Afghan Women's Mission

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CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

A collection of mixed media expressing an artist’s feelings about the Taliban’s oppression of women will be sold to benefit Afghan women beginning with a lecture by activist Eve Ensler and a sneak preview of the art on Tuesday, February 5th, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at 3Ten Haustudio, Atlanta, GA.

The show, called Thinly Veiled Misogyny, formally opens on Friday, February 8th from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m at 3Ten Haustudio. Proceeds will benefit the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, established in 1977 as an independent political and social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice in Afghanistan.

“The issue for many women today is that the decision to veil is no longer a choice. Under these repressive regimes, the veil is used as a means of domination, submission, restraint and segregation,” says Hause.

Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, speaks on her recent work with V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, especially the oppressive elements of the Afghan society.

“If I’ve learned one thing,” Ensler said, “it would be this: The violation and desecration of women and the undermining of women is an indication of everything. It is the primary symptom of a civilization gone awry.”

Ensler traveled in Afghanistan in 2000 and witnessed the conditions firsthand. Since that time, V-Day has partnered with Afghan women working for change, education, and empowerment at the grassroots level inside Afghanistan and at nearby refugee communities.

Hause had a dream more than two years ago that led her to research women’s oppression under Taliban rule. Hause’s relationship with the women of RAWA helped to lend materials, images, and inspiration to her artwork. International media images of September 11th, such as images of Osama bin Laden, appear in Hause’s works, which were conceived and created well before those events.

The show opens again on Friday February 8th with a special performance by recording artist Michelle Malone. Malone was recently awarded Atlanta Magazine’s Album of the Year award for “Hello Out There,” released in 2001 on the artist’s own SBS Records label. Malone, who is very generous with her time and talents on local and national levels, also understands the importance of reaching out internationally.

“We are all faced with the responsibility to perpetuate the well-being of one another,” said Malone. “We are all at risk when anyone faces oppression…it affects everyone.”

Thinly Veiled Misogyny, which will be on exhibit through March 31st, will be on display and available for purchase. The Imperial Fez restaurant will donate food for the Feb. 5th event. Attendees of both events will have an opportunity to try on burqas provided by RAWA. There is no entrance fee; however, a $10 donation to benefit RAWA is suggested. 3Ten Haustudio is located at 310 Peters St.

A STATEMENT FROM EVE ENSLER

“When I saw the beautiful and poignant imagery in Diane Hause’s artwork, I knew she had that deeper understanding of the relevance of the situation of the women in Afghanistan to the issue of violence against women in the world. If I’ve learned one thing, it would be this: The violation and desecration of women and the undermining of women is an indication of everything. It is the primary symptom of a civilization gone awry.

“Where is the next Afghanistan? People said years ago that there was trouble brewing in Afghanistan, just by looking at women’s problems there. I think Afghanistan is everywhere. I hate to say it, but I think if we do not really address what is going on with women on this planet — that one out of three women in the world will be raped and battered — it’s basically gender oppression. There is not a country in the world right now where the kind of violation that is going on to women is not out of control. I’m talking epidemic.

“We urge you to help people understand that the time of women has come; that our rights can no longer be denied. That what we value must become manifest and that the violence has to end. That when some women are hurt on this planet, all women and all men are hurt because Afghanistan is everywhere.”

RAWA: www.rawa.org
V-Day: www.vday.org
Hause’s website: www.haustudio.com, or call 404-524-6541.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

A medley of musical performers, from classical to rock and roll, will hold a benefit concert for the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, on February 2, 2002 at 8:00 at the Birmingham Unitarian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Mark Gottlieb, the event’s organizer, will perform his string composition, “I’ll Never Return,” during a reading of a poem of the same title by Meena, founder of RAWA who was executed by fundamentalists while working for Afghan women’s rights in 1987.

Performers include concert pianist and Grammy Nominee Pauline Martin, Brazilian soprano Mirna Rubim, folk artist Jan Krist, soprano Pamela Schiffer, jazz guitarist Bob Tye with vocalist Liz Larin and the rock and roll of Stewart Francke. Piper Kenton Smith will perform on the Small Scottish Bagpipes. Members of the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra will also appear.

“I admire RAWA for their desire to live in a democratic and secular society, and I hope the proceeds from the concert will help,” said Gottleib. Proceeds will be used for educational materials at schools for Afghan women and girls in refugee camps in Pakistan.

Meena, a native of Kabul, laid the foundations of RAWA when she started a campaign against the Russian forces and their regime in 1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion. She later established schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially. She launched a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women’s Message) in 1981. Her active social work and effective advocacy against fundamentalist views provoked her assassination by agents of the Afghanistan branch of KGB when she was just 30 years old.

The Afghan Women’s Mission, an organization dedicated to working with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is a group of people moved to action by the plight of Afghan women. The mission was founded in January 2000 in response to the compelling need for adequate hospital facilities in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.

