A topic that has been percolating in the news forthe past few months has now come to a head; a proposal to have the Afghanistangovernment meet with Taliban leaders to work out a peace agreement to stop theviolence in Afghanistan. This morning, a news report on NPR brought adisturbing trend in the peace talk preparation to light; that women’s rightsare possibly being ignored for the sake of an expedient deal.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128493070
The article, albeit brief, mentions that Afghanwomen’s rights and protections that they enjoy under the constitution ofAfghanistan are likely being ignored or are being bargained away as PresidentHamid Karzai plans to meet with the most militant and radical members of theAfghan Taliban. Let’s not forget the atrocitiescommitted against women while the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to2001. New stories are replete withstories about victims in Afghanistan regions where Taliban insurgents are incontrol. For example, in 2008, Talibanmilitants sprayed acid on the faces of Afghan girls who were on their way toschool. These types of attacks aredesigned to intimidate and demoralize the women of Afghanistan so that theycomply with the notions of the most radical members of the Taliban. Would you really trust these same peopleunless there were strong provisions in any agreement that protected the rightsof women? So far, these provisions seemto be lacking.
Coupled with the problems inherent to the internalpeace talks, is a perceived decreased involvement of the United States andEuropean member states in said peace talks. In fact one reporter, commenting on the United States’ decreased roleand Pakistan’s increased involvement, stated something to the fact that itmight be politically good if the United States had a decreased role in thepeace negotiation so President Obama isn’t perceived as the President whonegotiated with the Taliban. This wouldbe a regrettable event if it were to actually take place. If the United States were to extractthemselves from the peace process, then at best, a strong voice for women’sright will have been lost. At worst,women in Afghanistan will return to their second class citizen status and livein fear under oppressive rule. As Fawzia Kufi, a member of the Afghanparliament stated “”It’s always easy to forget women, because they don’thave weapons, they can’t fight. That’s an easy compromise.” I hope the United States and other members ofthe coalition in Afghanistan remain engaged and do not compromise for the sakeof an expedient withdrawal.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 7:19 am and is filed under Culture Forum Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.