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

[rzzza]

It's not-or rather it should not be-our responsibility to bring about revolution in other countries. Let the people wage their own revolutions.

We should only get militarily involved in foreign countries via NATO or U.N. coalitions when mass human rights violations such as genocide is occuring.

[rocketman69]

Like darfur?

[gayleg]

So throwing acid at little girls for the crime of going to school is not a massive human rights violation?

Oh, yes it is!

[wendy31]

i would have to argue that what woman and girls go through, throughout the middle east, is/are gross human rights violations. This is just one story.

[pickwickianmom]

What? These groups attacked us! They bombed our buildings! They bombed the London subway. They bombed Madrid. They bombed Thailand. Who haven't they bombed.

We aren't bringing revolution into their country. We are trying to chase down the very nasty and violent Taliban and destroy them.

[Mahi Joe]

Is this the same Taliban that our American taliban john walker associated himself with? Here is a good reminder of why you are in jail.

[balatro]

These criminals are the kind of guys that obama wants to sit down with without preconditions. The dems have been tallking about power sharing with these thugs. That type of appeasement, that took place during the carter era, is what got us into trouble in the first place.

[Littlewords]

uhhh....let's all remember that this is happening on the Bush watch while we allegedly had gained control of the country and placed "our guy" in charge to run things.

So try as you may to link this to Obama statements, this is a current and continued debacle that has been happening for years on the Bush WH watch my friend. Time to get your head on straight!

[MarkInIrvine]

right folks - this is taking place on BUSH's watch and for HIS account.

[rubberstamp]

what an uneducated slogg you are to try and use this atrocity for political banter.
You need to be ashamed.

[shivadas]

I am sure that your care for these Afghan victims is only overshadowed by your constant wailing for the many innocent Iraqi souls lost in shock and awe. I am sure that the bombing of Afghan weddings keeps you from sleeping. I also imagine that you curse the Reps for funding the Tal iban up until right before 911. Quit pretending that you care about the lives over there. Every post you make says that you don't.

[Camm s]

Not true and you are lie!

[Strywever]

More mindless drivel from the low-information sector.

[Gumby123]

It simply amazes me how many Huffposters here defend the Taliban and the creeps who do this to women.

[kdogg]

Who is defending the Taliban? I think you are reading a little too much into these comments.

[Ramirez]

Read the comments. We're on moral equivalency overload.

HuffPoes consider the Taliban to be no worse than Americans.

[Mahi Joe]

I don't think Gumby is even reading the comments. Gumby is just tr0lling is all.

[Ramirez]

Well, the Taliban and the Republicans are enemies and Huffpoes have to pick a side.

[Gumby123]

LOL!

[pickwickianmom]

The Taliban is the enemy of everyone--or they should be.

It's not funny, or boring, or part of a political game against our president. These people want to destroy us.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Are we looking at the same website? I haven't seen anyone *defend* or *excuse* these attacks, or the Taliban and their Wahhabist heresies.

Now if putting things in *perspective* is what you're taking issue with....

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[RockySoldier]

no, you did defend them by somehow equating the afghan women and girls' plight with trite little concerns here in america. you just can' figure that out, can you? you're blind.

[thirtyninesteps]

You're right! Let's overthrow the country!!!

[Mellenbal]

These are the moments when I wish it were possible to airlift women from nations and territories run by inhuman religious fanatics and allow the men left there to go f*ck themselves.

[Mahi Joe]

I could not agree more with you. Seriously, give these women visas to come here and study and get them away from these monsters.

[maryhaze]

all good ideas, but i've got a better one. give them all straight razors & have them geld the sobs! they'll be much easier to handle & make better pets once that is done.

[quiviran]

It's rumored that they already do. Women are for babies and work, men are for fun.

[wendy31]

120% agreed.

