Afghan War: Women's Rights

The Promise Keepers could relate to this: Women should vote ... as instructed: Karzai Toronto Star 03/08/04 (via Atrios).

Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered Afghan men a trade today in an attempt to convince them to let their women vote in upcoming elections.

"Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process," Karzai told a gathering to mark International Women's Day. "Later , you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go."

Unfortunately, in this article Karzai's seeming foot-in-mouth statement overshadows the more important news - bad news - for women's rights in Afghanistan. Karzai's goernment essentially controls the capital city of Kabul, and no more. What control his interim government does have even there is due to the presence of a NATO force. And even it hasn't been able to provide entirely effectve military security in Kabul.

The rest of the country is under the control of various tribal militias, warlords and gangs. The Taliban is still strong and al-Qaeda still operates there and across the border in Pakistan. The article also quotes Karzai as having "condemned the practice of forced marriages, where girls and young women become bargaining chips to settle disputes and often end up married to old men." But Karzai can "condemn" all he wants. Until his government has effective control of the country, he can't do anything about it.

In the villages of most of the country, the practices of confining women at home and forcing them to wear burkas continues, as the Star piece notes. It also reports on arson attacks on girls' schools and even about women who "have set themselves on fire in acts of desperation," something I had not heard before.

Women do have a more free life in Kabul, but the news reports bear watching carfully. For instance, the Star report indicates that only about half the women even in Kabul have stopped wearing the burka.