B2 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday September 19, 2001 Heart & Stroke speakers. V olunteer speakers from t e O akville C hapter o f the H eart and S troke Foundation o f O ntario are .waiting to receive the call to speak at local businesses, groups, clubs, and institu tions. Those groups interested in booking a speaker, can call the Halton Region office o f the Foundation at 634-7732. Activist speaks at Take Back the Night By Wilma Blokhuis BEAVER FOCUS EDITOR Have any o f you women ever worn a burqa - even for ju st one minute? It covers the body from head to toe, leav ing only an oval mesh for the eyes. It's quite confining. "Every part o f a w oman's body has to be covered in Afghanistan," says Deb Ellis, 40, a long tim e activist, author and shelter worker, adding they have no rights to an education or a job under the Taliban regime. N or are women allowed out in public without the company o f a male relative. And, they must walk without noise. Afghani women are also denied healthcare - there are no female doctors and care from male physicians is for bidden. At the time the Taliban, a military regime, took power in 1996, Afghanistan women made up 70% of all teachers, 40% o f doctors and 50% of government workers. Ellis lives in Dunnville and commutes to work at a Toronto shelter, stopping fre quently at SAVIS - Sexual A ssault & Violence Intervention Services o f Halton. Ellis is a m em ber of C anadians in Support of Afghan W omen, founded tw o years ago by Bev LeFrancois, co-director o f SAVIS. She will be the keynote speaker at T hursday's eleventh annual Take Back the Night Walk at Coronation Park, starting at 6:30 p.m. She will speak before the walk to Bronte and back. "I met a lot o f women and found out what they're going through. T h ey 've lost all rights and all hope for the future, and have no basis to believe things will get better. "We go through our lives trying to improve our lot, to do things better," continued Ellis. "Afghan women have lost all sense o f having a future. "The longer the Taliban is in power, any glim m er of having basic rights becomes more and more hopeless for these women." Considered one of C anada's foremost authori ties on the plight o f Afghan w om en, Ellis spent three months visiting 94 Afghan refugee cam ps along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border about 2.5 years ago. "Some o f these camps have 6,000 people. T hey're like small cities." Some of these camps have been in existence for about 25 years, since the Soviets first invaded Afghanistan in the late 1970s. "There's been 25 years o f ongoing war, and now w omen are going to these camps to escape the Taliban." Pakistan has an estimated two million Afghan refugees, "and certainly a lot more if you count the refugees who are not registered." Ellis, who is also an aw ard-w inning children's m m ESTATE SALE O ttello's Banquet Hall 2273 Royal Windsor Drive. Oakville Sunday S epte m be r 23rd, 1:00 S ta rt LIQUIDATION SALE" "ALL ITEMS MUST BE SOLD' T H E S A L E W IT H L O T S O F A N T IQ U E S Y O U N A M E IT IT W ILL BE SO LD ! Bring your truck, van, trailer, load and go" SAVE SAVE THOUSANDS! Terms: Visa, M /C, Amex, debit card, cash. No registration fee · 10% buyers premium Photo by Wilma Blokhuis A ctivist D eb Ellis, o f C anadians in Support o f A fghan W om en, speaks at T h ursd ay's Take Back the Night W alk at C oronation park. She holds a head covering, with m esh for the eyes, part o f the burqa. author, joined Canadians in tells a story about an 11-yearSupport of Afghan Women old girl who defies and out when it was formed about smarts the Taliban by dress two years ago. The group ing as a boy and working to sells quilt covers and pillow support her family. The book was written after Ellis was covers m ade by refugee women. inspired by a discussion she Ellis won the Governor had with a Afghani woman in G eneral's Award for Pakistan who cut her daugh C hildren's Literature for te r's hair, dressed her as a Looking fo r X, a book about boy, and sent her to work. an 11-year-old girl who lives Ellis has also written a book titled Women o f the in an inner-city housing development with her five- Afghan War. year-old twin autistic broth Royalties from the sale of ers, and a mother who at one The Breadwinner and Women time worked as a stripper. o f the Afghan War are used to H er second ch ild ren 's support literacy projects for novel, The Breadwinner, is Afghan girls in refugee set in Kabul, Afghanistan. It camps. LAST OPPORTUNITY For Seniors 65 Plus . . . 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