Brussels, 28/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Women, Members of the European Parliament or active in the various sectors of civil society, have signed an appeal for participation by Afghan women in the process of democratisation. Women, they state, make up over half of the population, and have known a negation of their intelligence, their features, their existence and their fundamental rights for years now. They went on to say that, under the Taliban regime, they resisted this obscurantism and some had organised a resistance to it putting their lives at risk. Historical experience shows that women's rights and their participation in the life of the city is a guarantee of democracy. Without them, there is no change, no progress possible. They went on to say that Afghan women are the inevitable players for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. They appealed to the UN, the European Union and to the countries participating in the coalition against terrorism to put maximum pressure on so that the Afghan women themselves write a new page in their history. The first signatories of this appeal were French: Sylviane Ainardi (Communist), Yamine Boudjenah (Communist), Alima Boumediene-Thiery (Greens), Marie-Arlette Carlotti (Socialist), Hélène Flautre (Greens), Geneviève Fraisse (independent elected on the Communist list), Marie-Thérèse Hermange (RPR) and Roseline Vachetta (LCR). Other personalities, such as the navigator, Isabelle Autissier, the writers Régine Deforges and Irène Frain, the actress Arielle Dombasle and the producer Nadine Trintignant, also signed the appeal.