Good evening, dear sisters, mothers, Japanese friends.
I feel really speechless, cannot find words to say thanks for solidarity and support that we have seen throughout the few days of the conference, and especially for the feelings I got from this forum of women.
I’m coming from Afghanistan, a country far away from you, which is in only war since last thirty years, and there have been generations who are suffering from this war and destruction. I’m coming from a country where the U.S. has its direct military presence and also supporting the local warlords, local criminal fundamentalist groups since last seven years. They have killed thousands of people, and every day ten to twenty people are killed because of suicide attacks, because of aerial fights of the U.S. and its allies. And of course in all these incidents, in all these destructions and in all these years of war women have been the first and easiest victims. That’s why the women of Afghanistan, I think, have the strong feeling, and strong commitment to work for peace, and bringing security and safety to their children.
I personally lost my father at the beginning of the war, he was killed, and I was brought up in an orphanage, which was run by RAWA. And in all the years spent in this orphanage, I learned from my teachers from RAWA colleagues, RAWA members that it is very important to know that fundamentalism and our enemies who are now in Afghanistan supported by different foreign countries can never do anything positive for women’s rights and for human rights.
We call it, the title of our organization is Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, so in this sense I call myself revolutionary. Because working for democracy, because working for very basic human rights like the right of education, the right of movement and the right of having a safe life in a country like Afghanistan is a very, very revolutionary task.
My organization is working in different fields, but especially providing education through literacy courses throughout orphanages and schools because we know that it is the strong women and the hands of women through which they can fight for their rights and for their freedom. RAWA members are risking their lives for providing humanitarian assistance to women and children, for organizing demonstrations and meetings, or distributing different publications in order to work for democracy and for stability in our country.
One may criticize the wrong policies of most of the western countries, the wrong policies of the U.S. government especially in Afghanistan and several other countries, but we are very much in the need of solidarity and support from different nations across the world who are totally against the policies of their own governments.
And as I said at the beginning, by what I learned from this Conference we can be sure that your Afghan sisters and brothers will not be left alone to burn in the flames of war, ignorance and poverty.
Thank you, arigato.
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