With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan / Edition 1

by Anne E. Brodsky

Overview

The events of September 11 catapulted Afghanistan and the plight of Afghan women under Taliban fundamentalism to the front pages of the world press. While the attention was new, the crisis for Afghan women has been ongoing for decades. Since their founding in 1977, members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) have risked life and limb daily to help their tortured sisters in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With All Our Strength is the inside story of this women-led underground organization and their fight for the rights of Afghan women. Anne Brodsky, the first writer given in-depth access to meet and interview their members, Afghan supporters, and the people they serve as well as visit their operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, shines light on the gruesome lives of Afghan women under some of the most brutal sexist oppression in the world. Amazingly, though there are many tragic stories here, there are also stories of courage, incredible resilience, and even triumph.

A skilled interviewer, observer, and writer, Brodsky chronicles how RAWA members, whose identities have been concealed in order to survive, have run schools and orphanages, supplied medical care in secret, and covertly documented fundamentalist atrocities against Afghan women through cameras hidden in their clothes. Since the toppling of the Taliban, RAWA continues its important work, not only helping women and children survive the aftermath of years of abuse, but continuing to fight for human rights, equality for women, and a free and democratic Afghanistan. An impassioned, riveting account of RAWA's twenty-six year struggle to build empowerment, hope, and resistance among the girls and women of Afghanistan, With All Our Strength is a paean to the resilience of Afghan women and a model for women's and human rights organizations around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900415950595
Publication date:	08/11/2004
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Anne E. Brodsky is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Women's Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is an expert on women and resiliency. Her accounts of RAWA have appeared in the The Washington Post and In These Times and she has been working with RAWA for more than two years.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	"I'll Never Return"	xv
	Introduction	1
Chapter 1	"I've Learned the Song of Freedom" Joining the Movement	13
Chapter 2	"I'm the Woman Who Has Awoken" Meena and the Founding of RAWA	27
Chapter 3	"With All My Strength I'm With You On the Path of My Land's Liberation" RAWA's History and Continued Resistance	58
Chapter 4	"I've Opened the Closed Doors of Ignorance" Education as Revolution	103
Chapter 5	"My Voice Has Mingled with Thousands of Arisen Women" Running the Movement	151
Chapter 6	"Oh Compatriot, Oh Brother" Male Supporters	191
Chapter 7	"I've Been Reborn Amidst Epics of Resistance and Courage" The RAWA Life	219
Chapter 8	"I've Found My Path and Will Never Return" The Movement Continues	269
	Glossary	279
	Notes	283
	References	297
	How You Can Help	301
	Index	303

Editorial Reviews

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan came to Western attention in the wake of the fall of the Taliban, but its history long predates the Taliban. In 1977, in an environment hostile to women's rights and secularism, a 20-year-old woman named Meena founded RAWA to empower Afghan women and promote democracy in Afghanistan (in 1987, Meena was murdered by RAWA's opponents). Community psychologist Brodsky's groundbreaking account studies this important organization's evolution from an 11-member student group to the most powerful voice for women in Afghanistan, with thousands of volunteers. Heavily sprinkled with perceptive interviews, the book relays RAWA's story through the voices of its members and supporters, skillfully bringing to life those whose sacrifices have sustained the organization. The first writer with in-depth access to RAWA, Brodsky writes a passionate narrative of an organization that has helped its members overcome illiteracy, abuse, war and death. As Brodsky intends, RAWA emerges as a highly successful model of the resilience that, Brodsky believes, can empower women everywhere. Although RAWA's incredible story keeps the reader engaged, the book is occasionally repetitive. Brodsky also inadequately addresses one of the most fascinating aspects of RAWA-the clandestine manner in which the organization grew into a sophisticated transnational organization without infrastructure and designated leaders. However, her work stands out as a lone and important study of a remarkable organization that has transcended war, misogyny and fundamentalism and spread its message of Afghanistan's horrific history and its current reconstruction. Photos. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"Heavily sprinkled with perceptive interviews." — Publishers Weekly
"[G]roundbreaking...The first writer with in-depth access to RAWA, Brodsky writes a passionate narrative...[S]tands out as a lone and important study of a remarkable organization." — Publishers Weekly
"A ring side view of RAWA, the extraordinary women's movement that is as doggedly committed to democracy as it is to dreaming of another, better world." — Arundhati Roy
"With All Our Strength is the first political history of Afghanistan told through women's eyes. Afghan women have always been depicted as the victims of war and mass destruction, but Brodsky shows us that real and powerful women live behind the veil and she has given them a voice and a history. This is the story of those defiant Afghan women who never succumbed or surrendered to extremism or despair and who want nothing more than to build peace and democracy in their county. A powerful story." — Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban and Jihad
"Anne Brodsky goes behind the headlines to look closely at a unique organization that according to popular stereotypes of Afghan women should not exist. RAWA is a militant, secular, feminist, pro-democracy movement run by women. Brodsky shows us how ordinary women, including those who are illiterate and who have experienced traumatic violence, can become powerful agents of social and political change. Combining scholarship with empathy, Brodsky produces a fascinating book." — Katha Pollitt
"The work of RAWA must stand as a model for every group that struggles against the twin evils of oppression and violence. Anne Brodsky's account reveals the boundless courage of these warrior women, who have fought for basic human dignity while the rest of the world looked away." — Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues
"Anne Brodsky writes a comprehensive history of this courageous women's organization with passion and sensitivity. Through candid interviews, RAWA members tell the history of their country through the story of their organization's 26-year struggle against the extreme forces on the left and the right. This book is a testament to not only the legacy of RAWA, but to Brodsky's own commitment to this organization and its unflinching advocacy for women's rights and secular democracy in Afghanistan." — Sunita Mehta, editor of Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future
"RAWA is a reminder...that truth and justice do eventually prevail. They have been a source of inspiration to hundreds of young Afghans and to the women's groups in Pakistan. Their struggle has been long and under immense pressure, yet their resolve has never wavered." — Asma Jahangir, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, UN Special Rapporteur
"Author Anne E. Brodsky destroys the myth that Afghani women have placidly accepted the oppression and torture of fundamentalist rule." — Real Change
"The author does an excellent job providing the reader with a perspective on RAWA's day-to-day activities and the challenges its members face...With All Our Strenght provides a useful introduction to RAWA's history, philosophy, and inner workings." — The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

From the Publisher