Afghan Schoolgirls Describe Acid Attacks (VIDEO)

MSNBC has a powerful video on young girls in Afghanistan who were attacked with acid for going to school. The girls describe the attack and how it has affected their lives. They vow to continue attending school. Watch it here:

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Comments

[KOisGod]

Go after these insects like the Orkin man. Tent the whole place, get out the women and children, and turn on the gas.

[booboo111]

The Taliban have always been the worst of the worst, only now people are starting to realize it. They had control of Afghanistan, for about seven years and set the country back fifty! Wait that sounds familiar!

[wendy31]

TOTALLY agree.

[gayleg]

Obama wants to engage with these goons.

The Taliban needs to be wiped out!

[LeftLeanWing]

No Obama does not want to engage with these goons. Obama wants to kill these goons and has been asking for an increased military presence Afghanistan and a new focus on Pakistan. He was roundly criticized for these view during the primary campaign.

[DFC]

Strictly from a practical standpoint, it seems a good idea for Afghan (and probably Iraqi) girls and young women (all women, for that matter) to each start carrying a 1/4 lb. packet or more of baking soda--if available--and a liter or more of water (or pre-mixed) as a way to minimize injury by washing away and neutralizing the acid as much as possible--either self applied or to another in need. No way should anyone stay home-- defiance through simple chemistry.

[KOisGod]

Wow, aren't you the practical one?

[FormerReaganite]

But what if the criminals threw lye? Then they would have to carry vinegar
to neutralize it! Was this an isolated incident, or does this happen often?

[adamsmith3]

Quite often unfortunately. It's usually done to women with uncovered faces as a statement that they should be in full face garb.

[wendy31]

This happens all the time. Mysogony is alive anf well. We wouldn't allow these things (in the name of god/allah, I might add) if we cared about children or women.

[adamsmith3]

I'd rather be carrying a handgun to blast one of these neandertals in the crotch if they tried anything. But even so, not a bad idea on your part.

[lisakaz2]

When it's your face or their gonads, I think most of us would want our face.

[thirtyninesteps]

The point isn't whether these are heinous acts. They are. The point is, why is this a story on NBC? It reminds me of the PR build-up before both Iraq wars. Get people riled up with atrocities, then ratchet up the troops!

btw, I remember the stories of Iraqi soldiers throwing babies on incubators out of hospital windows in Kuwait. That REALLY got people whipped into a frenzy! G.H.W. Bush gave a speech about it, and witnesses testified before Congress. It was specifically mentioned by several Senators as the reason for their support of the first Iraq invasion. The only problem was that it was totally made up -- a PR invention to whip up popular support for the war. The "nurse" who "witnessed" the events and testified before Congress was actually the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter who had been in the US for months, and several other "witnesses" were actually paid actors. The sheiks of Kuwait had paid $10 million dollars to a Washington DC public relations firm to soften up the American people and drum up support for invasion.

Whether this particular acid incident is true or not is irrelevant. It is being reported because someone wants to manipulate someone.

[MyVesta]

Yes, to justify sending 30,000 more troops there.

[bichn]

Of course, they would never report this just because it was true.

[MagisterLudi]

a crude post of the "but BOOOOSH variety.

[wendy31]

Haven't we had enough of conspiracy theroies? These animals hate women, bc their religion tells them to. They don't care if out troops are there or not when it comes to the genocide and slavery they inflict on girls and women. These people will be violent to women weather we are there or not, weather we report it or not. The way to solve these problems is to wipe out religion.

[thirtyninesteps]

Read about Hill & Knowlton, the PR firm that sold BOTH Iraq Wars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_&_Knowlton

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4270014,00.html

Pay attention to "Nurse Nariyah" -- who was scripted and coached by the same person (Lauri Fitz-Pegado) who later wrote and publicized the Pentagon's "Jessica Lynch" story.

Another favorite tactic of Hill & Knowlton is to create VNRs (video news releases) and make them available to news stations so they can put pretty video clips on the TV.

Here's an interesting tidbit from a study by the University of Massachusetts:

"a research team from the communications department of the University of Massachusetts surveyed public opinion and correlated it with knowledge of basic facts about U.S. policy in the region, they drew some sobering conclusions. The more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the Bush administration."

Glad you're keeping up to date on the TV version of reality. But check your watch -- make sure you don't miss "American Idols of the Runaway to the Unicorns" -- it's on at 10pm!!

[JulieSA]

We have a first amendment here that prohibits the government from "wiping out" religion. "Wiping out" religion has only been carried out in a few places: Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mao's China, Stalin's Soviet Union, Kim jong Il's NORK.

