About Afghanistan | Islam | Fundamentalisms

Aid and opposition | Books

About Afghanistan

Afghanistan Online
www.afghan-web.com
Site dedicated to all things Afghan: history, geography, ethnic groups and resources. Includes pages focusing on the plight of women in Afghanistan in addition to daily news regarding the crisis hit country. Has good links to books and other sites. There’s also a poignant guide to the Kabul museum, destroyed piecemeal by the Taliban.

Afghan Info Centre
www.afghan-info.com
Facts about Afghanistan with maps and photographs, including all the latest news in addition to a history of the country and the Taliban.

Buried Alive – Afghan Women Under the Taliban
http://mosaic.echonyc.com/~onissues/su98goodwin.html
Pre-11 September article cataloguing day-to-day atrocities committed by the hardline Taliban and the international opposition to the fundamentalist regime from within the Muslim world.

Women Risking their Lives for Education
magazines.ivillage.com/marieclaire/mind/issues/articles/0,13794,434739_437830,00.html
Online Marie Claire article about an undercover reporter who travelled through Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks on the US, reporting on Taliban atrocities.

Islam

Islam Overview
www.afghan-web.com/islam/
Afghanistan Online links to all kinds of sites. The resources page features everything from greetings cards, downloadable prayers, Islamic radio, jewellery and clothing to a site suggesting Muslim names.

Muslim Women’s League
www.mwlusa.org/
An American non-profit organisation that aims to ‘implement the values of Islam and thereby reclaim the status of women as free, equal and vital contributors to society’.

Fundamentalisms

Women Living Under Muslim Laws
http://wluml.org/
WLUML is an international network created to break women's isolation and provide information, solidarity and support for all women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.

Defining Fundamentalism
www.encyclopedia.com/searchpool.asp?target=@DOCTITLE%20fundamentalism
One-page definition of the term which applies to all religions, citing its origins in Protestant ‘fundamentals’ or five points of doctrine that were deemed fundamental.

What is Fundamentalism?
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/fund.html
University of Virginia study aid with a list of (mainly American) books and seminars on the subject plus links to sites on fundamentalism.

Women in Fundamentalism
http://dhushara.tripod.com/book/zulu/islamp/wiff/wif.htm
An extract from a book by an Iranian woman, Shahin Gerami, who interviews women who have reached high positions in Iran and discusses social emancipation for women in the Islamic Republic.

Aid and opposition

International Committee of The Red Cross
www.icrc.org
The ICRC maintains a presence in Afghanistan, although its expatriate staff have been evacuated. It is still attempting to provide relief: distributing food and medical assistance and maintaining orthopaedic services.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees – Afghanistan (UNHCR)
www.unhcr.ch
This UN refugee agency 'helps the world's uprooted peoples by providing them with basic necessities such as shelter, food, water and medicine in emergencies and seeking long term solutions, including voluntary return to their homes or beginning afresh in new countries'. Go to 'News' and key in 'Afghanistan'. You can also donate online at www.refaid.org.uk.

United Nations Afghanistan Emergency Trust Fund (AETF)
If you want to make a donation to any of the aid organisations in the area via the United Nations, send it to:
United Nations Afghanistan Emergency Trust Fund (AETF)
Account No. 240-CO-590.161.1 (US$ Account)
United Banks of Switzerland AG (UBS-AG) Geneva
Case Postale 2770
1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
www.unicef.org
The United Nations Children's Fund describes itself as 'mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential'. Go to www.unicef.org/noteworthy/afghanistan/index.html to find out about its work in Afghanistan.

Shelter Now International
www.shelter.org
Shelter Now assists Afghans and others with emergency shelter, food, and other needs. One of the few aid agencies still working in Afghanistan.
502 E New York Avenue
Oshkosh
Wisconsin 54901, USA
Tel: 00 1 920 426 1207
Fax: 00 1 920 426 4321
E-mail: SNI@shelter.org

Médecins sans Frontières
www.msf.org/
Another organisation that has remained in Afghanistan. An independent humanitarian medical aid agency committed to providing medical aid wherever it is needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or sex, and raising awareness of the plight of the people their help.

