Part 2: Canada in Afghanistan – What Should Our Role Be?

1. Part 2: Canada in Afghanistan – What Should Our Role Be? Who Are Our Troops Struggling Against in Our Efforts to Help Afghanistan? Is this a fight worth fighting? Key Questions: What is an insurgency? Who are the Taliban?

2. Instructions: Who are the Taliban? • Fill in the following slides which ask questions about the Taliban in Afghanistan by clicking on the following Wikipedia link. • You will also be asked to find school appropriate photos to illustrate the information you will be asked to find. You will have to create hyperlinks to the pages where you found your photos. http://info-wars.org/2009/04/26/american-taxpayers-finance-the-taliban/

3. Who Are the Taliban? • Read the first paragraph on the Wikipedia page about the Taliban and then answer the following questions. • 1. What does the word Taliban actually mean? • Students • 2. When did they form the government of Afghanistan and who forced them from power? • September 1996 • Operation Enduring Freedom • 3. Click on the links for the following concepts and then define them in your own words: • Insurgency • An armed rebellion against an existing government by a group of people that are not recognized as a hostile group. • Guerilla War • A small, mobile group that ambush and raid larger and less mobile groups. • 4. The Taliban as a social and political “movement” (group) is made up of “volunteers” from which Afghan tribe and people of what neighboring countries to Afghanistan? • Pashtun Tribe • Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates • 5. Where does the US government believe that the Taliban’s headquarters is (city and country). • Quetta, Pakistan

4. Taliban Leadership and Organization • 1. Who is considered by many as the current “leader” of the Taliban? • Mullah Omar • 2. Follow the link to his page and then answer the following questions: • This man is on the US government’s most wanted list for what 3 activities? • Sheltering Osama Bin Laden • Sheltering Al Qaeda members • Directing the Taliban against NATO • What is one of the only physical details really known about this man? • He is missing an eye • How did he get this physical feature? • Shrapnel from an explosion Mohammed Omar It is not easy to find pictures of this man because he has been in hiding for so long.

5. Origins of the Taliban Scroll down the main Taliban Wikipedia page until you find the heading Origins in order to answer the following questions: 1. What are the two competing stories about the creation of the Taliban? • THINKING QUESTION: • Of the 2 stories a supporter would choose to believe which one? • Of the 2 stories an opponent would probably choose to believe which one? PUT A PHOTO OF THE TALIBAN HERE. Make sure you provide the link and be sensitive to what you include – make sure it is school appropriate.

6. Taliban Treatment of Women • For the following slides please follow this link • Taliban Treatment of Women • Read the very first paragraph and then summarize the Taliban’s quotation about its reasons for harsh treatment of women below: • Women were considered a source of corruption and were not allowed to work or be educated and were often forced into marriage at less than 16 years of age. • Under the Gender Policies heading, summarize the 8 points about the treatment of women by the Taliban provided: • Women must be accompanied by a relative and must wear their Burqa at all times. • Women cannot wear high-heeled shoes because men are more likely to hear them. • Women must speak quietly so no strangers hear her voice. • Women living close to ground level must cover their windows so they are not seen from the streets. • Women were not allowed to be photographed or put in newspapers, magazines, ect. • Any place with the word “woman” in it was changed. • Women were not allowed on their balconies. • Women were not allowed on TV, radio or public gatherings.

7. Dress Code and Mobility • 1. Scroll back up the page to find the definition of “mahram”. • Unmarriageable kin • What are some other restrictions that women faced regarding moving around the cities and countryside in Afghanistan under the Taliban? (3) • They could not ride bikes or motorcycles. • Could not ride in a taxi without a mahram. • Could not ride on the same bus as a male. • Why would an all girls’ orphanage be practically a prison under this system? • There would be no men to escort them anywhere. • Dress code stuff: • What is the name for the traditional outfit that women had to wear in Taliban Afghanistan? • Burqa • What was the main reason for this strict control of women's’ dress? • So that men would see less of them and be less corrupted. Burqa

8. Employment and Education • Were women allowed to work at all under the Taliban rules (tricky question)? • Only very few women working in the health services. • What industries were particularly hit hard by the Taliban’s work policies for women? Pick 2. • Education • Government • Were women allowed to be educated under Taliban law? What age did they have to stop going to school? • Only until the age of eight. • Find the quote that illustrates that the Taliban actually thought that they had increased women’s rights in Afghanistan. • “no other country has given women the rights we have given them. We have given women the rights that God and His Messenger have instructed, that is to stay in their homes and to gain religious instruction in hijab”.

9. Health Care and Forced Confinement • Give 2 reasons it was really tough for women to receive health care when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. • Must be treated by female doctors only. • Medical supplies were limited. • A study done in 1991 concluded that roughly what percentage of Afghan women they surveyed were showing signs of mental distress and depression? • 97% • Describe 3 other cultural prohibitions that were imposed on women or about women if Taliban ruled Afghanistan • Banned from public baths • Banned from general hospitals • Could not attend group converstaions

10. Punishments for Breaking Taliban Laws • Read the information about the types of punishments women (and men) were subjected to in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule and summarize 2 extreme examples below: • A girl got her ears and nose cut off for fleeing a cruel home life. • Working women were forced to quit their jobs and if they didn’t they were shot and killed. • Who is the woman in the photo on this part of the web-page? • Zarmina • What is happening to her? • Publicly executed • Where is it happening? • Ghazi Sports Stadium • What crime is she accused of? • Murdering her husband in his sleep • What happened to her for 3 years before this event? • She was beaten by him • What organization took the film this photo is a screenshot from? • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

11. Women’s Resistance to the Taliban • Explain what the Golden Needle Sewing School was. • An underground school for women where they could learn about literacy and were taught by professors. • How did women “sneak in” 2 details. • They would pretend it was a sewing factory • Children would keep watch for them outside • Why was the area that this school was in one of the most oppressed by the Taliban? 2 reasons. • Many Shi’a supporters • Strong with culture • What is RAWA? • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan • Who was the founder of RAWA and what happened to her? • MeenaKeshwarKamal • She was assassinated • What does RAWA work for? 3 main things. • Acquiring human rights for women • Multilateral disarmament

12. Now that you know … • Write a personal reaction on this slide (3-4 sentences) in which you express your opinion about the treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban. How does it make you feel? Why? • I think that the treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban is cruel and unnecessary and the fact that they think that what they are doing is right makes it even worse. I wish that women in all countries had the rights that we have here in Canada.

13. Do we … • As citizens of a country in which we are relatively free, safe, and equal do we have the responsibility to help places like Afghanistan become more like us? Why or why not? Explain your answer in 3 – 4 sentences. • I think that we should want to help Afghanistan but in the end, it is up to them to want the change for themselves. We cannot force them into something they do not wish to be.