Jackson Stakeman

Sima Wali, Afghan refugee, spoke to Wesleyan students about the condition of women living in Afghanistan under the current Taliban regime.

"This is not in the Qur’an. It is not a part of Islam," said Wali, who is co-founder of the Refugee Women in Development, a non-profit organization aiding women and children refugees.

Approximately 50 students attended Wali’s speech about the present conditions in Afghanistan. She said that under the Taliban regime, women are forbidden from leaving their homes unless clothed by the all-covering "birka."

They are not permitted any form of health care, education or livelihood, and young girls are banned from school, Wali continued. She said violations are often punished by beatings or death.

Wali said many women who are currently oppressed were once free citizens, comprising 40 percent of Afghanistan’s doctors and 50 percent of the country’s professional schoolteachers.

"The situation in Afghanistan is worth more attention than it’s getting," said Erika Scott ’01, a leader of Amnesty International.

Wali told students that 90 percent of Afghan women are said to be suffering from severe depression and the majority of children cope with acute anxiety.

"The situation in Afghanistan is worth more attention than it’s getting." 

Wali spoke from personal experience. Leaving family and friends behind, she fled Afghanistan to the United States as a refugee in 1978. Now, Wali works to make the plight of Afghanistan’s women known.

"A lot of well-respected groups, including the US government, have recognized the brutality of the Taliban regime," she said. "I consider it to be one of the most extreme examples of human rights violations in the world today."

Wali was sponsored on campus by Wesleyan’s chapters of Amnesty International, the Feminist Majority and the College of Social Studies and Government departments.