them. They put jewelry on the boys, like women, make them dance, then they
rape the young girls and boys.

I wrote down all these things, and printed them in my magazine. I received
warnings from these commanders who are living in Nasir Bagh that I shouldn't
write these things. They were looking for me, trying to find my address. This
was five months ago.

Working for Afghan women's rights is a very, very dangerous thing.

There is no security in Peshawar. Every week, there are terrorist actions.
Every week, we lose good people. We are losing our good cultural people, our
educated people. So that's why our educated people are afraid.

We have field workers inside Afghanistan, and we send our magazine in with
them, and they distribute it. The magazine is smuggled into the country, hidden
among their clothes. It is done with difficulty. Of course, we cannot send large
numbers of the magazine, just small numbers. Also, I receive articles back from
women through these same field workers.

On the back cover of the most recent issue of our magazine is a picture from
Mazar-e-Sharif, from the last class of the Faculty of Medicine for women. The
students are writing their last examination while wearing the burqa. One of these
women came to our office and she said, "When we were in the examination,
we were thinking that our eyes were giving out, because we could not see
properly. We all got headaches."

Their teachers said, "How will we become sure that you are the exact person
you are supposed to be under the chador? Lift your veils for one second so we
can know that you are our student."

When the women flipped up their veils, a Talib came by, and beat the teacher
in front of all these students, and called the girls very filthy names. After the
Talib left the class, the students sat in stunned silence for fifteen minutes before
they could start to write anything. This is the situation in Afghanistan. They say
to everybody, "We give permission for the last students of the Faculty of Med-
icine to pass their examination," but this is how they give their permission!

Sometimes people are supporting very, very stupid things in the name of
religion and culture, very stupid things, but I think most problems we have
faced during our history is from the law. Religious law. If you study the Afghan
history, whenever we find an opportunity for democracy or the movement of
women, for having a democratic society, these movements have been stopped
by Mullahs, through religious law. They are making Islam a cover for all the
evil things they are doing.

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