interviewer, observer, and writer, Brodsky chronicles how RAWA members, whose identities have been concealed in order to survive, have run schools and orphanages, supplied medical care in secret, and covertly documented fundamentalist atrocities against Afghan women through cameras hidden in their clothes. Since the toppling of the Taliban, RAWA continues its important work, not only helping women and children survive the aftermath of years of abuse, but continuing to fight for human rights, equality for women, and a free and democratic Afghanistan. An impassioned, riveting account of RAWA's twenty-six year struggle to build empowerment, hope, and resistance among the girls and women of Afghanistan, With All Our Strength is a paean to the resilience of Afghan women and a model for women's and human rights organizations around the world.

Contents:

"I'll Never Return" xv

Chapter 1 "I've Learned the Song of Freedom" Joining the Movement 13

Chapter 2 "I'm the Woman Who Has Awoken" Meena and the Founding of RAWA 27

Chapter 3 "With All My Strength I'm With You On the Path of My Land's Liberation" RAWA's History and Continued Resistance 58

Chapter 4 "I've Opened the Closed Doors of Ignorance" Education as Revolution 103

Chapter 5 "My Voice Has Mingled with Thousands of Arisen Women" Running the Movement 151

Chapter 6 "Oh Compatriot, Oh Brother" Male Supporters 191

Chapter 7 "I've Been Reborn Amidst Epics of Resistance and Courage" The RAWA Life 219

Chapter 8 "I've Found My Path and Will Never Return" The Movement Continues 269

How You Can Help 301.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-300) and index.

ISBN:

0415934923

OCLC:

50676269