Afghan women's rights activist slain (by Taliban)

[Coventina]

Source: Toronto Star

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan–A female provincial official known for fighting for women's rights was gunned down in southern Afghanistan yesterday, following a day of fighting in the region that left 22 militants dead, officials said.

A Taliban spokesperson, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Gunmen killed Sitara Achakzai outside her home in Kandahar city and then drove off, said Matiullah Khan Qateh, police chief of Kandahar province. He said the four men drove up on two motorcycles and shot Achakzai as she was getting out of her car.

Achakzai, a dual German-Afghan citizen, spent the years of Taliban rule in Germany and returned to her native country to fight for women's rights, said Shahida Bibi, a member of the Kandahar women's association who worked with Achakzai.

A member of Kandahar's provincial council, Achakzai was vocal in encouraging women to take jobs and fight for equal rights, Bibi said.



Read more: http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/617452

[Taverner]

1. Sigh - if we could just airlift all the Afghani Women to the US

And let the men club each other to death, all would be good

[ensho]

2. agree, but since that won't happen lets go after the religiously insane leaders

get rid of them and the women can take it from there and fix things.


I mourn this woman they killed.

[ShortnFiery]

23. "The Women" of Afghanistan would rather that "The Invaders" leave their country and let THEM

take care of the rest.

We have NO RIGHT to occupy this sovereign country. Regroup in areas close, so we can go back in for surgical strikes IF NECESSARY. *

[ohio2007]

33. Regroup in areas close ?

so we can go back in for surgical strikes IF NECESSARY ?

Where are those areas that are close ?

[get the red out]

39. Yea let's let them take care of it

And we can applaud their wonderful culture as they suffer and die. Oh, what a sweet culture to study, the wonderful way their women get beaten and raped for leaving the home. Oh look! Some silly girl set herself on fire because she had been raped by the old man that bought her for some poppy seed since she was eight, why ever would she do that? Surely he had stretched her out enough with his abuse by 14 that she only had to put up with the constant beatings while pregnant with her 4th child? Only the beatings now that the rapes had become less painful. If only she had been decent enough to give him a son right away, stupid girl must not have favor with Allah if she couldn't menstruate early enough for him to get her pregnant by nine. He will just have to buy a better model next time. Maybe that 7 year old down the street, bet she would bleed well in the bed for the first several years. Of course if it stops hurting he needs to beat the shit out of her to get the proper Muslim male satisfaction of misery.

Any fucker that wants to just "leave that world for the women to take care of" is a fucking pice of shit. Of course since it isn't western, many liberal men have a secret lust for it and would defend it to the death. Liberal men in this country lust after what that FLDS cult does to women, they won't defend those girls either right here in the US. I am fast loosing faith with liberals, and I despise those wretched conservatives.

[cagesoulman]

3. Motherf*ckers

Sucks.

[saigon68]

14. Yes our puppet "Ther Mayor of Kabul" really has a

handle on the whole thing

[subsuelo]

18. Only on what's important

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2608713.stm

[get the red out]

4. I hate these men

I really, really hate these men in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I hate these bastards so much. I wish we could rescue the women and let the damn men just kill each other. A person would be better off dead than living as they make their women live. The world would be a better place if we had just left Afghanistan to the Russians, they have the stomaches to change those bastards no matter how many they have to kill, and it wouldn't phase me a bit to see the men of these cultures meet their fucking GAWD now!!!!!!

But good liberals know that women's rights are an old issue of the past and we can't let them interfere with our slobbery love for all non-Western "civilizations" and our desire to preserve them and stroke them as the noble savages they are. Oh, those sweet tribal dudes, we just have to help them! Isn't it interesting how they treat their wives, oh and what an interesting cultural concept, marrying and fucking 8 year olds, I wonder if we can get that on film to teach at the university??????? How enlightening to see such wondrous ancient civilizations at work!

[bitchkitty]

5. Russia pulled out of Afghanistan. n/t

[JVS]

8. Only after we heavily armed the taliban

[scrinmaster]

26. The Taliban didn't form until 1994.

The US supported the Mujaheddin against the Soviet Union, the Taliban was formed to oppose the corruption in Afghanistan.

