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TechnoratiAfghan Evils Ignored at Our Peril
It was only after weeks of international outrage that Canada's House of Commons, in response to a motion sponsored by NDP leader Jack Layton, unanimously voted on Monday to condemn a death sentence faced by an Afghan journalist.
About time, too, although the Harper government still hasn't had much to say about the case, at least not for the record.
Why has it not been pounding on Afghan President Hamid Karzai's desk?
Why has it not led the world's protests?
Where is the accountability for Canadian blood and treasure?
I am sure I am not the only Canadian who would like to know why our troops are getting blown up to prop up a regime that has, despite fine words in its new constitution, no regard for women's rights - or the ability of journalists to discuss how the prophet Mohammed regarded women.
That's because, in Afghanistan, even long after the Taliban was toppled from power, if you suggest that women should be equal to men, you might as well book a cell on death row.
That's where Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh is.
Last Oct. 27, the 23-year-old journalist was arrested in the northern province of Balkh on charges of "blasphemy" and "disseminating defamatory comments about Islam."
His crime?
Downloading a document from an Iranian website that deconstructs what the Koran says about marriage - and argues that Muslim fundamentalists who promote the inequality of the sexes misrepresent the teachings of the prophet.
On Jan. 22, in a closed courtroom and without legal representation, Kambakhsh was sentenced to death - although there is speculation that he is a mere proxy for his brother, also a journalist, who has written hard-hitting critiques of the government.
Well, it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Because I'm not so sure any more.
If journalists cannot freely do their jobs or discuss oppression of women without suffering persecution by the state - Afghanistan's upper house approved the death sentence for insulting Islam - then it doesn't matter how many tanks we throw in there. The "mission'' is a failure and our troops are being killed for nothing.
Despite all the la-di-da words about building schools and restoring infrastructure, the truth of the matter is, say international aid organizations, women continue to suffer mightily in Afghanistan. And if women suffer, children suffer. And the violence will never end.
"In 2007 more women killed themselves in Afghanistan than ever before - that shows that the situation hasn't got any better," wrote Malalai Joya in The Independent last week.
She's an Afghan MP suspended from Parliament because she has criticized her fellow delegates, calling them "mafia" and worse. But who can blame her?
"The murder of women in Afghanistan is like the killing of birds, because this government is anti-women," she continued. "Women are vulnerable - recently a 22-year-old woman was raped in front of her children by 15 local commanders of a fundamentalist party, closely connected to the government. The commanders then urinated in the face of the children. These things happen frequently."
According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, the level of domestic violence against women has not abated, forced marriages continue and, every 30 minutes, a woman dies in childbirth.
Long before Sept. 11, 2001, women in the West, notably Toronto journalist Sally Armstrong, tried to direct the west's attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan. They could see the evils being perpetrated there while the rest of the world turned its back, didn't want to know and didn't care.
We turn our backs again at our peril. Women are like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine. If they are keeling over, then you can bet a nasty explosion will happen soon.
Antonia Zerbisias is a Living section columnist. She blogs at thestar.blogs.com.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
18 Comments so far
Show All" Well, it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? "
Corporate imperialism, oil and gas pipelines and military industrial profits.
It is incredible that a journalist who is apparently literate can write an article that assumes the U.S., Canada and Nato are in Afghanistan to promote women's liberation !
The Bush administration gave the Taliban $43 million in 2001, prior to 911, knowing women were being oppressed and that Bin Laden was up to no good. Duh ! UNOCAL wanted to build pipelines just like they did in Burma including death and human rights violations.
So after $Billions spent bombing civilians and the Taliban, Bush props up another repressive regime with Karzai who was formerly a representative for Unocal.
But don't worry, UNOCAL is now part of Chevron and Condy will make sure women's rights are protected ! Gee, they might put Condy's name once again on a Chevron oil tanker after she leaves the Whitehouse.
If "it doesnn't matter how many tanks we throw in there" the "mission is a failure" well...Hello, tanks don't change cultures.
How Islamic countries treat women is one subject.
The failed American/Nato occupation of Afghanistan is another one entirely.