[texasrodeoqueen]

I wonder why the USA has taken up this cause of the Afgan and muslim women when just across our own border with Mexico hundreds and hundreds of Mexican girls and women have been murdered as they walk to work at the US maquiladoros? Where is the outrage?
What about the Indonesian women that are sold to sex slavery, or the children who are prostituted by their own parents?
What about the girls in Africa who are routinely circumcized and mutilated so they cannot enjoy sexual pleasure?
I heard Howard Dean discussing the treatment of muslim women and I think this is part of the war propaganda to keep women of the USA engaged in our cause of westerninzing the muslim countries.
Where is the outrage in the USA for all the 3,000 women a year killed by their "loving other"? and then if they are pretty become lurid 24/7 fodder for the cable news networks?

[Ramirez]

We're Americans, not gods. We can't save everyone but we do what we can.

[deepfreezevideo]

Westernizing muslim countries?
Methinks you're suffering from delusions.

[ladyv]

In what way has the USA taken up this cause? Random media outlets randomly reporting about it does not = the USA taking up any cause.

[CologneCitizen]

100 % correct texasrodeoqueen !!!

All these horror stories about the Taliban are probably even true, BUT they remain a smoke screen for American interests in that region. "Westernizing" muslim countries is the most ridiculous effort one could think of. It has destroyed Iraq completely and is responsible to a large extent in bankrupting America. As you write correctly the outrage is a phoney one. With all these economic problems on your home front, the USA should not be the unwanted savior of the worlds problems.

[wendy31]

All of these things are horrible. We should bare witness to it all and not play an either or game with the global suffering of women and children.

[DAdvocate123]

Am I allowed to say that the problem is radical Islam? Is it okay for me to say it. This is a test.

[ltyr2002]

Well, it is true!
Radical religious fundamentalism is a continuing problem, generation after generation.

It is the camoflauge behind which people do all sorts of terrible things. AND you can bet your life that if we just lay down for these pigs, they will simply destroy the world.

[Gumby123]

NO!!!! You are provoking them unneccessarily!

/sarcasm off

[BlackWidowPilot]

Wahhabism, like all radical fundamentalist heresies, is merely religious window dressing covering the bloody beast of authoritarianism.

These attacks on innocent children are in fact a direct violation of the Quran, taliban protestations to the contrary. They are no better than the fanatics that bomb abortion clinics, murder doctors who perform abortions, or whatever other acts of homicide committed in the name of God one could care to name.

Terrorism is the weapon of choice of such creatures, as they cannot otherwise gain political power by honest, nonviolent means, as their entire creed is eternally bankrupt, and any honest human being knows this on sight.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Clavis]

You're right, a doctor who gives a woman a pill that causes a 3-day-old embryo to be flushed from her system is the same as a man who runs up to a 9-year-old girl and throws acid in her face.

Whatever medication you're supposed to be taking, you must have missed your morning pill.

[ladyv]

The problem is with religious radicals. It just so happens that radical Islam contains a huge number of disgruntled, economically disenfranchised, sexually frustrated males under the age of 40.

[vtlt8]

I'm sorry...the thing is it only appears to be Muslims doing this, you know.

[DAdvocate123]

Were the doctors in England or their supporters in Europe "economically disenfranchised?"

[wendy31]

Yes. And I am allowed to say all religion everywhere is not serving humanity well.

[Ramirez]

You are free to say that in Christian countries. In Muslim countries you should mind your tongue or it could be removed.

[lungfish]

God bless them and I wish them all the best. Their attackers are less than common criminals.

This is what happens when draft dodgers and c students and cowards end up in command of armies....

Does anyone here have a guess as to the ratio of legitimate dead enemy warfighters vs the number of dead, innocent civilians killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Is it one to one? or worse?

We can't really know because the Pentagon refuses to keep track of the civilians they kill either directly or indirectly as a result of their actions and decisions. Like Haditha, and Tillman and other examples, they hide the numbers, hide the truth and bury it with the bodies. So we will never know how many civilians that were killed in the assault on Baghdad and the rest of the war...

We wouldn't want anyone to be held accountable, would we??? Heavens no, God forbid.


Mission Accomplished!!!

[rasit]

More power to these courageous girls,,,,

Where is Mr. Karzai??

What is he doing about it??