[ohio2007]

34. thats because they had to "deal" with the other tribal groups that were also

given aid to fight the Soviets.

Might makes right and they ruled the igh desert wastelands with an "enlightened" fist.

[get the red out]

10. Osama Bin Laden

Heard of him? We gave him major fire power to fight the Russians. Nice.

[ShortnFiery]

24. It's time for the Great USA War Machine follow the Russians before we GO BROKE - morally/financially

[Runcible Spoon]

44. I think your heart is in the right place...

but creating more widows and orphans and bombing what little infrastructure there is, is NOT going to create an environment where tribalistic cultures like those in Afghanistan are going to suddenly rise up and create a fair and equitable society.

Also, I really don't think there are a whole lot of idealistic hippie liberals singing kumbaya and dancing around campfires in honor of the "noble savages" in Afghanistan. Those tropes are traditionally used to refer to "uncivilized" groups indigenous to "wild, untouched" and thus unspoiled and spiritually naive and pure in areas like the Amazon rainforest and historically all throughout Latin America. Afghanistan has a long history as a "civilization".

[Blandocyte]

6. We tried to bomb them back to the stone age

but they were already there. How about we just take the billions we'd spend on bullets and bombs and put it in bank accounts for the women? That'd change the relationship dynamics in that country.

[Bragi]

7. This war will end badly

Women will not be free, Islamic medevilists will continue in power, illiteracy and poverty will rule.

So how many dead troops do we want sent back home before we leave?

- B

[get the red out]

11. It ended badly

before it began. I hate these Afghan MEN!

[Turborama]

13. The Taliban were/are accepted because they provide "security", we need to provide an alternative

Freelance Afghan-American journalist Fariba Nawa expands on how Afghan citizens view American intervention in Afghanistan. She says many support US presence, though some "actually prefer the Taliban to what they have right now because they did secure the country."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21MmXxB81oU

-----

Are U.S. efforts in Afghanistan doomed for failure, or is there the potential for success? Experts reveal what may lie ahead.

Will the Afghanistan war become a repeat of the crisis in Iraq? Obama has already pledged to send more troops into Afghanistan and is now in the midst of hearing from military commanders and advisors about how best to proceed. You'll be paying for the war; wouldn't you like to know why?

Listen to an insightful discussion with experts on Afghan politics, society and culture and the implications of U.S. foreign policies. -- Commonwealth Club of California: http://fora.tv/2009/03/23/Afghanistan_The_New_Iraq

Fariba Nawa, an award-winning Afghan-American journalist, has made her selected work available on this site. She covers a range of issues and specializes in immigrant and Muslim communities in the United States and abroad. She is a correspondent based in the San Francisco Bay Area but frequently travels to the Middle East and South Asia. She lived and reported from Afghanistan from 2002 to 2007, witness to the US-led war against the Taliban and al Qaeda. She has a master's in Middle Eastern studies and journalism and speaks Persian and Arabic. This collection of news articles, essays, radio reports and academic work include coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, Muslim women's struggles and some pieces from her earlier reports on crime and criminal justice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Times of London, Newsday, Mother Jones, The Village Voice, The Christian Science Monitor and other publications. She also reports for radio, including National Public Radio (NPR). Her essays have been published in two books, March to War and Women for Afghan Women. She's a speaker on Middle East and South Asian issues and has participated in talks at the World Affairs Council, major universities and has been interviewed by major television and radio networks. She is currently in the Bay Area working on a project about reconstruction and the drug trade in Afghanistan.

-- ---- --

The key phrase here is "secure the country". This is what's needed to be done so that reconstruction can safely be stepped up...

Originally posted, here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


This isn't just about killing for the sake of killing. I saw a documentary recently that showed why a regiment of the British army are fighting in Helmand. They're risking/losing their lives to protect a dam...

Kajaki dam

The Kajaki dam is a particularly important installation, providing water for irrigation in the Helmand Valley, and electricity for the whole province. Through early 2006, it came under increasing attacks by the Taliban, for whom even a brief occupation would serve as a propaganda victory. The dam was defended by a mixed force of Afghan policemen and security guards led by an American contractor.