The Birmingham Unitarian Church is located at 38651 Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

More information about the plight of Afghan refugees is available on the RAWA website, http://www.rawa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

A concert of music by women of the Bay Area, called “Women’s Voices Rise Up,” will benefit the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, on Friday, January 4th, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. at the Women’s Building, 3543 18th street at Valencia, in San Francisco

At this crucial time of change and restructuring in Afghanistan, women’s voices need to be heard. With countless Afghan women suffering from years of neglect of their medical, educational and social needs, singers from the Bay area have banded together to raise money to help these women. We will raise our voices in song, solidarity and passionate support of RAWA. We will celebrate the strength and power of women’s voices with music from bluegrass to Bulgarian, from a capella to Tex-Mex.

The incredible women who will be performing at “Women’s Voices Rise Up” are:

* THE STAIRWELL SISTERS: A five women bluegrass extravaganza including heartbreaking harmonies, banjo, fiddle, dobro, and even clog dancing!
* COPPERWIMMIN: Three vocal amazons set the audience ablaze with a capella harmonic intensity
* RHIANNON: has been bringing her potent blend of jazz, world music, improvisation and storytelling to audiences for three decades.
* SAMSARA: Three women who use humor, harmony and passion to create revolutionary a capella
* KLAADNI: A spicy trio singing Bulgarian choral.
* RENE Y SU GRUPO: Saucy tex-mex including a 16 year-old accordion player.
* JOU JOU: Haunting harmonies from Greek, Appalachian, Jewish and Bulgarian Traditions with a modern jazz twist!
* ERICA BALLINGER: Will bring her sultry, acoustic, conscious grooves.

The Afghan Women’s Mission, an organization dedicated to working with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is a group of people moved to action by the plight of Afghan women. The mission was founded in January 2000 in response to the compelling need for adequate hospital facilities in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.

The Afghan Women’s mission’s goals include establishing and operating free hospitals serving Afghan women and children refugees; supporting schools and other programs for Afghan refugees to alleviate emotional suffering and decrease illiteracy and joblessness; and empowering Afghan refugees to build sustainable livelihoods.

RAWA’s objective is to involve Afghan women in social and political activities, to acquire women’s human rights and contribute to the establishment of a democratic and secular government in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA is involved in widespread activities including education, health and job building.

More information about the plight of Afghan refugees is available on the RAWA website, http://www.rawa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

A press conference and interview opportunity day is scheduled for Wednesday, November 14. Please call to schedule an interview between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The press conference will be held from 1-2 p.m. at the American Friends Service Committee’s Pacific Southwest Regional Office, 980 N. Fair Oaks, Pasadena, CA 91103.

Tahmeena Faryal, an activist for the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan, will speak at locations around Southern California from November 12-16.

Faryal, a resident of Pakistan, speaks out against the fundamentalist Taliban and Northern Alliance. In her talks, she will address the current conditions of the Afghan people, in Afghanistan and in Pakistani refugee camps. She will also discuss women’s status, Afghan attitudes and hopes about US actions in Afghanistan, and non-violent resistance.

In order to preserve Faryal’s security, stills and film cannot show her face. Pictures can only be framed from behind, and a dramatic screened silhouette setup will be available. (Blurring or screening must be done on film – not in post-production.)

Pictures by a RAWA photographer will be posted on the Afghan Women’s Mission website, https://www.afghanwomensmission.org/mediacenter, of her daily speaking events. The events will be free and open to the public, and interviews are limited.

The Afghan Women’s Mission, an organization dedicated to working with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is a group of people moved to action by the plight of Afghan women. The mission was founded in January 2000 in response to the compelling need for adequate hospital facilities in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.

The Afghan Women’s mission’s goals include establishing and operating free hospitals serving Afghan women and children refugees; supporting schools and other programs for Afghan refugees to alleviate emotional suffering and decrease illiteracy and joblessness; and empowering Afghan refugees to build sustainable livelihoods.

More information about the plight of Afghan refugees is available on the RAWA website, http://www.rawa.org.

Hundreds of thousands will starve if not helped by mid-November

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

The Afghan Women’s Mission calls upon the government of the United States to immediately suspend military air strikes on Afghanistan in order to allow convoys to deliver food and medicines to millions of Afghans before winter sets in.

“Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are on the verge of starving to death. We cannot look the other way,” said Sonali Kolhatkar, Vice President of Afghan Women’s Mission.

The Mission joins Oxfam International, Islamic Relief, and other international relief agencies in warning of the potentially catastrophic consequences of the bombing if humanitarian deliveries continue to be cut back.

In an October 23 statement, the president of the United Nations Security Council emphasized the “importance of ensuring that emergency supplies are delivered to Afghans in need as quickly as possible.” The Afghan Women’s Mission welcomes the UN’s demand on the Taliban to “stop preventing aid from reaching the Afghan people and stop threatening the safety and security of aid workers,” but this is not enough, because aid deliveries are also threatened by air strikes. The safe distribution of materials and administration of medicines to the vulnerable Afghan people requires an end to the bombing campaign.