[lungfish]

He is imploring the Pentagon to stop their killing of civilians and their lying about it because it is undermining his legitimacy (hahahahah, he's a puppet) and effecting his ability to lead and unite his country.

[Mahi Joe]

Last intelligent report stated that approximately 80% of Afghanistan is under Taliban rule. That is not the type of unification we expected huh?

[rzzza]

imagine the mentality it would take, to gather a group of your friends, somehow gather up some acid and throw it at a girl for having the audacity to learn

it's like what slavemasters did to slaves caught reading or something

these are very, very bad people. and i know some people think it's not P.C. to say this but at times like these i want to say...my culture is superior. at least we dont throw acid at people for learning.

[ScooterLiddy]

No. We just drop bombs from a long ways up in the air on wedding parties.

[rzzza]

actually we go out of our way to try and avoid civilian casualties but sometimes stuff happens in war. there cant be zero innocent deaths in war, might as well ask for the soldiers to use nerf guns....ask for no deaths at all in war, let everyone shoot tranqulizer darts.

[ltyr2002]

You're saying our fight aginst the Taliban is equivelent to this? You are truly nuts. These girls are in school BECAUSE we kicked the Taliban out of power.

[wijg]

...And do it in countries that were no threat to us.

[DawnLA]

".my culture is superior. at least we dont throw acid at people for learning."

This in not a culture, it's a bunch insane, evil maniacs. My words are insufficient to describe what these guys are. Whatever culture you are from, trust me, there are atrocities no one wants to discuss. No culture is immune to the insanity of evil.

[Maniza]

It was the Christmas season of 2002 was it not--when CNN and Fox News and such regaled us with the stories of three young little girls Talibanized in Afghanistan? A documentary produced by Sara something or the other. Over and over again it played--leading us all to believe that the Marines were in Afghanistan to save little girls and women from the Taliban. And of course that story about those two American evanglesiet missionary women--all perfect teech and freckles---captured by the Taliban, who burned their scarves so that the flame from that fire would help their marine rescurers locate them.

Now there is to be a troop increase in Afghanistan by 30,000...

Will we question it no way!!! There are girls to be saved. Were they saved in the six years that followed. Who cares!! They were on TV.

[magnolialiberal]

I was also wondering where they get the acid. This is so sad. Surely there are more important things to spend time and money on.

[billbb]

They fear education because educated people cannot be easily controlled.

But enough about the Republicans, let's talk about the Taliban...

[dogman44]

That's why liberals are so hard to lead. They ask to many questions and refuse to walk
in lock step with dogma and ideology.

[widowcapet]

Acid is readily available in Pakistan, India, Iran, and of course Afghanistan.

It really boils down to how the society view women. One word: property.

And it isn't just the men at fault, women, particularly older women who have finally gained some power through their sons, are at the front shortchanging their daughters and abusing daughter-in-laws. Even mothers (and fathers) who genuinely love their daughters are the first to destroy the future and the happiness of their girls for honor, for family, and for survival.

[RTIII]

batteries - car & truck batteries...
.

[dogman44]

Hippie drug dealers man!

[nastywolf]

This will continue to be a tragic problem for Afghan women until Afghan men begin waking up with their throats cut. At that time, Afghan men will whole heartedly embrace cultural change.

[rubberstamp]

Don't worry, Afghan men have been dying by the truck load for more than 30 years.

[billbb]

Not dead, because the dead cannot learn from their mistakes.

A friend of mine who was married to a Filipino went very stupid once, and came home smelling of bad whiskey and cheap perfume. He woke up to find that he had no hair. By no hair, I mean none at all, not even places where he wouldn't normally shave. Not even eyebrows.

He and his wife are still married, and he never screwed up again.

[turfkiller]

is this no different than those who would ban access to safe abortions or even birth control?

[RockySoldier]

you have claimed a new level of dumb.

[hungariangirl]

No Rocky, you are the dumb one. In Afghanistan these girls have to fight for learning, here we have to fight for our bodies. There is a connection there. You just have to think a little bit. That is all.

