Re: [Marxism] Imperialist feminism in Iraq

[Piash Karim <piashk@xxxxxxxxx>]

A friend of mine just came back from Afghanistan where
he was for three weeks as a visiting scholar under an
International Education Program.  This was his second
visit there.  He spent three months in the country
last summer with the same program.

Not surprisingly, he has some horrifying stories to
tell.  One of the experiences that deeply shook him
involved the issue of "honor killing." For example, as
part of his program- he interviewed several women
writers and activists.  He was particularly impressed
by the candidness of one woman.  During an e-mail
exchange, he asked her whether her candor and courage
were creating any problem in her patriarchal family
setting.  The woman responded by asking him for a
personal meeting and he agreed. She came to her office
with her mother with her.  This is her story.  The
women had been raped by her boss several months ago.
She was two months pregnant during the meeting.  Her
father wants the rapist to marry her because otherwise
it would be a terrible dishonor for the family.  The
rapist guy doesn't only refuse to marry but also
denies the whole incident of rape.  Now she is faced
with an unwanted pregnancy and the possibility of
being killed by her own father.  My friend and a
female colleague who accompanied him tried to find
ways to help her. The U.S. embassy granted them a ten
minute interview during which they were told that the
embassy had more pressing problems to deal with and
doesn't have time to worry about these "trivial"
issues.  None of the other western embassies wanted to
get involved either.  They contacted a number of NGOs
who incidentally are getting huge grants to support
"women's causes."  None of them were willing to do
anything about it because it is too risky to be
involved in these affairs.  After much efforts, they
were able to manage a sanctuary for the woman in an
organization supported by the French and Dutch
governments.  But in that process my friend and his
colleague got concerned about their own lives. In
order to avoid being targeted by the woman's father
and brothers they stopped using the official car
provided for them and started using rented cars and
unusual routes to go to work or other places.  What
makes the issue particularly ironic is that the woman
mentioned that she had watched Barbara Bush speaking
on TV a few days ago saying how the U.S. had
"liberated" Afghan women.

In another incident, a woman activist, after
discussing the oppression of women under the Taliban
regime on Television was kidnapped and gang raped on
her way back home.  When my friend left she was still
in a hospital fighting physical and emotional trauma.

There are some other important observations that my
friend made.  When he was there last summer the
university professors whom he worked with seemed to be
somewhat irritated with the U.S. presence but were
generally happy.  After all, they got their jobs back
after the U.S. invasion.  This year he found a
generally anti-U.S sentiment among University
professors and other intellectuals. He met quite a few
people who were fondly remembering the days of the
progressive regime.

Interestingly enough, in the marketplace along with
the pictures of Hamid karzai, he also found the
pictures of Najibullah being sold.

Manjur Karim


--- paul bunyan <cutemdown2003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>
> "M. Junaid Alam" <mjunaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >. For starters, the government passed laws
> declaring illegal
> >the selling and bartering of women, enforced land
> redistribution
> >programs to wrest away power from the landlords,
> and stopped the
> >privatization of water resources. In the cities,
> there were education
> >opportunities for women as well as men.
>
> Isn't the campaign for women's rights what finally
> pushed the Afghan rural tribes into rebellion? I
> heard a member of RAWA, at the start of the US
> bombing of Afghanistan, describing her self as "a
> pacifist, who supports the US bombing of
> Afghanistan." Does anyone besides me see some
> inconsistency here?
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