Afghan Women's Rights

[Julnar]

I thought one of the reasons our soldiers were fighting and dying in Afghanistan was to ensure women were offered a modicum of human rights. It would appear that very little has changed in the mindset of Afghan men. What has happened to all the modernising and social policies that Blair and Bush promised women in this part of the world?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/79 40527.stm

[123everton]

In Victorian times being an actress was associated with prositution also, I think it was only with the advent of cinema that these attitudes changed.
Rome was'nt built in a day, the enemy (Taliban) sanctioned this act.
Imagine if a powerful group in Britain said it was ok to grab womens breasts, how many gropers would appear?
You will never recreate Altrincham in Afghanistan it will always be different, but before the fall of the Taliban they would probably have been shot in the head in a football stadium.

[Joy11]

sadly this would take an eternity to put right, if you ever get the chance to read a couple of books by the same person called The Kite Runner and A Thousand Sands, read them, it is shocking what is going on there even now, it appears the troops are ther to keep the Taliban at bay and they are'nt being very successful by all acounts

[paraffin]

Julnar:

Sadly, although I share your sentiments as to the reasons WHY our squaddies SHOULD be doing what they are in Afghanistan, it would be naiive to believe that that IS the reason.

Our squaddies are only there because they were sent by spineless politicians who were dancing and twitching on strings pulled by our American cousins.

None of those politicians could nowadays give you a justifiable answer as to why the squaddies are still there. It's only because they can't find a withdrawal strategy to implement which wouldn't result in "loss of face".

Meanwhile, those women will continue to exist without rights which we in the West take for granted. They will continue to be persecuted and oppressed by their own menfolk so long as Sharia Law is the order of the day. They will accordingly always be treated inhumanely as a result of the male dominance which is part and parcel of Muslim society. And that will continue long after our squaddies have left, with God knows how many dead, just as the Russians found to their cost not so many years ago.

[rov1200]

Interestingly in the UK when women were given equal rights to men many downtrodden women preferred the way it was and did not want to get caught up in women's lib. The women knew their place and prefer being subserviant to men. Not all I grant you especially career women and bolshei types.
In that demonstration against our troops returning had a large proportion of women in burkas and that is taking place in a liberalised Britain.
Therefore has a vote ever been taken in Afghanistan amongst the women population? We may find some surprising results.

[CrazyCathy]

I suspect many of the women were there because they were told to be there by their husbands.

Many women I suspect fear change as they have never had to think for themselves. They always have a father or a brother and then a husband telling them what to do. Fear of the unknown springs to mind

[Lonnie]

Not forgetting that we'er talking about Afghan women,

Even if they embraced the 'freedoms' that western women have, how long do you think it would be, after our troops have gone, before the men had them back where they are now.

They probably figure its safer to be a piece of property than 'free'.

[keyplus90]

Problem with the western mentality is that when we change our mind about something then we believe that all and sundries must change too. Because we believe that we are always right. From millions of Afghan women they would find few hundred and project them across the globe that they are oppressed and needs to be liberated. For the rest 99.9% they don't give a damn how they want to live. As someone said, which of the Taliban are forcing women to wear Burkah in Britain, You might say their husbands. But if that desperate and oppressed then women are only a phone call away from police and so called LIBERTY.

But on another note why people find it hard to accept that not all the women in the world want such a liberty that makes us world capital of unmarried teen age pregnant girls. Or in more simple words, what one calls liberty and freedom, might not be termed same by the other.