Biography of martyred Meena

Forwarded by Sultana Begum

Nice to see a dedicated site for women.
I was hoping to see this piece in the Mukto-mona women's site.
In case you don't have it, I am forwarding it to you. Keep up
the good works.

Regards
Sultana



Biography of martyred Meena, founding leader of RAWA


MEENA (1957-1987) was born in Kabul. During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities, Meena laid the foundation of RAWA in 1977. This organization was meant to give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan. She started a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in 1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion. Another great service rendered by! ! ! her for the Afghan women is the launching of a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message) in 1981. Through this magazine RAWA has been projecting the cause of Afghan women boldly and effectively. Payam-e-Zan has constantly exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also established Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially. At the end of 1981, by invitation of the French Government Meena represented the Afghan resistance movement at the French Socialist Party Congress. The Soviet delegation at the Congress, headed by Boris Ponamaryev, shamefacedly left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign. Besides France, she also visited several other European c! ! ! ountries and met their prominent personalities. Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987.


Translation of a part of a poem by Meena

I'LL NEVER RETURN

I'm the woman who has awoken
I've arisen and become a tempest through the
ashes of my burnt children
I've arisen from the rivulets of my
brother's blood
My nation's wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with
hatred against the enemy
Oh compatriot, no longer regard me weak and
incapable,
My voice has mingled with thousands of
arisen women
My fists are clenched with fists of
thousands compatriots
To break all these sufferings all these
fetters of slavery.
I'm the woman who has awoken,
I've found my path and will never return.
 

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Source : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/5369