- Meena Keshwar Kamal
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Meena (1956 - 1987), founder of RAWA
Meena Keshwar Kamal (Pashto/Persian: مینا کشور کمال), commonly known as Meena, (February 27, 1956 – February 4, 1987) was an Afghan feminist, women's rights activist and founder of RAWA, who was assassinated in 1987.
Contents
Biography
In 1977, when she was just a student at Kabul University,[1] she founded Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization formed to promote equality and education for women and strives to "give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan". In 1979 she campaigned against DRA, and organized meetings in schools to mobilize support against it, and in 1981, she launched a bilingual feminist magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message).[2] She also founded Watan Schools to aid refugee children and their mothers, offering both hospitalization and the teaching of practical skills.[3]
At the end of 1981, by invitation of the French Government Meena represented the Afghan resistance movement at the French Socialist Party Congress. The Soviet delegation at the Congress, headed by Boris Ponamaryev, left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign. [4]
Time Magazine on November 13, 2006, in a special issue included Meena among "60 Asian Heroes" and wrote that "Although she was only 30 when she died, Meena had already planted the seeds of an Afghan women's rights movement based on the power of knowledge." [5]
RAWA says of her "Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sell outs imposed on our women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of population will be awaken and cross the path towards freedom, democracy and women's rights. The enemy was rightly shivering with fear by the love and respect that Meena was creating within the hearts of our people. They knew that within the fire of her fights all the enemies of freedom, democracy and women would be turned to ashes."[4]
An enduring quote from Meena states:
“ Afghan women are like sleeping lions, when they awoken, can play a wonderful role in any social revolution. ” Death
She was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan on February 4, 1987. Reports vary as to who the assassins were, but are believed to have been agents of the Afghan Intelligence Service KHAD, the Afghan secret police, or of fundamentalist Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.[6][7]
Kamal was married to Afghanistan Liberation Organization leader Faiz Ahmad,[8] who himself was murdered by agents of Hekmatyar on November 12, 1986.[9][10] They have three children, whose whereabouts are unknown.
See also
Further reading
- Meena - Heroine of Afghanistan, (2003) book by Melody Ermachild Chavis ISBN 0-312-30689-X.
References
- ^ Afghan feminists fighting from under the burqa
- ^ پیام زن، نشریه جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان - راوا
- ^ Brave Women in a War-Torn World: RAWA and Afghanistan
- ^ a b Biography of Martyred Meena, RAWA's founding leader
- ^ TIME Magazine | 60 Years of Asian Heroes: Meena
- ^ BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Afghan activist's killers hanged
- ^ Afghan feminists fighting from under the burqa
- ^ Brodsky, Anne E. With all our strength : the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York: Routledge, 2003. p. 54
- ^ Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, CIA Op and Homicidal Thug
- ^ Models and Realities of Afghan Womanhood: A Retrospective and Prospects
External links
Categories:- 1956 births
- 1987 deaths
- Afghan women
- Afghan activists
- Afghan feminists
- Afghan people murdered abroad
- Assassinated activists
- Assassinated Afghan people
- Civil rights activists
- Islamic feminists
- People murdered in Pakistan
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