Why the U.S. has to go (out of Afghanistan)

[IndianaGreen]

Why the U.S. has to go

November 10, 2009

WHAT HAS been the impact of the U.S. occupation and its puppet government on women in Afghanistan? Has the U.S. liberated Afghan women as it claimed it would?

FIRST, LET me say that after September 11, the U.S. government threw us from the frying pan into the fire. Over the last eight years, the U.S., under the banner of women's rights and human rights, has occupied my country, and millions of men and women have suffered from injustice, insecurity, corruption, joblessness, poverty, etc.

But women have suffered more--for them, it is almost as if the Taliban was still in power. After the war, the U.S. brought to power these misogynist warlords called the Northern Alliance, who are just like the Taliban. These were the same people who ruled between 1992 and 1996, and they attacked women's rights and human rights.

This time, wearing suits and ties, they have again have come into power with the help of the U.S. That's why today's situation for women is worse, especially in many of the provinces. It is true that in some big cities like Kabul, Mazari Sharif or Herat, you will see that some women have been able to get jobs and an education. But in most of the provinces, women do not even have basic human rights--the situation is like hell.

Today, killing a woman is like killing a bird. Even in big cities, women do not feel secure, and so most of them wear the burqa. I believe that the burqa is a symbol of oppression. Yet women have to wear them just to be safe. So the disgusting burqa today gives life.

Over the last eight years, women in my country have not even regained the limited rights that they enjoyed in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. During that time, women could wear any kind of clothes they wanted to, and they had jobs, they could walk freely on the streets, and they didn't have to worry about being kidnapped or raped.

Then, the warlords attacked women's rights, and the Taliban continued this. The U.S. brought the same misogynist warlords back, and the only difference between the Taliban period and now is that all of these crimes are happening in the name of democracy. The warlord misogynists who are in power cover up, in the name of democracy, countless cases of rape, violence against women, domestic violence, suicide, etc. And these sorts of attacks are increasing rapidly.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/11/10/why-us-has-go

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. This happened in Iraq back in 2003

I went to a talk years ago by a beautiful Iraqi woman who was traveling the US talking about what war
had done and was doing to her country. I wish I could remember her name.
What I do recall was her telling us that before our illegal and immoral invasion of her country that women
represented over 50 percent of students attending university, but after the number of women attending
dropped to around 20 percent. That they also had to go back to wearing burqas, where before they had
progressed to slacks/pants.

Things for sure weren't as bad for women in Iraq as opposed to Afghanistan. Where ever the US tries to
bring 'democracy' someone, some race, some gender always suffers.