[turfkiller]

So you don't know what happened to women in this country when at one time ALL States banned abortions for religious reasons?

[StonedThrower]

Yes, this is different.

[widowcapet]

What do you call someone, of age and sound mind, who cannot make decisions on what happens to their bodies or have no control over their future?

In antebellum US: slaves and freewomen
In US today: women with pharmacists, doctors, evangelicals, and politicians that decide they have a right to make decisions about her uterus, her vagina, her ovaries, and her f**** body.

[Ramirez]

I would say yes, but you should really ask that question to a woman with acid burns.

[turfkiller]

How, they like the extremists here are acting in accordance with their learned religious beliefs?

[turfkiller]

Acid or abortion isn't the question, how are those who throw acid for religious beliefs any different than those who would ban access to safer abortions for religious beliefs?

[abigail1]

what an astounding level of self importance and self obsession it takes to ask that question. Is it impossible for you to learn of things happening to other people in other places and not compare it to something entirely unrelated that effects you?

[RockySoldier]

awesome! you've intimated my thoughts perfectly. well done.

[turfkiller]

I am certain that those who defaced these girls feel exactly the same way as you may about your Bible. Abortion is banned in some areas of the world and the death and disfigurement is no less awful. Yes, like the thugs throwing acid on others, you would have others harmed for your religious beliefs. So how are you any different?

[MyVesta]

Out of the billions and billions of dollars spent in Afghanistan, countless lives lost, and yet this sort of brutality continues unabated.

Yes, fantastic progress being made in Afghanistan.

[Horus]

If you don't think progress is being made then you didn't see the acid attacks last year! Woooo!

[RockySoldier]

uh, yeah, this never happened until those awful american soldiers got there. afghanistan was a peaceful paradise where women were respected until those awful, awful brutish american soldiers just ruined everything.

you people never cease to amaze me. like, if we just pulled all of our troops out, these taliban cretons would just stop throwing acid on women. do you have any idea how many afghans laud US troops on a DAILY basis? it's one of the few countries in the world that actually LIKE us right now. the women and children don't want us to leave. they're scared to death what would happen to their futures if we just quit and left. you don't have to support bush and his stupidity in order to support what we're doing in afghanistan. we truly are helping those people. if you think differently, you simply haven't been there.

cue the reactionary-hard-left-anti-american-soldier drivel.... now.

[CalvinistHobbesian]

No, but things were moderately better before we financed and trained the Wahabists to enable them to drive out the Soviets and then did nothing to moderate them when the took power.

[MyVesta]

Uh, actually, my point was that this war has been completely IN VAIN.

The US, like the Soviets, is unable to break the primative mindset of Afghanistan.

It's a pity for the women of Afghanistan that the Soviets didn't succeed. At least, the Soviets built schools, roads, hospitals, etc. and for a short while, women were treated well. That all changed when the US started backing the Taliban in an effort to defeat the Soviets. And now the US fights the Taliban! It's preposterous.

And, yes, I HAVE been there. Not as a US soldier. I lived in Central Asia for several years, travelled around a lot for work.

[zippywpinhead]

I didn't see anything reactionary or anti soldier in that post. In fact, I saw no call to pull our troops, either. For that matter, I saw no claim that these atrocities did not happen before our troops were there, but rather the opposite- that this sort of thing was going on before and continues now.

If you can't debate someone's post as written, you don't get to make up your own strawman to knock down- that's rather disingenuous. That post was an indictment upon the leadership at the top that completely bungled and ineptly executed the mission, not a slam against the brave soldiers charged with carrying out the flawed mission.

Perhaps if the hard right reactionary faux patriots who cheered on GWB and failed to hold him accountable when it soon became obvious that he was an utterly incompetent CinC hadn't held sway all theses years, perhaps if we actually had a leader that didn't seem to suffer from the political equivalent of ADHD, as well a a distinct lack of morals and an inability to put logic and reason ahead of blind ideology, we'd have gotten far more bang for our (billions of) buck and countless lost lives. Instead we have very little to show for it all.