Differing opinions among Afghan-Americans about US occupation.
Amena Chenzaie, a 34-year-old World Bank employee whose parents moved to the D.C. area from Afghanistan when she was six, is grateful to American troops for saving Afghan women from the Taliban. “From an Afghan-American woman’s perspective, I support Obama sending more troops over there at this time… I can’t even find a word to describe the condition of women living under the Taliban — the curfews, the abuse. The women are prospering now.”
But Sonali Kolhatkar, co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission in Pasadena, CA, says the war and the lawlessness in her native country are making life even worse for women than they were under the Taliban.
The differences may have to do – in part – with ethnicity and regional focus. Non-Pashtun populations who suffered under the Taliban’s coercive ‘reIslamization” policies are likely quite happy, especially the women since they were targeted. But Pashtuns who enjoyed the privileges that came with having their own ethnic militia rule the whole country, may be less happy with the turn of events.
cbarwa 9:35 am on December 20, 2009 Permalink |
Yes, also given the extremely low base for most women in Afghanistan, it will reflect class backgrounds as well; middle-class professionals would have been the worst affected and most opposed to the Taliban policies. Though the current govt isn’t all that great either, it is forced to act on womens’ policies because of international scrutiny and funding. But the views of some like the Chief Justice on the Supreme Court and the legal changes, leave much to be desired.
manas 7:21 pm on December 20, 2009 Permalink |
Women’s condition improved under occupation? That’s not true.
Tariq Ali sums it up well. So does Malalai Joya, who is largely being ignored by the US media, because, it turns out, she is quite independent and has her own opinion. Not for sale, in more crude terms.
cbarwa 11:10 pm on December 20, 2009 Permalink |
Well, some of the more restrictive barriers have been lifted, that allow women to be seen and the formal bans on things like education and healthcare outside the home have been rescinded – to what degree they are actually happening on the ground is debatable. Proponents of the this view, usually cite the increased enrollment and attendance of girls in schools and fall in maternal mortality rates as signs of improvement, but there are some problems with the figures and how accurate they are.
abunoor 11:50 pm on December 20, 2009 Permalink |
Yeah, I wonder if Malalai Joya will start to get more attention. I see she has a book which seems to be doing fairly well on Amazon.
Side question: The blurb for the book starts off “One of the few women…to win a seat in Afghanistan’s Parliament” but I thought the Afghan Constitution reserved 25 percent of the seats in Parliament for women. (women currently make up 17 percent of the U.S. congress)
cbarwa 4:24 am on December 21, 2009 Permalink |
Constitutionally 50% of these are/can be directly appointed by the President, I would imagine that elected women representatives would be relatively rarer but I haven’t seen the figures.
kombi tamiri 4:25 am on January 6, 2010 Permalink |
Thanks for article and share.