Nightly Taliban mortar attacks demoralised the defenders, who had no heavy weapons, and were unable to retaliate. In late June, a team of British paratroopers was deployed near Kajaki, and managed to ambush a Taliban mortar team, killing ten and wounding two. Thereafter, a permanent British military presence was established at the dam, where coalition troops occupied a series of fortified posts built by the Soviets during their presence in Afghanistan. The Taliban grew more cautious, but continued their harassment attacks throughout July and the first half of August.

In February 2007, British troops from 42 commando conducted Operation Volcano, clearing a safe zone around the dam and driving the Taliban out of mortar range. The main Taliban fortified position in the village of Barikju was cleared without casualties.

Since then, the situation around the dam has stabilised. Kajaki is one of the rare occasions during the Afghanistan war where both sides use fixed positions, and an actual front line has developed.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmand_province_campaign#...


Edited to add more details about the Kajaki dam project:

Operation Eagle's Summit (Oqab Tsuka in Pashto) was a military operation conducted by ISAF and Afghan National Army troops, with the objective of transporting a 220-tonne turbine to the Kajaki dam in Helmand province through territory controlled by Taliban insurgents. Ending in success for the coalition, it involved mostly British troops, and was said to have been one of the largest logistical operations carried out by the British Army since World War II.

More details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle\'s_Summit

[ShortnFiery]

30. As soon as security is not provided - troops rotate - POOF! Back come the Taliban.

We've already LOST both Afghanistan and Iraq ... Wars/Occupations.

The only question left is how many AMERICAN TROOPS and INNOCENT CIVILIANS will be killed before our leadership chooses to pull our military out of those M.E. SOVEREIGN Countries?

It's over ... all over ... save for continued maiming and dying.

[Marrah_G]

9. She is a hero- She didn't have to come back, but she did, to help others.

/mourn

[get the red out]

12. Democrats need to be reminded

of the need for women's rights. I think a lot of Democrats conveniently ignore the need for women's rights. With only male's represented throughout much of the world poverty, greed, killing, and rage will never slow down. Women's voices are necessary.

I am so sick of what men do to women and the so-called liberals that ignore it that I could puke. This lady's death should have a hundred comments of mourning here at DU. We are just worthless pieces of shit no better than the Republicans.

[ShortnFiery]

25. No, Democrats need to be reminded of the lessons of Vietnam - The natives are going nowhere.

They will wear us down.

Know that these women are, first and foremost NATIONALISTS.

The WOMEN and CHILDREN don't want our crusading asses in THEIR country.

Don't kid yourself, these are THEIR HUSBANDS and SONS.

Just like husbands in the USA who beat their wives, THEY LOVE them.

You want to stop the beatings?

Raise the standard of living for the entire society.

[IDFbunny]

31. Stop the abuse THEN the standard of living will come up.

Not the other way around.

[ShortnFiery]

32. NO, I see you haven't lived in countries where "abject poverty" abounds. I have.

I'm not being apologetic but there's a reason that "western civilizations" are more humane. The more educated and financially stable a nation is, the better it treats it's women, children and the underclass.

It's not correct to ever use violence to solve personal problems, but financial and life adaption hardships bring HUMANS to do some horrific things that they would not otherwise do.

We have NO RIGHT mixing in their culture and "the women" of whom you wane sympathetically for have THEIR LOYALTY to their NATION - to include the Men who beat them.

This NARCO-Nation of right wing religious people is NOT a country we need to get our MILITARY involved in any longer occupying.

Tell ya what, feel free to bookmark this thread?

MY VIEW = Violence will escalate, casualties will increase, and WE, the mighty USA, will pull out our military within both Iraq and Afghanistan before 2012.

[Coventina]

41. Your claim that these women are NATIONALISTS does not make them PRO-TALIBAN

Even if we assume that you are a mind-reader and know that these women are "first and foremost NATIONALISTS." This does not mean that they support the Taliban against the United States.

If a fundamentalist group seized power here in the United States, even if it were supposedly UNITED STATES fundamentalists I would most definitely support a foreign invasion that told me the stated goal was to reinstate our secular government.

