Amanda Gorman calls on Biden to support Afghan women and girls

[SouthBayDem]

Source: Axios

Prominent women's rights advocates, including poet laureate Amanda Gorman, are calling on the Biden administration to protect and support Afghan women and girls and "honor its commitment to gender equity."

Why it matters: The activists — including the actors Connie Britton and Charlize Theron, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg — are the latest advocates to try to increase pressure on President Biden to do more for Afghans who could face persecution from the Taliban.

“We join a growing chorus of global leaders and advocates in raising up the voices of Afghan women’s rights activists who are under imminent threat,” the activists write in an open letter to the White House.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/amanda-gorman-biden-afghan-women-fed5b18e-7867-413a-b909-0aeeadf6b258.html

[left-of-center2012]

1. "protect and support Afghan women and girls"

And how is he suppose to do that?

[PSPS]

3. Thats's what popped into my mind. Why not, "stop hurricanes" too?

[left-of-center2012]

9. "stop hurricanes"

Maybe drop a nuke inside it ?

[PoliticAverse]

2. "protect and invest in women who remain in Afghanistan." - How? n/t

[madaboutharry]

4. Does anyone think this isn't already happening?

I would be very surprised if there is not a team of people working on the specific issue of evacuating women and girls who qualify for evacuation.

But the truth is that the rest of the world will have little to no power to influence the quality of life for women and girls who remain in Afghanistan once the withdrawal is complete.

[DURHAM D]

5. Really Sheryl???

Don't you have a few other things you need to be working on.

[Scrivener7]

6. This is irresponsible. Their big idea for how: "No flight from Kabul should have

empty seats."

SMDH.

[TomCADem]

7. Why Not Saudi Arabian or Nigerian Women and Girls?

I never hear Republicans saying anything about how Saudi Arabia treats women and girls, which is not much different from Afghanistan.

[Marrah_Goodman]

10. Actually there is a lot of difference

Under the Taliban women cannot leave the house without a husband, brother or father. If they don't have one ...too bad. They can't work. No male to support them, they can starve. Need to see a doctor? Sorry,. Not unless your father or husband is a doctor. And there is much more. Education...no. A job....no. etc. Etc.

[TomCADem]

11. Saudi Arabia only last year ended formal male guardianship laws for women...

...which does not even address current cultural norms, so once again what is the big difference?

https://www.theweek.co.uk/60339/things-women-cant-do-in-saudi-arabia

The dress code for women is governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic law and is enforced to varying degrees across the country. The majority of women wear an abaya – a long cloak – and a head scarf. The face does not necessarily need to be covered, “much to the chagrin of some hardliners”, says The Economist. But this does not stop the religious police from harassing women for exposing what they consider to be too much flesh or wearing too much make-up.

In July 2017, a prominent cleric called for even more modesty, urging the nation’s “daughters” to avoid “any abaya that has any decorations… No embellishment, no slits, no openings”.

* * *
Women are required to limit the amount of time spent with men to whom they are not related. The majority of public buildings, including offices, banks and universities, have separate entrances for the different sexes, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Public transportation, parks, beaches and amusement parks are also segregated in most parts of the country. However, the government announced at the end of 2019 that restaurants are no longer required to have separate entrances segregated by sex.

[Marrah_Goodman]

12. I gave you the differences

The Taliban are the more extreme and brutal version of the Saudis. Both are bad....one is even more bad.

[TomCADem]

13. Saudi Arabia ramped up executions in first half of 2021: Amnesty

I don't know where you get this idea that Saudi Arabia somehow a much more moderate version of the Taliban? I get it that Saudia Arabia is rich, but I think that makes their oppression and extremism worse, rather than better, because you cannot even attribute it to lack of education or rule of law.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/3/saudi-arabia-ramped-up-executions-in-first-half-of-2021-amnesty

Saudi Arabia has ramped up executions in the first half of 2021 following a drop during its G20 presidency in 2020, according to United Kingdom-based rights group Amnesty International.

The rights group said on Tuesday that the kingdom executed at least 40 people between January and July 2021 – more than during the whole of last year.

Although Saudi Arabia executed a record 185 people in 2019, the state-backed Human Rights Commission said in January that the kingdom had reduced the number of executions by 85 percent in 2020 compared with the previous year, putting the number for 2020 at 27.

Amnesty said executions had resumed immediately after Saudi Arabia handed over the presidency of the Group of 20 rich nations to Italy, with nine people executed in December 2020 alone.

[Marrah_Goodman]

20. I think you need to research life for women under the Taliban

It is much worse then you seem to think it is.

[EX500rider]

18. You think the Taliban will allow this?:

Saudi women drivers


Saudi women working

[Marrah_Goodman]

8. The only way to do that is to send hundreds of thousands of troops

The Afghan men are not fighting the Taliban and the Taliban view women as less then human.

[JohnSJ]

14. They have blocked the IMF funds for Afghanistan, and froze billions of dollars in Afghan

reserves.

Possibly that might be used as a negotiating tool, but the logistics to insure that women's rights were protected would make this a very complicated process

[Warpy]

15. There's not a hell of a lot he can do yet

If there is a civil war, maybe he can help then. For now, trying to squeeze them with sanctions isn't going to work.

If the Taliban are up to their old tricks, and they were wildly corrupt as well as brutal to women, I have a feeling the Afghan forces, who outnumber them by 4 to 1, will rise up against them.

[pnwmom]

16. America is not the policeman of the world. I thought progressives knew that.

Amanda Gorman, we lead by example, not by imposing our values on a medieval culture led by Mullahs and tribal leaders.

[Dream Girl]

17. Good idea Amanda!

I’m sure that never occurred to anyone.

[stillcool]

19. bomb them into freedom?

we can't protect Americans in our own country.

[rockfordfile]

21. They have always been in imminent threat.

There was a video I watched some time ago that showed Afghans skateboarding and that they were worried about the Taliban.

[littlemissmartypants]

22. I'm thinking that some need to volunteer to help, put their so called activist bodies

between the women and the threats and if there's no way to do that, maybe stay in their lane. It may not be a popular opinion but it's mine.

[tavernier]

23. Amanda Gorman should call on Afghan husbands, fathers,

and sons to protect their women and female children. Joe is not Superman.

[SharonClark]

24. I guess if you've got money and celebrity

you can just snap your fingers and IT WILL HAPPEN.