Meena Keshwar Kamal

File:RAWA logo.png (RAWA)]]

Meena was born to an educated Kabuli Pashtun family.[https://dokumen.pub/humanitarian-invasion-global-development-in-cold-war-afghanistan-1107112079-9781107112070.html Humanitarian Invasion: Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan], Timothy Nunan (2015)
"One Meena Keshwar Kamal, the daughter of educated Kabuli Pashtuns, had grown politically conscious..." In 1977, when she was a student at Kabul University,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/30/afghanistan-women-feminists-burqa|title=Afghan feminists fighting from under the burqa|author=Jon Boone|work=the Guardian|date=30 April 2010|accessdate=15 May 2016|archive-date=20 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920163044/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/30/afghanistan-women-feminists-burqa|url-status=live}} she founded Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization formed to promote equality and education for women that continues to "give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan". Despite the Saur Revolution and women's rights being placed high on the Democratic Republic's agenda,{{cite web|url=https://ahtribune.com/history/636-afghan-women.html|date=March 8, 2016|author=Gearóid Ó Colmáin |title=

When Afghan women were free |website=ahtribune.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809201235/https://ahtribune.com/history/636-afghan-women.html |archive-date=2020-08-09 }} {{rs?|date=June 2019}} Kamal felt that there was no vast changes of women's deprivation in Afghanistan.{{Cite book|title=Afgan Narimukti Andoloner Agnishika (Bengali)|last=Seisab Shahidera|first=Biswas, P|publisher=Atirikto Publication|year=2014|isbn=978-81-928741-0-4|location=Kolkata|pages=44, 45}} In 1979 she campaigned against the government, and organized meetings in schools to mobilize support against it, and in 1981, she launched a bilingual feminist magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message).{{cite web|url=http://pz.rawa.org/|title=پیام زن، نشریه جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان - راوا|publisher=|accessdate=15 May 2016|archive-date=12 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712131652/http://pz.rawa.org/|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Melody Ermachild Chavis|title=Meena: Heroine Of Afghanistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyJEynFyznkC&pg=PT1|date=30 September 2011|publisher=Transworld|isbn=978-1-4464-8846-1|pages=1–}}{{cite book|last=Gioseffi|first=Daniela|authorlink=Daniela Gioseffi|title=Women on War: An International Anthology of Women's Writings from Antiquity to the Present|url=https://archive.org/details/womenonwarintern00gios|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-409-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenonwarintern00gios/page/283 283]}} She also founded Watan Schools to aid refugee children and their mothers, offering both hospitalization and the teaching of practical skills.{{Cite web|url=http://laconneau.com/NewsletterNovember2009.html|title=Brave Women in a War-Torn World: RAWA and Afghanistan|accessdate=24 September 2024|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407143151/http://laconneau.com/NewsletterNovember2009.html|url-status=live}}

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, left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign.{{cite web|url=http://www.rawa.org/meena.html|title=Biography of Martyred Meena, RAWA's founding leader|publisher=RAWA|accessdate=15 May 2016|archive-date=7 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907172743/http://www.rawa.org/meena.html|url-status=live}}{{Primary inline|date=November 2015}} She would eventually move and base her RAWA organization in Quetta, Pakistan, in opposition to the Afghan Marxist government.

Kamal was married, in 1976, to Afghanistan Liberation Organization leader Faiz Ahmad,Brodsky, Anne E. With all our strength : the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York City: Routledge, 2003. p. 54 who was murdered in Peshawar, Pakistan, by agents of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on 12 November 1986.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110710160918/http://web.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocs/AC9DD311C800E73C87256CCF005E323F?OpenDocument Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, CIA Op and Homicidal Thug]{{Cite web|url=http://www.womeninwar.org/CMann_afghanwomanhood.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313114943/http://www.womeninwar.org/CMann_afghanwomanhood.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Models and Realities of Afghan Womanhood: A Retrospective and Prospects|archivedate=13 March 2012|accessdate=24 September 2024}} Meena was executed less than 3 months afterwards. They had three children, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Kamal was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan on 4 February 1987.{{cite book |last1=Ramakrishnan |first1=Nitya |title=In Custody: Law, Impunity and Prisoner Abuse in South Asia |date=May 2013 |publisher=SAGE India |isbn=9788132117513 |page=118 }} Reports vary as to who the assassins were, but are believed to have been agents of the Afghan Intelligence Service KHAD, the Afghan secret police.{{Cite web |title=Biography of Martyred Meena, RAWA's founding leader |url=http://www.rawa.org/meena.html |access-date=2024-11-18 |website=www.rawa.org}} In May 2002, two men were hanged in Pakistan after being convicted of Kamal's murder.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1973184.stm|title=BBC News - SOUTH ASIA - Afghan activist's killers hanged|date=7 May 2002|publisher=|accessdate=15 May 2016|archive-date=13 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313152147/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1973184.stm|url-status=live}}

A special issue of Time magazine on 13 November 2006, included Meena among "60 Asian Heroes" and wrote: "Although she was only 30 when she died, Meena had already planted the seeds of an Afghan women's rights movement based on the power of knowledge."{{Cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_meena.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112202432/http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_meena.html|url-status=dead|title=TIME Magazine|archivedate=12 January 2007|accessdate=24 September 2024}}

RAWA says of her "Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sell outs imposed on our women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of population will be awaken {{sic}} and cross the path towards freedom, democracy and women's rights. The enemy was rightly shivering with fear by the love and respect that Meena was creating within the hearts of our people. They knew that within the fire of her fights all the enemies of freedom, democracy and women would be turned to ashes."

An enduring quote from Meena states:{{cite book|author=Tamra Orr|title=We Visit Afghanistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLyXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA36|date=15 September 2011|publisher=Mitchell Lane Publishers, Incorporated|isbn=978-1-61228-102-5|page=36|access-date=24 November 2015|archive-date=8 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108003601/https://books.google.com/books?id=bLyXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}

{{cquote| Afghan women are like sleeping lions, when awoken, they can play a wonderful role in any social revolution.}}

{{Portal|Afghanistan|Feminism}}

• Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
• Taliban treatment of women

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{{Reflist}}

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• {{cite book|last=Brodsky|first=Anna E.|year=2003|title=With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-203-50069-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Chavis|first=Melody Ermachild|year=2003|title=Meena - Heroine of Afghanistan|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0-312-30689-X}}

{{refend}}

{{commonscatinline}}

• [http://www.rawa.org/meena.html RAWA's biography of Meena]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070112202432/http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_meena.html Meena, an inspiration (Time Magazine, November 13, 2006)]
• [http://www.rawa.org/album.htm More photos]
• [http://www.rawa.org/ill.htm Full text of Meena's Poem "I'll Never Return"]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927230232/http://www.rawa.us/rawasongs/mp3s/korean.mp3 A song by Korean singer Hae Kyoung Ahn based on Meena's above poem]
• [http://www.geocities.com/comrade_meena A Biography]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{Feminism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamel, Meena Kishwar}}

Category:1956 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:Afghan democracy activists

Category:Afghan feminists

Category:Afghan people murdered abroad

Category:Assassinated activists

Category:Assassinated Afghan people

Category:Civil rights activists

Category:People murdered in Balochistan, Pakistan

Category:Afghan critics of religions

Category:Afghan revolutionaries

Category:Afghan expatriates in Pakistan

Category:Magazine founders

Category:Female revolutionaries