Rethink Afghanistan: Women's Rights Have Barely Improved (VIDEO)

The lives of Afghan women have improved only superficially since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, according to Afghan women and human rights experts appearing in the latest volume of the documentary series, Rethink Afghanistan.

Supporters of continued war in Afghanistan often cite an improvement in women's rights as one victory, but the film makes the case that the gains have been minimal. For example, the presence of women in the Afghan parliament is more than offset by the rise in Islamic fundamentalism since the Western occupation. Just as importantly, the sustained bombing campaign has widowed many Afghan women, leaving them to fend for themselves or their families with few options, and prostitution on the rise.

WATCH:

Comments

[lkhstar]

07:08 PM on 07/08/2009

I have a hard time swallowing arguments that we have made things enormously better in this country. "The notion that fundamentalism is INCREASING in Afghanistan, when prior to our arrival the government itself was already Taliban-run, and now there is a parliamentary democracy where all, including women, can vote and hold office (and do), is laughable" Yes it's great that in Kabul there are women holding office and speaking to the media but this is such a tiny percentage of the population; the truth is that outside of the city things have not improved at all and there is much more danger now for women and children. The point isn't that fundamentalism is increasing; it's that fundamentalist attitudes and mistreatment towards women hasn't gone away. Things have NOT changed outside of the city. Conditions are worse because we are forcing these women into prostitution when we kill their husbands and putting them in danger by creating conditions where they are exposed to roaming militant groups that do rape, pillage and plunder.

[wgsalter]

07:43 AM on 07/09/2009

So what's your solution for "roaming militant groups that ..rape, pillage and plunder"? Sensitivity classes? They must be DEFEATED, which usually means KILLED. In most cases, that leads to widowhood, as many of those men are married. But to say we mustn't make widows of these women, because it sometimes leads to prostitution, is logically analogous to saying we mustn't kill those nice southern boys, because without masters whatever will those poor blacks do? There's a movie coming out about the women left in Berlin after the defeat of the Nazis by the Soviets. To be sure, their situation was desparate, but does that mean the Nazis shouldn't have been defeated? Yes war is ugly, cruel and profoundly disruptive, but you need to offer not just a critique; propose and ALTERNATIVE to fighting the Taliban. Because if they get back in, what's going on now will look like a picnic.

[zbjordan23]

03:22 PM on 07/08/2009

Didn't karzai pull this law back??...this whole point is mute is it not?

[Anna Almendrala]

04:45 PM on 07/08/2009

It's not about just the rape laws - women now have to deal with living in a war zone on top of the other restrictions and impositions they have on their lives. We need to seriously question the assumption that this war was waged for, and this occupation is accomplishing, the liberation of Afghan women.

[pcruess44]

05:28 PM on 07/08/2009

The law is just an example. Things are real bad for Afghan women right now, and we are not making it better.

[RJII]

02:46 PM on 07/08/2009

tell it to Bush and friends at Faux News.

[longtimegone]

02:09 PM on 07/08/2009

We're engaged in geo-political chess with the Russians, Chinese and Iranians over access and control of the Caspian oil reserves. The War on Terror and the pretense of liberating Muslim women are mere cover stories to rally the American populace behind the war effort. We helped create and support the Taliban and al Qaida, beginning under the Carter administration, as means toward that same end: forcing the Soviets out and putting a "stable" government in power by force of arms (the Taliban) with whom we could "negotiate" a pipeline deal. This push into Afghanistan will have the same level of success as those brilliant efforts.

[jsgaetano]

01:30 PM on 07/08/2009

You mean Bush spent trillions of dollars on two wars, and accomplished less than nothing?

Shocking!

