As long as the United States was occupying Afghanistan, nobody seemed to care about the fact that women were getting stoned to death and were still forced to wear burqas in most of the country. Now the Taliban are back in charge and suddenly the plight of Afghan women is important again.
Oh My God Afghan Women
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I am reminded of George Carlin’s observation, “I’ve noticed that most of these feminists are white, middle-class women. They don’t give a shit about black women’s problems. They don’t care about Latino women. All they’re interested in is their own reproductive freedom and their pocketbooks.” As appalling as the pretend-feminists have been on this issue, the wikipedia entry for bacha bazi is even more appalling.
Not to mention that, when Afghanistan had a secular government strongly committed to giving women equal status in society (from the late 70’s through the early 90’s), the US financed and armed the guys who wanted to put the women back in burqas……just as the British did in the 1930’s.
If Afghanistan chases out the Taliban (assuming the majority of Afghanistan actually wants them out; you don’t retake a country as quickly as the Taliban did without something like tacit approval), the women will be the main force behind it.
Two thoughts:
From the penultimate lines of Kipling’s “Young British Soldier”:
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
From an episode of “The Flintstones”:
Wilma is chopping something with a big cleaver with a loose handle. As she heaves back with it, it goes flying out of her hands and narrowly misses Fred (who has just gotten life insurance). Fred tells Barney his suspicions about how she’s trying to kill him. Barney replies that Wilma’s no dope. She wouldn’t do something obvious like a cleaver. “If she wanted to get rid of you, she’d do something safe like putting bug spray in your soup.”
I hope all those Taliban warriors know their way around a can opener and can sleep with one eye open.