Conflicts to Watch in The New Millennium

While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should
enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would
need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved
through education. Humayun Tandar, who took part as an Afghan diplomat in the 2001
International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, said that "strictures of language,
ethnicity, region were [also] stifling for Massoud. That is why ... he wanted to create a
unity which could surpass the situation in which we found ourselves and still find
ourselves to this day." This applied also to strictures of religion. Jean-José Puig
describes how Massoud often led prayers before a meal or at times asked his fellow
Muslims to lead the prayer but also did not hesitate to ask a Christian friend Jean-José
Puig or the Jewish Princeton Professor Michael Barry: "Jean-José, we believe in the
same God. Please, tell us the prayer before lunch or dinner in your own language."
Human Rights Watch cites no human rights crimes for the forces under direct control of
Massoud for the period from October 1996 until the assassination of Massoud in
September 2001. One million people fled the Taliban, many to the area of Massoud.
National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban":
The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah
Massoud.
Page 93 of 438