Mother Davis thinks back to the days of United We Stand, and considers,
One of the strongest propaganda points used to justify the invasion and long-term occupation of Afghanistan was that Afghan women desperately needed to be liberated from tyrannical religious laws. So, now that Afghanistan has been “liberated” for going on four years of American occupation, what is the status of women living there?
According to a new human rights report, women in Afghanistan are still suffering from widespread, systematic persecution, and the new, American-backed government is doing little to help them. “Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it,” the report states. In response to the report, Nooria Haqnagar, the Afghan spokeswoman for Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan, admitted that “In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals.”
Where are all the Republicans who used to get so fired up about protecting women from persecution? Well, here at home, the same Republican politicians who eagerly talked about the need to liberate women in Afghanistan four years ago are still refusing to support an equal rights amendment for women here in the United States of America. I guess that, in their minds, women only really need to be liberated when they belong to the enemy. How very reminiscent of Genghis Khan.
Updating her travel plans and taking Afghanistan off the “liberated” list,
Mother Davis
Ergh…
Still, at least they have an excuse for it. Third world countries; still under construction and all.
Trying to force new values on them instead of letting the country getting them developed by itself tends not to work so well…
A little help can’t hurt, but just dumping them on the people might even make things worse…
Like what Anthony Giddens said about national identities; they have to be formed, not just placed somewhere.
As bad as it is in our view,(And the view is atrocious!), these people have been doing things their way for the last several thousand years…and God/Godess help ANYONE who has the timerity to stick their nose in. The Afganis have been merrily slitting each other’s throats for centuries, that is, when they haven’t been kicking invaders’ asses. Yes, I do feel very badly for the plight of the Afgan women, but, if I might, a quote from Rudyard Kipling:
“And when you’re lying wounded
On the Afgan plain,
And the women come out
To carve up your remains
Roll to your rifle
And blow out your brains
And go to your God
Like a soldier.”
A bit gruesome, I admit, but an accurate picture of a people and their attitudes.
You know, the European people were known for their particular barbarity for many centuries. I’m reluctant to judge an entire people so permanently.
Yes, that’s why I know it’ll get better eventually.
No little tribe of people go straight from caves to skyscrapers and a full set of human rights.
Takes a long time for life and well-being to overtake viciousness and power in the hierarchy of social values.