Now if we'd gone in and built mosques, water purification plants, schools, hospitals, health clinics and heavily funded Centers for the Advancement of Women's Rights, this would help women.
InshaAllah
If anyone has studied, or read, the history of the prophet, Mohamed, they will have noted that his wife was a rich business woman who did not hand control of it to him, but did her business apart from him. He had his own business which was to liberate his people from the oppressive elite classes that were enslaving the people. Much like the Jesus, whom the Muslims believe was also a prophet, he was a subversive who fought for the disenfranchised of his time. In fact, he actually cited the Jesus sometimes (Mohamed arrived on the scene some six hundred years later than Jesus).
According to historical records, Mohamed even repaired his own garments when they were torn and sewed his own buttons because he did not believe that anyone else was responsible for providing for his personal needs; once again, much like the Jesus. Having learnt this history, I really don't think that Mohamed, the Islamic prophet, would have much approved of the Afghani ruling in this case. Just because both the interpreters of the Bible and the Koran have, in the intervening eras, twisted the words to agree with their own agendas, does not mean that history is wrong. It means that women should be held as equals as both Jesus and Mohamed intended.
Our North American/European intervention into the affairs of the Middle East have not provided succour to the women of those parts, nor the men and children. Indeed, the completely illegal invasion of Iraq by the US has put the secular women in that country back under the veil and incarcerated in their own homes (those who have not fled the country).
This war is about US control of a "strategic area" (Central and South Asia) and the military encirclement of Russia and China.
pcsmith February 6th, 2008 4:40 pm Said : "I'm pretty sure the only reason we're in Afghanistan is to make sure that oil pipeline gets built…"
That's it EXACTLY. Has nothing to do with democracy, or human rights, or anything like that. It's ALL about Unical getting their oil pipeline. The US tried negotiating with the Taliban regarding the pipeline but the US didn't like the terms outlined by them, so they threatened them... they didn't back down and lo and behold, we have a war... They even offered to turn over Osama TWICE but the US said no thanks. The excuse of "bringing democracy" doesn't hold any water either when you look to some of the US 'friends' like Saudi Arabia... or Indonesia under Suharto, or... The list goes on and on.
GreenViews, well sai\d
Good old Sharia law. The problem is, do we support a government that does or wants to implement it- Afghanistan, PLO, Hamas, Saudi, Sudan,Libya, Iran, parts of Nigeria?
I'm pretty sure the only reason we're in Afghanistan is to make sure that oil pipeline gets built...
The Occupation of the Middle East by Anglo-American forces has nothing to do with liberation or democracy.
hmmmmmmmmm
AND it took you SEVEN years to discover that the "liberation" of Afghanistan didn't liberate women!
....slow aren't we!!!
You, rabble, taxpayer... you will pay for this occupation whether it works or not. We've shoved all the risks of the adventure upon you. Do you have a problem with this?
The report that his crime involved "downloading a document from an IRANIAN website that deconstructs what the Koran says about marriage - and argues that Muslim fundamentalists who promote the inequality of the sexes misrepresent the teachings of the prophet" is an interesting discord from the usual media portrayal of Iran's suppression of free thought.
dbcsez thats because part of the 935 lies the administration said about Iraq 99% of them were that Sadaam did 911.
Just to be clear the Afghan people had nothing to do with 911. They were the first victims of Taliban terrorism and continue to be the victims of the fundamentalists.
Hey, Zerb, good to see you here again. At least the mainstream press in Canada is paying attention to the mess if Afghanistan. Here in the US it's "Afghana Who?" It's too easy to think that what happens there has no effect on our daily lives here. But 11 September occurred because of what was happening in that part of the world.
This news flash just in. Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh has mysteriouly vanished from his death row cell and U. S. President George W. Bush has appeared there in his stead. "I just finished reading "A Tale of Two Cities," said Bush, "and I knew this was the right thing to do."
..."liberate", of course, being a euphemism for "steal".
As long as "blasphemy" remains a capital crime in areas that we "liberate", the freedom that Bush told us would be "on the march" has not yet marched in.
Only further evidence that the war being waged by the West in Afghanistan has nothing to do with women's rights or democracy, never did and never will.