The results were not good. 100 million murdered by their own governments.

Religions can cause problems, but history shows that government prohibition of freedom to worship has even worse results, every time. We've done this experiment already, and the results sucked.

Humans are not perfect and never will be. We do the best we can.

[JulieSA]

"The way to solve these problems is to wipe out religion."

That's almost impossible, and it would violate human rights.

The way to solve these problems is to kill or capture the men who do these things, just like anyone else who commits heinous crimes.

[Ramirez]

There is really no need to "get people whipped into a frenzy." The leadershp of both political parties and the majority of the American people support our effort in Afghanistan. And our President Elect has pledged to escalate our military involvement.

[MyVesta]

Too bad the people of Afghanistan, not to mention the rest of the world, are not as enthralled by American military effort. It has accomplished nothing of value.

[thirtyninesteps]

Precisely.

[Kiba]

How freaking sick can a religion get? You know there's something incredibly wrong with a belief system that can warp minds into thinking something like this is righteous and praiseworthy.

[beccasmecka]

You mean like ALL religions? Kiba - there are freaks (i.e., fundamentalists) in every religion. Try not to make your hatred so obvious, dude.

[adamsmith3]

Yeah, I saw a group of Episcopalians do this down my street yesterday.

[surlybird]

Google Atrocities of the Christian church and be prepared too see the light.

[Ramirez]

Google "20th Century Atrocities of the Christian church" and then get back to us with your moral equivalency argument.

[FormerReaganite]

The question here is, the official policy of Taliban is to throw acid on scholgirls???
Or are these just a small group of sick, psychotic individuals? Surely an Islamic
organization (even Taliban) does not officially endorse assault and battery against
their sisters and daughters. Taliban does have some stange beliefs, that is for sure.
But these were just a group of sadistic criminals with a badly distorted vision of reality.
The overwhelming vast majority of Muslims are growing sick and tired of this madness.

[jerzyjc16]

If they are so sick and tired of it, where are the demonstrations in the streets by Muslims all over the world? I guess they're more upset about a cartoon of Mohammed by some Danish cartoonist. More upset about cartoons than attacks in Mumbai that killed scores of Muslims. Yes, these are a small bunch of fanatics, and no, they don't represent the vast majority of Muslims, but until Muslims put an end to this sort of depravity--as the Catholic and Protestant mothers in Ireland did-- this will continue.

We haven't helped the situation with Gitmo and Abu Gharaib, we've only thrown gasoline on the fire. The idiot Republicans in this country who insulted Muslims everywhere by making an issue of Obama's middle name also deserve a special place in hell for that wonderful contribution.

We need to hang tough in Afghanistan, get other Muslim countries to provide nation builders (are you listening Egypt, Turkey, and Jordan?) and get more help from the EU countries with fighting troops and humanitarian aid. We also need to get Pakistan to start fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban from their side of the border. Pressuring India to give up any claims of influence in Kashmir would be a big step here. An India/Pakistani nuclear agreement, renouncing first use of nukes, freezing construction of nukes, and on-site inspection of nuclear facilities by members of both sides and the U.N. should also be implemented.

[pickwickianmom]

Exactly right.

[bichn]

When the Taliban took Kabul, they immediately forbade girls to go to school. Moreover, women were barred from working outside the home, precipitating a crisis in healthcare and education. Women were also prohibited from leaving their home without a male relative—those that did so risked being beaten, even shot, by officers of the "ministry for the protection of virtue and prevention of vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her fingertips chopped off. All this, according to the Taliban, was to safeguard women and their honor.

Have you been living under a rock? The tactics of the Taliban are well known.

[Ramirez]

The policy of the Taliban is to enforce Islamic law and restrictions, whatever it takes. If maiming schoolgirls serves to enforce religious law the practice of maiming is accepted.

[ReasonBased]

HOW ARE THE CULTURAL RELATIVIST POST-MODERNIST ISLAM APPEASING CHOMSKY-READING CROWD going to spin this to shift the blame away from Islam in particular and religious faith in general?

[wendy31]

This is a horrible crime. I am liberal and have no patience for muslims or islam. And I have no patience for christianity, either. I guess, as someone that's read a lot of Chomsky, I admit, I don't understand your point. In my world view, all religion is bad. AND the plus about having the luck to be born in America now, is i won't get my head cut off for saying that. Although, not too long ago I could have been drowned, hung, beaten, ect. AND, if I'm gay, I'm outta luck. So, yeah, these people are monsters. We're just uncivilized.

[pickwickianmom]

the fact that you are putting the Taliban in the same group with Muslims is exactly what they are tired of. They think Americans hate them and we are against them and they are beginning to wonder what we might do to them.

