Date & Time: Tue Oct 30 10:38:44 EST 2001

Guest’s Name: mark Botham-Clarke <>

To whomever may read this

I just read Ron Clough’s response to receiving the Afphanistan petition for women. Although I agree totally with him regarding the futility and misdirection of signing it and passing it on, I must say that it seemed to me he might also consider the plight of Afghani women as a ‘hoax’. While the petition itself is not absolutely true, it’s contense is well grounded. I have included an exerpt from a reputable internet site. If you would like to source this it is from http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/petition/afghani.htm

I apologise for the length of this mail but felt it necessary to notify you that Ron Clough’s comments regarding the falsification of the petition may be misleading people to disbelieve the truth regarding the plight of women in that country.

Thank’s for your time Mark Botham-Clarke.

Claim: Women in Afghanistan are subject to severe violations of basic human rights (but signing a petition isn’t likely to help them). Status: True.

Origins: With every passing day, our inboxes play host to a growing number of calls to arms. People we’ve never heard of pop up to demand we protest this, boycott that, or eschew whatever from our diets, as they fill our e-mail and our minds with one frightening story after another.

At first all such messages are taken to heart as we naively assume there must be some fire lurking beneath all that smoke. With time comes a more jaundiced view of such things, as incitement after incitement proves out to be naught but yet another group of crazies’ attempt to inflame others with their particular brand of paranoia. We grow used to discovering that the studies underlying the scare are flawed, or the facts misstated, or the event we’re supposed to get riled about never happened. The easily-herded Internet newcomer evolves into a properly skeptical Netizen who knows better than to believe scaremongering.

And yet . . . every now and then one of those heavily-worded missives turns out to have something to it. This is one such piece.

Conditions in Afghanistan are pretty much as described in this petition. Since the Taliban’s ascension to power in 1994, the civil rights violations have been numerous, with women bearing the brunt of the repression. It’s a deplorable situation, one the U.S. State Department is all too aware of. What this petition decries is real, and you can read plenty more about conditions in Afghanistan at the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) web site.

Even so, signing this petition isn’t likely do any good. First of all, the petition — a well-meaning individual effort of one person at Brandeis University — isn’t going anywhere. The e-mail address it was to be directed to has been turned off. These days, anything sent to <> bounces, with the sender receiving a standard note from the mailer daemon to the effect that the account has been disabled due to volume.

<> was not an organization, but a person who was totally unprepared for the inevitable consequences of telling thousands of people to tell fifty of their friends to tell fifty of their friends to send her email.

It is our sincere hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who continue to attempt to reply will find a more productive outlet for their concerns. There are several excellent organizations and individuals doing real work on the issues raised. Some of them were mentioned in sarabande’s letter. None of them authorized her actions. We suggest that you contact them through non-virtual channels to help. They all have web sites with information and contact points. Unlike sarabande, they can channel your energy in useful directions. Do not let this incident discourage you.

The sad fact is the Taliban run Afghanistan as they see fit, and no amount of e-mail petitions is going to get them to smack their heads in horror as the realization of the wrongness of their doings suddenly hits them full force. Likewise, e-mail isn’t necessary to call the situation to the attention of the U.S. government — they’re already fully aware of it.

Barbara “muzzle ‘em fundamentalists” Mikkelson

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