An effort by ministers from the United States, Canada and other members of the 42-nation coalition fighting in Afghanistan to put an optimistic face on the war’s progress came close to collapse yesterday when Afghan President Hamid Karzai was publicly accused of supporting a law that dramatically limits the rights of women. [...]
According to United Nations organizations that have seen it, a law backed by the Karzai government would legalize rape within marriage and would forbid women from going to the doctor or leaving their home without their husband’s protection.
Womens’ rights are a joke in Afghanistan, it seems. We’ve spent over 7 years of blood and treasure to free the Afghani people, especially the women, from the tyranny of fundamentalist religion. And the punch line is that unless we plan on staying there forever, the Karzai government’s survival depends on acquiescing to those very forces we’re fighting. It starts with state-sanctioned rape: it’s too unutterably depressing to imagine where it might end.
There are courageous Afghan women fighting for their rights — here’s what they have to say about this odious manouevre. And here’s how we can help them.
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Like I said over at Dawgs place, perhaps we ought to just send the women of Afghanistan guns and train them how to use them.
Attention Patsy, that would be self-defense on their part…
Mike – I agree. I hate to say it but we obviously aren’t helping them as much as we’d like — the only difference seems to be that now they get to vote for the Taliban. But if they’re still under the yoke of religious tyranny, it’s a nice symbolic gesture at best.
None of this comes as a big surprise since Karzai is a former Taliban supporter himself. Sad — that country seems doomed to be run by religious fanatics.
I’ve never believed for one minute that our troops or any others have been sent in there to help women. I’ve always believed that’s a line our generally progressive society has been fed so we’d accept that it was good for them to be there. So it keeps me wondering why the hell our troops really ARE in there.
Fund RAWA and get the fuck out of there. Too bad we couldn’t just scoop up all the women and children who wanted to leave. I’m guessing that would be most. Then those asshole warlords and their buddy Karzai could run their little narco state alone and rape each other for fun.
That’s a good plan, Prole – and it would probably be cheaper than what we’re doing right now. I remember signing petitions to protest the Taliban treatment of women waaaay before we started bombing in 2001…Doesn’t seem like we’ve won over their hearts and minds with our guns, bombs and uniforms, now does it?
Hey brebis, I’ve just been over commenting at your place.
I was going to say the same Prole and brebis. I remember supporting RAWA well before the US assault/invasion. What a freaking horror show.
Definitely one of my favourite articles
orange – Womens’ oppression didn’t come into the equation until the US started another war in Iraq rather than concentrating on Afghanistan and the hunt for bin laden.
Dr. Prole – RAWA pre-existed the war in Afghanistan, and although some of the women were killed, RAWA says things aren’t any better than they were 10 years ago. So it stands to reason they could carry on without us there, especially if they had funding. RAWA is the kind of grassroots movement that results in people making change to their own situation, which is how it has to happen, not by change being forced on them from without.
brebis – The taliban was a known scourge long before 2001, so bad that they weren’t even recognized as a real government in many parts of the world. But bombing them back to the stone age apparently hasn’t won any hearts, I wonder why.
ask for Canada’s ten billion dollars back from them