Oxfam
www.oxfam.org.uk
Oxfam has a vast amount of background information on its site. The above address takes you directly to information about its work in, and analysis of, the current situation.

Jemima Khan Afghan Refugee Appeal
Jemima Khan's original appeal for the refugees of the Jalozai Camp has been broadened into a long-term project aimed at helping Afghan refugees in several camps in Pakistan. Money can be sent to:
The Jemima Khan Refugee Appeal
176A Ifield Road
London SW10 9AF
To make telephone donations, call 0870 400 2242

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
http://www.rawa.org/
A well-designed site which publishes the latest reports from inside Afghanistan. You can subscribe to RAWA bulletins, order gifts, support a hospital for refugees in Pakistan, read the history of the group and much more.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
www.cnduk.org
CND 'campaigns non-violently to rid the world of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and to create genuine security for future generations'. For its diary of events, which includes those directed against the US bombing of Afghanistan, go to www.cnduk.org/diary.htm.

Hazara.net
www.hazara.net
Site created by a member of the Hazara tribe to educate the world about who they are and what is happening to them. This tribe appears to be the Taliban's favourite target of ethnic and religious persecution. The site contains some harrowing images.

The Taliban and the West’s Contradictions
www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/06/04taliban
An excellent and enlightening article written before 11 September in Le Monde Diplomatique, discussing whether the US policy of isolation was radicalising the Taliban even further and asking whether a different approach could be made by Europe.

World Food Programme
www.wfp.org
The UN organisation that describes itself as 'the frontline agency in the fight against global hunger'. The site has press releases about the new situation in Afghanistan.

Writing to your Member of Parliament
www.locata.co.uk/commons/
The official site for the Houses of Parliament. Using the search option you can find out who your local MP is. Then write to them either at their constituency office or care of the House of Commons, London SW1 0AA.

You can also write to the Home Secretary, the Right Honourable David Blunkett MP
Secretary of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT

Halo Trust
www.halotrust.org
An organisation that clears mines and bombs: 'the debris of war'. Its largest programme, in Afghanistan, is quickly expanding to provide safe ground and assistance to the hundreds of thousands of returnees moving back to their homes.

ACTED (Agency for Technical Co-operation and Development)
www.acted.org
A humanitarian organisation based in France that sets up emergency, rehabilitation and development projects in countries in crisis in order to save lives, assist vulnerable people, bring hope for a brighter future for those in need.

Action Against Hunger
www.aah-usa.org
An international organisation that delivers emergency aid and longer-term assistance directly to people suffering from the consequences of disasters whether natural or the result of human actions.

Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
www.sak.a.se/afghanK/afghankeng.nsf
One of the leading organisations working in education and rural infrastructure in Afghanistan. Operations include primary health care, education and rural development.

Books

Taliban, Islam Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid (I B Tauris, 2000).
Divided into three parts, the book explains the origins of the Taliban movement, Taliban’s understanding of Islam and foreign involvement in the country.
Buy it

Taliban by Peter V Marsden and Syed Saeed Ahmed (Zed Books, 1998).
Examines the factors that led to the movement’s rise in Afghanistan and the growth of radical Islam world wide. It also analyses the dilemmas faced by aid agencies and suggests ways in which the international community might respond.
Buy it

Before Taliban by David B Edwards (University of California Press, 2002).
Each of the men profiled in this book hoped to see Afghanistan become a more just and democratic nation back in the 1960's but their visions for their country were radically different and in the end all three failed and were killed or exiled. Now, Afghanistan is associated with international terrorism, drug trafficking and repression. This new book explains why their dreams for a progressive nation lie in ruins while the Taliban has succeeded.
Buy it

For more books on this subject and to read Jon Snow's recommended reading on bin Laden and terrorism go to:

The Science Lounge
www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/science_lounge

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