You know why? Because first and foremost I am a WOMAN. Without a penis, I don't stand much of a chance of a life worth living under fundamentalist rule.

Quit pretending that you "know" what the women of Afghanistan want. Do some women in Afghanistan support the Taliban? I'm sure that some do. But there is NO PROOF that most of them or even a significan portion of them do.

[Turborama]

15. "What You Should Know About Women's Rights in Afghanistan"

In case you've missed it...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Haole Girl]

16. How sad

She thought she could make a difference. She gave her life for it.

[get the red out]

17. Are males inherently evil

or is it religion that in inherently evil? I keep asking myself, but it seems that the more strictly males adhere to religion the more blatantly evil they become. And not just muslim males by any means, it is just that they do not have secular law to stop them from even killing females when they wish. Ultra-Christian males have a look in their eyes that chills me to the bone also.

[ShortnFiery]

19. However, don't think for one moment that we continue to occupy either Iraq or Afghanistan ...

to raise the standard of living for women and children. Don't make that mistake albeit IF we truly wanted to nix world terrorism, increasing "the quality of life" of the natives would be and excellent foundation. But no, that would take true commitment that we can't even do for our own nation's homeless.

p.s. The abuse of women and children ALWAYS increases as increased poverty is realized within societies. It's a poor way to handle stress - beat the helpless.

[get the red out]

20. Religion always serves as a good reason

since it seems to despise women, especially Islam. Christianity has the unfortunate problem of having to deal with secular law, they usually have to behave almost human because of itl.

[Turborama]

21. Please take a look at post #13

Everything isn't as it may seem at first sight, dig a bit deeper to get to what's really going on in Afghanistan and you'll see that it's not all about killing for killing's sake.

Our soldiers are there for GOOD reasons...

Edit to add: I felt the same way about Iraq as you appear to feel about Afghanistan. I was against the 1st gulf war too.

However, they are completely different circumstances and Bush isn't around any more to fuck everything up. We've got an intelligent, worldly wise and empathetic C.I.C. (at last) and I actually trust that he knows what he's doing on this one.

[ShortnFiery]

22. No, our soldiers are there as a foothold. We need to get out. Religion is not the only

reason women and children are abused. Whenever a society comes under "high stress" the most vulnerable individuals/ groups are abused.

Don't kid yourself. I love the USA and served in the Military. However, the USA Military is NOT there for any OTHER reason than to look out for our security interests. No mas!

[Turborama]

27. OK, seems like you don't get what I was saying in post #13

and just want us to pull out and leave them to it. Basically, we should pull out and leave Afghanistan as the most impoverished country in the world after we pummelled them prior and during the invasion.

A kind of 'let the Taliban get up to whatever they want and wait and see what happens' scenario, I get it.

Personally, I see reconstruction (building schools, hospitals, providing decent roads, sanitation, drinking water and electricity) as an intrinsic part of "looking out for our security interests". This cannot be done without securing the area.

Please don't patronize me, I do know what I'm talking about.

[ShortnFiery]

29. No, I read your post #13. That's not HOW IT IS in reality. We are already negotiating with

the Taliban. This is a tragic event but there will be no long lasting reconstruction UNTIL we stop occupying THEIR COUNTRY.

Stop the occupation or all bets for reconstruction are OFF.

Embrace the realism of NARCO-STATE.

[ohio2007]

35. #13 was life without music,children's kites and pure obedience.to the rigid law givers

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2ee_1214485437


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8f7_1238240427

post # 13 is reborn in Swat valley;
Pakistan deal enshrines sharia law
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/13/pakistan.sw...

lets watch how the Taliban treat their own law abiding citizens

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=504_1238691910

and how they get along with their neighbors in "neighboring Pakistan" and nearby Afghanistan

[ShortnFiery]

36. And you want US in the middle of this culture / nations strife? ... they're NOT our neighbors?!?

[ohio2007]

40. ...it's a small world afterall

[CrawlingChaos]

45. staged video

Arab media reports that video you posted is fake -- staged by individuals with a pro-Western agenda.

Beware of inflammatory propaganda when the US gov't is beating the war drums.

