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About Afghanistan | Islam ||Fundamentalisms
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 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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Graphic
version
Includes layout and images.