Dear President Bush:
We the undersigned women leaders and women's rights organizations ask you to take emergency action to protect the lives and secure the future of Afghan women.
- Unlike most wars, U.S. women supported the war against the Taliban in unprecedented numbers -- in large part because they believed your promises that it would liberate Afghan women from abuse and oppression.
- Your refusal to expand the size and scope of peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan -- as requested by Afghan women leaders, and also by the Afghan Interim Authority and the United Nations -- has left the women of Afghanistan in great danger. There are alarming reports of rapes, lootings, beatings, kidnappings and other intimidation in Afghanistan. This insecurity is compromising the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the delivery of aid promised to the Afghan people to help them feed, clothe, house, educate, heal and rebuild their country.
Mr. President, your refusal of responsibility for peacekeeping in Afghanistan is a betrayal of the hope that your own words have inspired. It will haunt you on election day and in history. The war against terrorism will only be successful if the struggle for peace and democracy succeeds. September 11th taught American women that the safety and security and well-being of Afghan women is the safety of us all. We will not, we must not, remain silent.
Please act now before it is too late.
Sincerely,
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Jessica Neuwirth, President
Equality Now
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Gloria Steinem, Founder
Ms. Magazine
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Eve Ensler, Founder/Artistic Director
V-Day
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Eleanor Smeal, President
The Feminist Majority
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Sima Wali, President
Refugee Women in Development
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Kim Gandy, President
National Organization for Women
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Meryl Streep
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Jane Fonda
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Alanis Morissette
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Marie C. Wilson, President
Ms. Foundation for Women
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Robin Morgan, Founder
Sisterhood is Global Institute
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Susan Sarandon
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Kathy Rodgers, President
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
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Adrienne Germain, President
International Women's Health Coalition
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Masuda Sultan, Coordinator
Women for Afghan Women
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Vivian Stromberg, Executive Director
MADRE
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Martha Burk, Chairperson
National Council of Women's Organizations
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Ritu Sharma, Co-Founder
Women's EDGE
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Mary Diaz, Executive Director
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
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EQUALITY NOW WORKS FOR THE CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD.
