I am getting very tired of hearing the naysayers repeat the familiar and lazy chorus that the culture of oppression in Afghanistan “will never change”. These same naysayers like to question whether we in the west have any business “exporting” our values and “imposing” them on a foreign land.
These arguments provide a convenient way to help justify pulling out of Afghanistan, turning our backs on a country that has demonstrated a real desire to join the ranks of free and democratic countries.
I do agree that change must come about from a desire within Afghanistan, and it’s apparent that this desire is very much alive and well:
When I lived in Kabul, women simply did not rise up, take to the streets, and mount brave demonstrations. Hell no. Wealthy women wore decorous long headscarves, long coats, and gloves, and were driven around by chauffeurs in expensive European cars. Poor women wore the full burq’a and were forced to sit separately from men on public buses; they were also kicked to the back of the line in the bazaar when the male servants of wealthy families came to make their purchases. Occasionally, if a country girl or woman was out working or walking and a male non-relative chanced by, she would swiftly, shyly turn her face away and simultaneously cover it with her headscarf. This was a practiced, perhaps terrified motion.
Imagine my joy today, nearly fifty years later, when I read that Afghan women just took to the streets to protest a new law which legalizes rape within marriage, requires a husband’s permission in order for his wife to be able to work, and requires wives to “dress” as their husbands desire.
Source: Phyllis Chesler, April 16th, 2009
