Part 2: Canada in Afghanistan – What Should Our Role Be?

1. Part 2: Canada in Afghanistan – What Should Our Role Be? Who Are Our Troops Struggling Against in Our Efforts to Help Afghanistan? Is this a fight worth fighting? Key Questions: What is an insurgency? Who are the Taliban?

2. Instructions: Who are the Taliban? • Fill in the following slides which ask questions about the Taliban in Afghanistan by clicking on the following Wikipedia link. • You will also be asked to find school appropriate photos to illustrate the information you will be asked to find. You will have to create hyperlinks to the pages where you found your photos. http://info-wars.org/2009/04/26/american-taxpayers-finance-the-taliban/

3. Who Are the Taliban? • Read the first paragraph on the Wikipedia page about the Taliban and then answer the following questions. • 1. What does the word Taliban actually mean? • students • 2. When did they form the government of Afghanistan and who forced them from power? • Sept. 1996 • 3. Click on the links for the following concepts and then define them in your own words: Insurgency : when the people revolt against the people that are in power (usually the government). Guerilla War: a group of soldiers at war that have been untrained by the militia • 4. The Taliban as a social and political “movement” (group) is made up of “volunteers” from which Afghan tribe and people of what neighboring countries to Afghanistan? • Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Central Asia • 5. Where does the US government believe that the Taliban’s headquarters is (city and country). • Quetta, Pakistan

4. Taliban Leadership and Organization • 1. Who is considered by many as the current “leader” of the Taliban? • Mullah Omar • 2. Follow the link to his page and then answer the following questions: • This man is on the US government’s most wanted list for what 3 activities? • Sheltering Osama bin Laden before 9/11 attack . • Sheltering al-Qaeda militants. • directing the Taliban insurgency against NATO forces and the Karzai administration in Afghanistan. • What is one of the only physical details really known about this man? • Missing an eye • How did he get this physical feature? • While battling in Sangsar • It was not easy to find a photo of Omar because of how shy he is and also it is illegal to take photos in Afghanistan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mohammedomar.jpg

5. Origins of the Taliban Scroll down the main Taliban Wikipedia page until you find the heading Origins in order to answer the following questions: • What are the two competing stories about the creation of the Taliban? 1-Mullah Omar dreams that a women telling him to take power and rule over as God will help him 2-Omar puts on a cloak of the prophets to lead • THINKING QUESTION: • Of the 2 stories a supporter would choose to believe which one? 2 as it makes Omar more of the chosen one as in 1 it makes him sound crazy • Of the 2 stories an opponent would probably choose to believe which one? 2 as the opponent disagree with belief they will not believe that God had done this http://themuslim.ca/2010/11/21/afghan-withdrawal-timeline-is-irrational-says-taliban/

6. Taliban Treatment of Women • For the following slides please follow this link • Taliban Treatment of Women • Read the very first paragraph and then summarize the Taliban’s quotation about its reasons for harsh treatment of women below: -The beauty of a women corrupts a man -Women do not have the same rights as menbecause of this they are limited to many things such as education and health care -Without a male relative or a husband you cannot go anywhere -Women were allowed/encouraged to marry under the age of 16 • Under the Gender Policies heading, summarize the 8 points about the treatment of women by the Taliban provided: • The rules basically makes women invisible to the public as a women must be quiet, never be seen unless with a close male blood relative or husband, wearing a Burqa, no high-heels, and they are not to be heard or seen in any propaganda

7. Dress Code and Mobility • 1. Scroll back up the page to find the definition of “mahram”. • Unmarriageable kin that was considered incestuous • What are some other restrictions that women faced regarding moving around the cities and countryside in Afghanistan under the Taliban? (3) • Restricted to limited amount of education • Must be quiet at all times • Limited health care • Why would an all girls’ orphanage be practically a prison under this system? • Women were not allowed to have jobs, limited education, and could not go anywhere without a male, therefore as an all girls’ orphanage would be a prison under the system because non would have a male to which the girls could live off of. • Dress code stuff: • What is the name for the traditional outfit that women had to wear in Taliban Afghanistan? Burqa • What was the main reason for this strict control of women's’ dress? • To shield the beauty of women because it corrupted the men http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/2009/04/page/2/

8. Employment and Education • Were women allowed to work at all under the Taliban rules (tricky question)? • Yes but it was only in the health service department though the women worked in reduced circumstances and also by fear of the Taliban forces. • What industries were particularly hit hard by the Taliban’s work policies for women? Pick 2. • Education: many schools had to be shut down as all the teacher where women • Government: as 25% of employment were women • Were women allowed to be educated under Taliban law? What age did they have to stop going to school? • Women were allowed to be educated up until the age of 8. • Find the quote that illustrates that the Taliban actually thought that they had increased women’s rights in Afghanistan. • “no other country has given women the rights we have given them. We have given women the rights that God and His Messenger have instructed, that is to stay in their homes and to gain religious instruction in hijab”

9. Health Care and Forced Confinement • Give 2 reasons it was really tough for women to receive health care when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. • No man could touch a women • There was only one hospital that women were allowed to go to. • A study done in 1991 concluded that roughly what percentage of Afghan women they surveyed were showing signs of mental distress and depression? • 97% • Describe 3 other cultural prohibitions that were imposed on women or about women if Taliban ruled Afghanistan • Laughing loudly was not allowed • was not allowed to attend any sports or sport clubs • Cosmetic salons were not allowed

10. Punishments for Breaking Taliban Laws • Read the information about the types of punishments women (and men) were subjected to in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule and summarize 2 extreme examples below: • A women’s thumb being cut off for wearing nail polish • Schoolgirls, women, teachers and schools have been and continue to be attacked by arsonists in acid attacks by Taliban members • Who is the woman in the photo on this part of the web-page? • A mother with seven children • What is happening to her? • Publicly executed • Where is it happening? • Ghazi Sports Center, Kabul • What crime is she accused of? • For murdering her abusive husband • What happened to her for 3 years before this event? • Tortured • What organization took the film this photo is a screenshot from? • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

11. Women’s Resistance to the Taliban • Explain what the Golden Needle Sewing School was. • Underground school to which a professor taught women about literary • How did women “sneak in” 2 details. • Look like they were sewing • Hide learning utensils under bags covered in materials and scissors • Why was the area that this school was in one of the most oppressed by the Taliban? 2 reasons. • cultured city • mostly Shi'a • What is RAWA? • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) • Who was the founder of RAWA and what happened to her? • MennaKeshmarKamal; assassinated at the age of 30 • What does RAWA work for? 3 main things. • Women’s rights • Secular democracy • Multilateral disarmament

12. Now that you know … • Write a personal reaction on this slide (3-4 sentences) in which you express your opinion about the treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban. How does it make you feel? Why? • I find that I take too much for granted as I complain about of lot of things that would be considered nothing when compared to the situations the people in the Taliban go through. I find that the rights of women is so unfair. I felt very depressed for the fact that there are still places that are very inhumane.

13. Do we … • As citizens of a country in which we are relatively free, safe, and equal do we have the responsibility to help places like Afghanistan become more like us? Why or why not? Explain your answer in 3 – 4 sentences. • I believe that it is not our duty to help places like Afghanistan to become more like us. As the people should choose what is right for them not us as enforcing it upon them will lead to a chaos because people do not just listen when it is going against their beliefs and values. There are even examples from the past that to which all have not turned out to be what was supposed to be expected.