There’s an absolutely stupid and malevolent take by Spiked* about the silence of Western feminists on the Taliban. Every Western feminist I read has been in a state of horror and despair at what’s happening/going to happen to Afghan women.
KBPlayer, I think my husband is at the saturation point; he seems resigned to the fact that I will continue to express horror and sorrow at it. (Don’t get me wrong, he feels the same, but he doesn’t rant and rave about things.)
While I am sympathetic the female Afghans, their plight is no different to that of their peers in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Indonesia etc.
20 years of occupation and nothing to show for it. 20 years ago I told anyone who would listen that the invasion would not end well.
I am disappointed with people only now expressing support for women of Kabul and Kandahar, when the Taliban already controlled 80% of the country.
Also, keep in mind, the USA invasion was never, ever about human rights, it was always driven by American exceptionalism. Thismess is all America’s doing.
Roj, I was listening to an interview yesterday – a former US Government intelligence something or other. He said a huge part of the problem was that the initial invasion was to fulfil US anti-terror objectives. That bled through to the way the occupation was designed and run. He acknowledged that later on nation building and human rights work got ‘bolted on’, but that because of the underlying occupation structure those were never going to bed in. So yes, yet another US (and western) mess.
And yes, to anyone with even a casual knowledge of history and geopolitics it was hard to see this ending any differently. I do feel a slightly different kind of pity for Afghan women and girls though. They were given very real hope, illusory though it turned out to be, for the best part of a generation. Under western protection they took the courageous step of going against centuries of social repression – becoming educated, taking on jobs, being financially independent, getting involved in politics.
While their sisters in other countries may be similarly repressed, the emotional impact is differently terrible. That doesn’t make their repression worse, but it’s an especially horrible subjective flavour in a mixed lot of awful flavours.
There’s an absolutely stupid and malevolent take by Spiked* about the silence of Western feminists on the Taliban. Every Western feminist I read has been in a state of horror and despair at what’s happening/going to happen to Afghan women.
https://twitter.com/twlldun/status/1427669707163901956/photo/1
*Always stupid and malevolent.
KBPlayer, I think my husband is at the saturation point; he seems resigned to the fact that I will continue to express horror and sorrow at it. (Don’t get me wrong, he feels the same, but he doesn’t rant and rave about things.)
While I am sympathetic the female Afghans, their plight is no different to that of their peers in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Indonesia etc.
20 years of occupation and nothing to show for it. 20 years ago I told anyone who would listen that the invasion would not end well.
I am disappointed with people only now expressing support for women of Kabul and Kandahar, when the Taliban already controlled 80% of the country.
Also, keep in mind, the USA invasion was never, ever about human rights, it was always driven by American exceptionalism. Thismess is all America’s doing.
Roj, I was listening to an interview yesterday – a former US Government intelligence something or other. He said a huge part of the problem was that the initial invasion was to fulfil US anti-terror objectives. That bled through to the way the occupation was designed and run. He acknowledged that later on nation building and human rights work got ‘bolted on’, but that because of the underlying occupation structure those were never going to bed in. So yes, yet another US (and western) mess.
And yes, to anyone with even a casual knowledge of history and geopolitics it was hard to see this ending any differently. I do feel a slightly different kind of pity for Afghan women and girls though. They were given very real hope, illusory though it turned out to be, for the best part of a generation. Under western protection they took the courageous step of going against centuries of social repression – becoming educated, taking on jobs, being financially independent, getting involved in politics.
While their sisters in other countries may be similarly repressed, the emotional impact is differently terrible. That doesn’t make their repression worse, but it’s an especially horrible subjective flavour in a mixed lot of awful flavours.