[ohio2007]

46. ARe you saying the Taliban never banned music? not even on buses?

beware of the brand of Kool Aid you read.


I'd like to see the link you are talking about.


I suppose those sources would say the CIA has been blowing up the girls schools on both sides of the border also?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[CrawlingChaos]

47. here you go

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Pakistan/10301597.html

I tend to believe the article above, not only because the video looks fake to me (it seems a very gentle flogging relative to the huge amount of screaming) but because it makes no sense for them to deny it if it's real. Not a very effective deterrent that way.

Remember the widely peddled story about babies being chucked out of incubators prior to the first gulf war? Same type deal.

I'm not denying the Taliban is a repressive regime. I just don't believe our gov't gives two shits about human rights abuses, except when it makes a convenient propaganda tool for selling us on more war. Hell, they don't even care about human rights abuses here in the States.

[Turborama]

48. Are these scenes staged as well?

I understand how we can be extra skeptical because of the 8 years of Rovian propaganda we've just come out of, but sometimes things are as they seem...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


(btw, I'd be very interested to hear your response to "Beneath the Veil", if you have time to watch it...)

[Turborama]

42. So, we leave Afghanistan to enable long lasting reconstruction?

Wow, you do know that if we pull out the Taliban death cult will most certainly get back to imposing their reign of terror on Afghanistan in a short amount of time? When that happens, Afghanistan will be shut off from the outside world, again.

If you haven't seen it already and want to know what life was like under the Taliban, this documentary is a must see.

Beneath The Veil
A hard hitting documentary with presenter Saira Shah who went undercover prior to 9/11 to find out what the Afghanistan not shown in the press was like under Taliban rule. Strongly recommended documentary for anyone who is interested in what was happening in Taliban run Afghanistan leading up to the 2001 invasion and what the country will very likely descend into again if we just 'pull out':
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-42013227723646...

I remember watching it on TV when I was in England before 9/11 and I thought to myself, someone needs to stop this psycho-sadist/misogynistic madness. For the 1st time in my life I was actually glad to see a country being invaded and had hopes that all the billions promised by various countries for reconstruction ($5billion at the time, if I remember correctly) would come through with haste, the reconstruction would quickly get under way and the Afghan women could finally be treated like human beings. That pledged money never did come through (The Tragedy of Afghan Aid) and for 8 long years we've watched in dismay ever since attention on Afghanistan waned and was focused on the illegal invasion and subsequent pilfering and cronyism in Iraq.



Regarding, 'it's their culture'. You do know that the Taliban are a modern phenomenon that were nurtured by Pakistan's ISI, don't you?

As I've said before, Afghanistan and Iraq are two different situations. We should never have gone into Iraq and should have finished the job off properly in Afghanistan when we had a chance to do it quickly. However, that's not what happened and we cannot leave Afghanistan and let it turn into a failed state, again.

[ShareTheWoods]

38. No, but these muslim men killing and raping women for allah are

Unless those that are teaching this evil are stopped, it will continue for all generations to come.

[LeftishBrit]

28. That is horrific

A truly brave and heroic person, who gave her life for justice - let us hope that the light that she and others have managed to shine in the face of so much darkness will in the end prevail. However hopeless things seem now.

RIP.

[Reterr]

37. :( these people are (were) so brave

It is people like this who sometimes make me ashamed about doing so little (by way of activism) with my own life when there are people out there like this or those human rights activists in Russia.

[Runcible Spoon]

43. This is a devastating tragedy.

But don't for one moment make the mistake to use this as a cheap emotional ploy to justify more war.

Women ALWAYS bear the brunt of the suffering in war-torn countries: rape, poverty, disease, starvation, being left alone with children of their own with no way to provide for them as well as being left with the orphans of others...it's not uncommon to hear war widows bitterly say that the men who died quickly were the lucky ones.

Those who really care about women's rights will know that creating more destruction and poverty will only make the plight of women worse. Stop wars of aggression, open avenues of amnesty, create economic incentives for change, raise the standard of living which allows women in these countries to change their culture from the inside.

Unfortunately, there are human rights crises all over this planet that are being ignored...again don't think for ONE MOMENT that the US is gearing up for a war because of abused women.