[wgsalter]

12:03 PM on 07/08/2009

This is another tendentious argument that because there is suffering - any suffering - in the world, then it must be because of US actions. The notion that fundamentalism is INCREASING in Afghanistan, when prior to our arrival the government itself was already Taliban-run, and now there is a parliamentary democracy where all, including women, can vote and hold office (and do), is laughable. The very ability to show their faces, let alone speak to men not their husbands, in this video - WITHOUT BEING ROUNDED INTO A STADIUM AND GETTING A BULLET IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD - is all the rebuttal required. Remember, the prior Taiban government actually blasted ancient buddhist sculptires from mountainsides because they were so "sensitive" to non-islamic influences. That is NOT the Afghanistan of today. The United States should be very proud of its actions there, which not only toppled one of the most repressive regimes imaginable, but established a constitutional democracy consistent with Afghan legal tradition (loya jirga), and sufficiently reconciled ancient tribal/cultural rivalries to allow the creation of a true national government. Afghans still have poverty, corruption and other problems. So what? They did before we arrived and will after we have left, just as every other nation. But our presence has been an ENORMOUS benefit to the country and its people.

[pcruess44]

01:34 PM on 07/08/2009

Unless your email is coming directly from the Pashtun South of Afghanistan, then I will assume you know as much about the situation as you have heard or read from US or Afghan govt. sources. There is much more. Listen to what the Afghan women are saying. They only want whats best for women. Give them a chance.

[valkyrie607]

11:40 AM on 07/08/2009

EDIT: Who would have thought that bringing war, violence, and destruction into the lives of Afghan women would have a less than positive effect on their lives?

[valkyrie607]

11:38 AM on 07/08/2009

What? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to think that the main motivating factor in the US invasion of Afghanistan was not a pure and altruistic concern for women's rights.

Who could have thought that bringing more war, violence, and destruction into the live would have a less than positive effect on their lives? (Hint: probably the same people who thought that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators.)

[Userpk]

10:38 AM on 07/08/2009

Bo failed

[mlmn08]

10:23 AM on 07/08/2009

We cannot wave a magic wand for these women. They must stand and fight like the women in Iran that have stood toe to toe with the enemy. They have more power than they will ever know.

[valkyrie607]

11:36 AM on 07/08/2009

I know of a magic wand we can wave: GET THE FRACK OUT, so they can go back to living normal lives.

Condescend much, Mr. Insensitive?

[maddogger]

03:03 PM on 07/08/2009

Go to the website for RAWA and see what actual Afghan women have to say about what would improve their lives. Yes, mlmn08, these women are and have been standing up for their rights - just like their sisters in Iran. Only they have to stand up to fundamentalist oppression with US bombs raining down on their heads and US bullets killing their husbands, children, friends and neighbors.

[didntvote4thedude]

10:11 AM on 07/08/2009

Cousin BO will help ya.

[chriss0114]

11:35 AM on 07/08/2009

from your comment it seems you probably shouldn't be voting much less attempting adult conversation

[SarcastroBO]

09:42 AM on 07/08/2009

Wait, there has been MORE fundamentalism in Afghanistan since we invaded? I am not a fan of this war or war in general, but is it true that pushing the Taliban out of power in a significant portion of Afghanistan caused a rise in religious fundamentalism? I thought those guys were the kings of rigid ideological fundamentalism.

[andyg]

10:13 AM on 07/08/2009

Since the Taliban were a fundamentalism goverment, who supported stoning people to death, I not sure where this video and your comment is coming from.

[IsyFleur]

11:27 AM on 07/08/2009

You not sure because you ignorant.

[maddogger]

03:02 PM on 07/08/2009

Most Afghans are anti-Taliban and anti-military occupation. And not surprisingly, most countries resent occupation by foreign troops for any reason. (And what, again, is the reason we are in Afghanistan? Please don't say it's because we care about women's rights! We care about access to the natural gas and oil reserves in the former Soviet Union.) Right now US policies are playing into the hands of the Taliban. The presence of our troops and the destruction and displacement (and death, maiming and mass starvation) caused by US bombing are the Taliban's greatest allies in once again seizing political control of the Afghan government. US aid is support government corruption on an unprecendented scale. 3M plus US drug users are funding the Taliban with their heroin and opiate addictions. (The Taliban were anti-opium production when in power. Out of power, it is an endless and highly lucrative source of funds for guns and bombs to fight us. ) When Russia went to war in Afghanistan did they do it to 'free' the women? In the 1980s, did the support the US gave the Taliban and other aggressively anti-women's rights fundamentalist groups fighting the Russians show we cared about women's rights?