Review of reviews
And then there’s Karzai – he says he’ll ‘review’ the new law that says women can’t leave the house without a damn good reason. But his idea of ‘reviewing’ is not quite that of, say, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Western media have either mistranslated or taken incorrect information and then published it. If there is anything in contradiction with our Constitution or Shariah, or freedoms granted by the Constitution, we will take action in close consultation with the clerics of the country.”
Ah. So the law will stay as it is then. There won’t be anything ‘in contradiction with’ Shariah, and close consultation with the clerics of the country will of course issue in warm approval of the Shariah-compliant law, not in pesky changes that would leave women with a few shaky ghosts of rights to move around freely and say no to sex with their husbands even when not deathly ill. Shariah and the clerics of the country are the way to get woman-subordinating theocratic laws, not rights-respecting secular universal laws. So much for that.
Religious idiocy is following religious idiocy with such speed lately that it’s hard to keep up! And it has kept you, Ophelia, exceptionally busy. And amidst all this, of course, the UNHRC has passed a resolution forbidding criticism of religion! The mind reels!
Do we still think it is worthwhile dying in Afghanistan for the Karzai government?
How generous it was indeed of the parliamentary judicial commission to amend part of the bill (that was orignally drawn up by Shiite clerics) which barred a woman from leaving the house without her husband’s permission.
The provision now says that a woman could leave the house “for a legitimate purpose.” I am so sure Shiite women will be bowing down in gratitude for this merciful amendment.
I wonder, would goimg to the local shop for errands, to feed her husband, constitute ‘a legitimate purpose for a woman leaving the house’?
Would she also be failing in her duty, if he was not fed properly, because of her not being allowed out to the shop to buy food? Will she be severely punished because of her lack of nourishing her husband?
Will there be ‘monitoring of women’ jobs made avilable for men. I can just visualise 24/7 two bouncer -like Shiite characters stationed outside womens’ houses!
The moment that I read about this law was the moment when I lost faith in the future of Afghanistan. I’d always thought that things were going to turn out OK, especially now with the Obama administration. Now, I really worry.
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http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com
Removing the Taliban from the control of Afghanistan was clearly the right thing to do in 2001.
And as much as I think it is necessary to utterly defeat the Dark Age death cult that is followed in the “tribal areas” of Afghanistan and Pakistan, I am starting, like Neuroskeptic, to lose heart.
NATO’s heart is not in this fight, and this war cannot be finally won without taking the fight to the enemy’s bases in Pakistan.
Has the time come to abandon the women and ethnic minorities of Afghanistan? Are we really making a big enough difference now? Or should we seek alternative solutions more in keeping with the old principles of “realpolitik”?
I for one have absolutely no idea what we should do.
Nor do I. Ultimately, though, “we” cannot really “liberate” the oppressed of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Especially when our allies and friends are all pretty nasty folks themselves.
What kind of message would it send if the N.a.t.o powers walked away from the fight e.b ? I think it would be a disaster if that happened,the enemies of freedom and decency would quite rightly conclude that victory could always be theirs if they are prepared to fight a long protracted struggle.
Oh do stop banging that drum, Brian, it’s so boring and so beside the point.
Ophelia, I haven’t the slightest idea what we ought to do either, but there should be high level discussions about this – maybe there are, and we just don’t know – but the answer so far seems to be to increse troop levels. That’s what President Obama was asking for at NATO.
The Europeans are very reluctant to get involved in combat roles, for good reason. Getting mired in a war is not a good place to get stuck. We’ve been at this for eight years already (well, almost)- that’s longer than WWII – and we don’t seem much farther ahead. The Taliban still blow things up in Kabul, and even seem to call the shots in making law.
Unless there’s some clear strategic goal what are troops supposed to do? You can’t fight guerillas the way regular troops are fought, because they can jump up anywhere. They’re not protecting territory; but they are making it impossible to hold it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Hamid Karzai is at the Taliban’s beck and call with statutes. That’s what the Taliba are fighting for (is Taliban singular or plural? – you never know, I guess, until you meet one (or more) with a gun (guns)!). I heard General Wesley Clark saying, last night, that the object is to stabilise Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the intervention, if anything, has arguably destabilised the whole region. Pakistan was always a mess, but not this big a mess.
Perhaps it’s not possible any more, but the way the British stabilised things was to establish a colonial administration, and then forced people to toe the line, governing vast tracts of the world. It never did, however, stabilise the Indian Frontier (Pakistani now). Winston Churchill wrote his first book about a punitive expedition to punish the tribes in that region. The Americans are playing the same game, though they do it with drones). When I lived in India, many moons ago, there was an express from Bombay called the Frontier Mail – it went right through to the Pakistan frontier, which was even then ruled by unruly tribes.
So, unless we’re ready to conquer territory and rule it, NATO hasn’t a hope, and propping up Karzai is silly. Soldiers will still die to reestablish Taliban rule in Afghanistan. And now they’re making a big push to establish it in Pakistan too.
Ultimately, Afghanistan’s hope is to trade and exchange more with the rest of the world. At present its major exports are opium, hashish and natural gas. Much of its wealth of resources -eg oil, is underutilised. See http://www.afghanistans.com/
While education is under the control of the Taliban neanderthals, as it clearly is, the country cannot do much.
Part of the problem is that Islam can be interpreted without difficulty as a ready-made fascist ideology.