Go back to Drudge.

[pickwickianmom]

I said it once and I'll say it again:
Drudge.
You have accidentally come to the wrong website.

[ReasonBased]

HOW ARE THE CULTURAL RELATIVIST POST-MODERNIST ISLAM APPEASING CHOMSKY-READING CROWD going to spin this to shift the bame away from Islam in particular and religious faith in general?

[Ramirez]

They are saying that yes this is bad tut tut but look at America!

[ReasonBased]

Well when American Christians start throwing acid at little school girls, then I woudl agree there is moral equivalence. The bottom line is that Christianity has been tamed by the external forces of secularism and the ideas of the enlightenment over the last few hundred years while Islam remains where Christianity was in the 14th century.

[thirtyninesteps]

It's Democracy Time! ™

[deebell]

Let us not forget that one of the worst violator of women's rights is Saudi Arabia, who's ass we kiss because they got the oil.

[MagisterLudi]

And you would do exactly what. Refuse their oil? Give the country to Osa-ma, like he's been wet dreaming in his cave? Overthrow the government?
There are certain limits to what buyers of limited commodity can do to a seller.
Step One: limit purchasing of such commodity, by conservation and alternative fuels. This is were it starts. Any other kind of pressure has to come in private. A--rabs' are particularity sensitive to loss of face.

[RockySoldier]

i was really struck by that defiant stand of her sister, saying 'you will NOT stop us from going to school!'

that's one impressive woman. she is the person american troops are there to assist. believe what you will- the american military is standing with those women.

[MagisterLudi]

YES! Now SHE is a real hero! THIS is the person worthy of all possible help from the West and Afgh-ans themselves. It is for the future of people like that that Tal-ban and the ilk- should be defea-ted and/or marginalized. Northern Alliance A-fghans did it before and can do it again, with the Western assistance.

[RockySoldier]

the militants don't realize that this is the stuff that reinforces the afghans' trust in American soldiers and turns them on the militants. this kind of stuff is not even describable in words. afghans now see us as allies in their fight against oppression and stuff like this just reinforces their belief in our good will.

[MyVesta]

They will tell you whatever you want to hear, as long as you're standing there in your uniform, with your grenades and guns. With the ability to call in a bombing at any given moment, should your feelings be slighted or should you misinterpret anything.

Do you really think they're going to tell you what they really think of your presence? Your occupation?

[RockySoldier]

another gem from someone who's never been there.

go back to your life on the couch, pop-culture revolutionary wannabe.

[sophieozz]

Let's look at the mote in our own Western eye, specifically crimes against women ... rape, harassment, discrimination, human trafficking, etc. It might not involve acid, but it's still hateful behavior.

[Ramirez]

Yes, let's definitely blame America first in times like these.

[sophieozz]

In case you didn't understand what I wrote, I was referring to what goes on within U.S. borders. Let's take care of women's matters at home before we interfere in other countries and cultures.

[innerpeace]

In the west those things are illegal,but legal in most muslim countries.See the difference,now?

[sophieozz]

Of course I see the difference. Did you really need to point that out?

[wendy31]

Agreed

[Melanie226]

Muslim women must bear the responsibility of evoking change in their own countries. Too many times I've heard Muslim women complain about the way their men treat them, yet when the West intervenes, they are outraged. It is always the Muslim women who are the first to defend their faith and culture, and tell Americans that we don't understand their beliefs and practices. Until Muslim women get on the same page and demand that their men treat them better, I say we opt to stay out of their business. I hate to see any women face the terrorism that these girls faced in these attacks, but we can only do so much. Remember, it is the women who circumcize each other in Islamic Africa.

[MyVesta]

"I say we opt to stay out of their business"

I agree. Violent western intervention solves nothing and only exacerbates the situation.

You are right in that the women will automatically side with the oppressor (the men) and not the occupier (the US).

The US foray into Afghanistan has achieved nothing. Sending more troops there will not solve anything.

[Melanie226]

It won't make the lives of the women any better. Look at Iraq. Women's lives were better, believe it or not, under Saddam. He ran a secular Islamic state where women were allowed to be educators, own businesses, hold government office, and now they are murdered on a regular basis for walking on the street without proper headcoverings.

In the areas of Afghanistan where these brutal acts against women are taking place, American or U.N. intervention will not help the lives of these women. They have to help themselves.

[Pema]

A horrible attack, and this country has done gross inhumane things in iraq. youtube has videos of us war crimes. please people looka them and stand up for what is right.

[vtlt8]

Yes. Hopefully the first person you run into kicks your a**.