Liberation Eludes Afghan Women

[DenverDem]

Forced Marriages, Beatings, Suicides Persist Despite Taliban's Fall
by Anna Badkhen

(snip)
In theory, women have constitutional rights equal to men's in post- Taliban Afghanistan. But in reality, their lives have improved little since the demise of the ultraconservative Islamic regime, which banned women from attending schools and public baths and whose Police for the Protection of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice ordered women to cover themselves in traditional head-to-toe burqas -- beating those who disobeyed.

This country supposedly was liberated by the U.S.-led military campaign that ousted the Taliban, but the conservative warlords who run Afghanistan's far-flung provinces support strict rules that bar women from public life and turn a blind eye when their armed militias rape women and girls.

(more)

<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0416-07.htm>

So much for the feminist excuse for this war crime. We've had a great impact on this country. Hail the conquering heroes.

[mn9driver]

1. Bush didn't liberate Afghanistan: No oil.

The maximum number of troops never exceeded 15,000. All he did was boot the Taliban back into the mountains, where they enjoy local warlord support. Women in Kabul are able to exercise some basic human rights, but further out, it's still the 14th century. Just another hose job for the Afghanis.

[demodewd]

2. poppies

We liberated the poppies from the Taliban.

[DenverDem]

3. That Persian White is the best.

Not a partaker, however, so I don't know what the price dynamic on street horse is these days, post Taliban.