Author: Fariba Nawa
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 18, 2001
Ayesha Zia Khan is 22. She does
not cover her head and studies computing at university. Yet she says she
would be glad to see allies of the fundamentalist Taliban regime running
Pakistan. She is aware that the Taliban, which has ruled Afghanistan since
1996, has ended public education for Afghan girls and forces women to cover
themselves from head to toe.
But she says her Islamic faith is
more important than her personal freedom. "The Taliban are acting exactly
as Islam would want them to," she said in an interview at Islamabad's coeducational
Quaid-e-Azam University, where she studies. "People call them conservative
but they're doing the right thing. I want to observe Islamic covering and
wouldn't mind being forced to do it. I need the encouragement."
Her views are among the minority
at Quaid-e-Azam. But since U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan got underway,
a growing number of university educated women are feeling the pressure
to choose sides - and many are picking the Taliban, despite its reputation
for oppressing women.
Several female students at Quaid-e-Azam
and other universities said they did not agree with the Taliban's interpretation
of Islam but they would side with the militia simply because they were
Muslims. "No matter what America says, this is the West's war against Islam,"
said Khan.
While these women were as shocked
as anyone by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington,
they say bombing the Taliban and killing civilians is not the answer. (AFP)
