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? • 1996. • Operation Enduring Freedom. • 3. Click on the links for the following concepts and then define them in your own words: • Insurgency • Armed rebellion against authority when not belligerent • Guerilla War • Small group vs. a large traditional army • 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? • Pashtun Tribes • Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens, Arabs, Punjabis • 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 Mohammed 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 and his al-Qaeda network • Waging war against HaidKarzai’s government • Waging war against NATO troops in Afghanistan from Pakistan • What is one of the only physical details really known about this man? • He is missing one eye • How did he get this physical feature? • He was wounded by a piece of shrapnel, so he removed it and sewed his eye-lid shut (however Red Cross claims it was surgically removed) • It isn’t easy to get a picture of him because he tends to keep in hiding and does not want people to see him.

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? • Part of a group created by the US to fight Communism • Just a bunch of Pashtun farmers • THINKING QUESTION: • Of the 2 stories a supporter would choose to believe which one? • They are just simple people fighting their cause • Of the 2 stories an opponent would probably choose to believe which one? http://isiria.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/pakistan-south-waziristan-taliban-fighters.jpg

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: • Quotation: “secure environments where the chasteness and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct," • They believe that women need to be kept away from men so that the women can keep their dignity and remain sacred to men. • Under the Gender Policies heading, summarize the 8 points about the treatment of women by the Taliban provided: • After age 8: women not allowed to be in direct contact with men (except blood-relative, husband or in-law.) • Cannot travel the streets without a blood-relative and wearing a Burqa. • Not to wear high-heels so that men cannot hear them and get excited. • Cannot speak loudly in public so they cannot be heard by strangers • Windows screened or painted on first floor so women cannot be seen from the street • Not to be photographed or filmed. No pictures in newspapers, books, shops or the home. • No place may have the word “woman(en)” in it. • Not to be on the balconies of their homes. • May not be present on radio, television, or public gatherings.

7. Dress Code and Mobility • 1. Scroll back up the page to find the definition of “mahram”. • Unmarriageable kin • What are some other restrictions that women faced regarding moving around the cities and countryside in Afghanistan under the Taliban? (3) • Not allowed to ride bicycles or motorcycles • Not to ride in a taxi without a mahram • Not to ride on the same bus as men (separate buses) • Why would an all girls’ orphanage be practically a prison under this system? • Without a blood-relative or husband, they could not go outside. Plus, they probably did not have Burqas, also meaning they couldn’t leave. • 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? • It was believed that the women would be “cursed by the Islamic Sharia” if they wore clothing that could bring attention to themselves. http://losthunderlads.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/img_0056-705316.jpg

8. Employment and Education • Were women allowed to work at all under the Taliban rules (tricky question)? • The only women that were allowed to continue working were those in the health care sector, with much-reduced circumstances, and a lot left because of the inability to arrive at their workplace. Past statutes allowed women to work in a mixed sex workplace, but the Taliban disagreed. • What industries were particularly hit hard by the Taliban’s work policies for women? Pick 2. • Education • Government • Were women allowed to be educated under Taliban law? What age did they have to stop going to school? • They were allowed until the age of 8 years old. • 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 [seclusion]”

9. Health Care and Forced Confinement • Give 2 reasons it was really tough for women to receive health care when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. • Male doctors were not allowed to touch the body of a woman and since female doctors were rare, it was difficult for women to be treated or looked after. • In 1998, women were banned from entering hospitals in the capital, and there was now only one hospital in Kabul for them 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 • Nail polish and make-up were banned • Banned from participating in sports or joining a sports club • Prohibited from laughing loudly

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: • Woman running an informal school was thrown down a flight of stairs and imprisoned; also had her family threatened. The children were beaten. • 225 Kabul women lashed on their legs and backs for violating the dress code. • Who is the woman in the photo on this part of the web-page? • Zarmina, mother of 7 • What is happening to her? • She is being publicly executed. • Where is it happening? • Ghazi Sports Stadium in Kabul, in front of 30, 000 spectators. • What crime is she accused of? • Murdering her husband. • What happened to her for 3 years before this event? • She was imprisoned and tortured. • What organization took the film this photo is a screenshot from? • RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

11. Women’s Resistance to the Taliban • Explain what the Golden Needle Sewing School was. • An underground school for women under the pretense of going to a sewing school, but really being educated by professors. • How did women “sneak in” 2 details. • Wearing Burqas. • Material, scissors, etc in bags with notebooks underneath. • Why was the area that this school was in one of the most oppressed by the Taliban? 2 reasons. • It was a cultured city • Mostly Shi'a, both of which the Taliban opposed. • What is RAWA? • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan • A women’s organization to promote women’s rights. • Who was the founder of RAWA and what happened to her? • MeenaKeshwarKamal • Assassinated • What does RAWA work for? 3 main things. • Multilateral disarmament • Involve women in political and social acivities • Acquire human rights for women

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? • Being a woman myself, I obviously would be angered by the treatment of the women. The Taliban claim that the treatment is necessary so the women remain sacred, however I believe that they should be treated more fairly and given more rights. I can’t believe the amount of punishment that the women have to endure, and I now appreciate my freedom a lot more than before.

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 have always felt that countries should not expect help from other countries. However, in this case, I believe that Afghanistan needs help to become more free. I do not believe that we should make other countries just like us, but to help them to not act like barbarians. Westernization can cause countries to lose their culture and that shouldn’t be our goal. Every country is different, and we need to respect that.