[Peace-discuss] FW: Chicago women: 'Stop disappearing Arabs and Muslims'

[Margaret E. Kosal]

 From that lil' town north of us ....

>Subject: Chicago women: 'Stop disappearing Arabs and Muslims'
>
>
>Chicago women: 'Stop disappearing Arabs and Muslims'
>
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the March 7, 2002
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>CHICAGO WOMEN TELL INS:
>"STOP DISAPPEARING ARABS AND MUSLIMS!"
>
>By Beth Semmer
>Chicago
>
>Calling out "Name the names" and "No more disappeared in the
>U.S.," the newly formed Chicago Women in Black protested in
>front of the Immigration and Naturalization Services offices
>here on Feb. 22.
>
>The women were pointing out that the U.S. government has
>"disappeared" hundreds of people-mostly from Arab and Muslim
>countries-since Sept. 11. The government has held them
>without charges, without access to their attorneys and
>without even releasing their names.
>
>Chicago Women in Black chose the INS at noon in busy
>downtown so they could get their message out to as many
>people as possible. Hundreds of flyers were distributed and
>signatures were collected on a letter to U.S. Attorney
>Patrick Fitzgerald condemning the treatment of Rabih Haddad.
>The protest was very visual, with banners and placards,
>including life-size color photos of Haddad and his wife,
>Salma Al-Rashaid.
>
>Rabih Haddad is one of the few whose name is known. Haddad
>has been held in solitary confinement, charged with no
>crime, since Dec. 14. He was moved from Ann Arbor, Mich., to
>the Metropolitan Correctional Center here on Jan. 17. His
>wife, Salma Al-Rashaid, and three of their four young
>children are facing deportation because she has had the
>audacity to speak out against the government's refusal to
>grant Haddad even the most basic human rights. Al-Rashaid
>and all four of her children participated in Friday's
>protest.
>
>The youngest child broke into a huge smile when he saw the
>placard with his father's photo. Haddad's children have not
>seen him since he was moved to the MCC.
>
>Speakers at the protest included women from Not in My Name,
>Latinos United, Centro Sin Fronteras and Evanston Neighbors
>for Peace. Kate Peterson from Refuse and Resist read a list
>of 47 names that have been collected of known detainees. The
>group then marched around the corner to the Federal Court
>building, which houses the U.S. Attorney's office. After a
>send-off by Radical Cheerleaders, a group of three women--
>Sister Dorothy Pagosa of the 8th Day Center for Justice,
>Margaret Nagle from Evanston Neighbors for Peace and Beth
>Massey from the International Action Center--delivered a
>letter protesting the treatment of Haddad and the hundreds
>of unknown detainees.
>
>Women from the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
>formed Chicago Women in Black to encourage other women to
>protest the government's attack on civil liberties. Aware
>that women are often at the receiving end of violence in
>both peace and war, it was hoped that the issue would
>resonate with Chicago women. The spirit of two forceful and
>fearless women's groups in other countries--the Mothers of
>the Plaza de Mayo and Women in Black--inspired this newly
>formed group.
>
>The first Women in Black group was created in 1988 to oppose
>Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian lands. It spread
>around the world. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have
>fought for more than a quarter of a century to hold the
>Argentinean dictatorship responsible for the disappearance,
>torture and murder of tens of thousands of their children.
>
>Chicago Women in Black plan to hold ongoing protests around
>the issue of the detainees. Their next action will be to
>participate as a contingent in a March 8th International
>Women's Day march in Chicago as well as form a contingent in
>the April National March on Washington against War and
>Racism.