Interview with Dr. Zieba Shorish-Shamley By Khaleda Atta July-Sept. 1998 Lemar-Aftaab The recent gender-apartheid in Afghanistan has left many Afghans in the states hopeless. Afghans are left wondering, "What can we do about it?" Zieba Shorish-Shamley, an anthropologist and well known activist is one person who has decided that enough is enough and something must be done. In 1971 Shorish-Shamley received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Soon after, she taught for a number of years at Western Michigan-Kalamazoo University and for the last 20 years has been "on and off" involved in activities promoting the cause of the Afghan people. Dr. Zieba Shorish-Shamley, President and co-founder of Women's Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan (WAPHA) who founded the non-profit, non-partisan, organization in March 1997 has given up her career to further the success WAPHA has had with working for the cause of peace and humanity in Afghanistan. "I felt the need to start this organization because what was happening to the Afghan women....preposterous, unislamic and outrageous!" stated Shorish-Shamley. "It was an emergency and needed focus--I found that I couldn't work and focus on this at the same time so I gave up my career to [push the organization with full-force.]" WAPHA is also currently working on becoming a tax-deductible organization. WAPHA is a think-tank organization including defense advocacy and human rights and research. WAPHA is currently small but powerful. "We are a watch dog for human rights," stated Shorish-Shamley. The members include mostly professors but is searching to expand to all professions/careers. WAPHA is an international organization in that its members include both women and men from all over the world. In order to join, there is an annual $40 fee for students, $80 fee for adults or a $120 fee for families. "The organization can't be all Afghan" stated Shorish-Shamley, "I didn't want to be accused of supporting one group or another, we want to stay independent." The organization is mostly run by member support. "We don't have a lot of people to do the ground-work--we'd appreciate any volunteers." After she comes back from Rome, she plans on trying to recruit "young energetic people who really want to work." "We are on the side of the Afghan people all of them we don't accept anyone who supports a particular faction or who was a former communist," stated Shorish-Shamley. "We also don't accept money from any questionable government agencies." Much of Dr. Shorish-Shamley's work with WAPHA involves organizing demonstrations and rallies, sponsoring conferences, meetings, and seminars, presenting paper presentations at seminars, conferences, and other academic meetings, and presenting letters of appeals to governmental departments. So far, Shorish-Shamley has given three testimonies at the Senate and House in the U.S. Congress, as well as having various meetings with the State Department. "WAPHA has mobilized the world through news lists. We have managed to change Congress, U.N., and European Commission views ...by being in contact with five continents through e-mail." Senator Feinstein of the U.S. Congress is starting an investigation on rape cases due to my testimonies." WAPHA is currently trying to get information out about refugee camps in Iran since "no attention is being paid to them..." Currently Dr. Shorish-Shamley is working on a book entitled, Afghan Identities in Diaspora. Good luck to her and all the other hopeful Afghans who are making sense of the phrase "actions speak louder than words." What our country needs are more people like Dr. Shorish-Shamley to keep bringing the world's attention to the innocent victims of war and factional war-fare in Afghanistan--eventually their voices will be heard. For more information contact: W.A.P.H.A. P.O. Box 77057 Washington, D.C. 20013-7057 Tel: 202-882-1432 Copyright © 1998 Aftaabzad Publications. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form without permission.