PESHAWAR, Feb 4: The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (Rawa) has urged Afghans to get rid of terrorists who have made the country a home to ignorance, diseases, poverty and unending violence at the behest of anti-people forces.

Speaking at the 15th death anniversary meeting of Rawa’s President Meena Kishwar Kamal, at a local hotel on Monday, the speakers paid glowing tribute to the courage and perseverance of Meena, who had founded a strong women organization to fight for the liberation of the country.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Executive Director I.A. Rehman, American sociologist Anne Brodsky, famous painter Saleema Hashmi, artistes Sheema Kirmani, Faryal Gohar, fiction writers Perveen Atif, Neelam Bashir and others threw light on the political struggle of Meena in a Mullah-ridden society.

Mr Rehman said after the Sept 11 attack on the US landmarks, the US leadership had shelved democratic and human rights values by resorting to carpet bombing on Afghanistan.

Sheema Kirmani also performed on the stage and recited some poems reflecting women’s long struggle for their rights. She opposed the inhuman laws framed by the male rulers to oppress the women.

Faryal Gohar also praised the courage of Rawa women who, she said, had been following in the footsteps of Meena, a symbol of struggle and freedom in Afghan society.

Saleema Hashmi observed that the Rawa women would establish a society based on democracy, freedom and secularism in their war-torn country.

DR ANNE SAID: “The loss of lives on Sept 11 was a tragedy, I believe it is a greater tragedy that it took deaths on US soil to draw US and international attention to the terrorism that Afghanistan has experienced over the past decades and which has taken tens of thousands more lives than were lost in the US.”