Over 4 million Afghans depend on international aid to survive. In addition to over two decades of continuous war, the Afghan people are experiencing a three-year drought, the worst in over three decades. Oxfam estimates that even before the tragic events of September 11, 5.5 million Afghans were “already at risk of severe food shortages.” After September 11, the threat of a US attack on Afghanistan caused aid agencies to withdraw their international staff from the country. The already fragile infrastructure of aid distribution has begun to break down, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans teeter on the brink of starvation with borders on all sides of the country virtually shut down.

After the bombing began on October 7, any remaining aid convoys were curtailed dramatically, since “truck drivers are…unwilling to take to the roads to deliver goods…because of fear of US-led bombing or attacks by one or another of the factions,” said Refugees International. This has been exacerbated, according to Oxfam, by the breakdown of law and order in some parts of the country where NGOs and the UN operate.

“The missile strikes make our job harder to do,” said Stephanie Bunker of the United Nations, mentioning a “six week race against winter,” after which it will be extremely difficult to get aid into the country. According to UNICEF, “as many as 100,000 more children will die…this winter unless food reaches them…in the next six weeks.” Two million people do not have enough food to last the winter, and 500,000 of them will be unreachable after snow begins to fall in mid November.

“It is evident now that we cannot, in reasonable safety, get food to hungry Afghan people,” said Oxfam director Barbara Stocking.

More information about the plight of Afghan refugees is also available on the Afghan Women’s Mission website, https://www.afghanwomensmission.org, and the RAWA website, http://www.rawa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT
Voice: 626-676-7884
E-mail: info_at_afghanwomensmission.org

Corrosion of Conformity, Raleigh’s Grammy Award-nominated rock band, will hold a special screening of its Live Volume DVD at the Rialto Theater, 1620 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh, on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. All box office and merchandise profits from the event – titled Live Volume: The Movie – will go to benefit the Afghan Women’s Mission.

Based in Pasadena, CA, the mission is the charitable arm of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Originally formed to resist Soviet military occupation, RAWA today defies fundamentalist Islamic Taliban policies that prohibit women from participating in public life, earning a living or even seeking education. This organization of courageous, pro-democracy Afghan women has established schools for girls and boys, has founded a hospital for refugee Afghan women and children, conducts literacy education and provides information about the situation in the country to human rights and news organizations. Its members do so at great personal risk, as the penalty for undertaking these things is death.

“On Sept. 11, Americans experienced unspeakable terror,” said COC’s Pepper Keenan. “But it’s come to my attention since then that the women of Afghanistan have been living under terror day in and day out, for years. Mothers are responsible for teaching children. If the mothers of Afghanistan aren’t allowed to learn themselves, how can they teach?”

Added bassist Mike Dean, “Due to the overwhelming response that the relief efforts have received since the attacks, there are some causes that have slipped off the public’s radar screen. This is an important one.”

The Live Volume CD and DVD were recorded on April 20 at Harpo’s in Detroit, Mich. The CD – COC’s first official live recording – was released Aug. 7 by Raleigh-based Sanctuary Records, and the DVD is scheduled for release on Oct. 9. Sanctuary also put out America’s Volume Dealer, COC’s first studio effort for the company, on Oct 10, 2000. The band previously recorded for the Columbia, Relativity and Metal Blade labels.

Formed in 1982 by Raleigh drummer Reed Mullin, guitarist Woody Weatherman and bassist Mike Dean, COC was one of the first bands to combine the ferocity of hardcore punk with heavy metal. A longtime underground legend, COC gained mainstream recognition in 1994 after the release of its Deliverance album with the singles “Clean My Wounds” and “Albatross.” James Hetfield of Metallica contributed guest vocals to the song “Man or Ash” on Wiseblood, COC’s 1996 effort, and Metallica invited the band to join its nine-month tour of the U.S. and Europe. “Drowning in a Daydream,” Wiseblood’s first single, garnered a 1997 Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance.

After undergoing several personnel shifts through the decades, COC last year arrived at the current line-up showcased on Live Volume: Keenan, Weatherman, Dean, and Jimmy Bower of renowned New Orleans dirge rockers Eyehategod on drums. COC continues to honor its heavy roots, but it has branched out to cover a broader range of expression. Warren Haynes, formerly with the Allman Brothers Band and now with Gov’t Mule, contributed a soulful slide guitar part to “Stare Too Long” off AVD, which also includes tracks with Keenan on acoustic guitar and Dean on piano.

While COC’s studio work has won accolades, the band is especially well known for the energy and intensity of its live performances, effectively captured on the Live Volume DVD. The Rialto screening represents the 88-minute DVD’s first public showing. Tickets for the event are , with all profits going to the Afghan Women’s Mission. The DVD will be available at the event for .95, along with other COC merchandise. Doors open at 7 p.m., and band members will be available to sign autographs before the 8 p.m. screening.

Advance tickets will be available for sale at the Rialto box office starting Monday, Oct. 8.

For more information on RAWA and the Afghan Women’s Mission, visit www.rawa.org.

For more information on COC, visit www.corrosivecabaal.com.