Women in Afghanistan: Is their plight our business?

Yes

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by Layla Randle-Conde

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This is a human rights issue, not a women's issue. That fact in itself is not a reason for westerners to interfere in another country's culture. But the issue of women's right to be recognised as free human beings has implications far beyond the borders of Afghanistan.

By ignoring the plight of all women in Afghanistan we are condemning to silence a massive population, half of an entire country. I'm going to make sweeping generalisation here, but history will support me. Who is it that organises, plans, carries out and glories in war and death? On the whole, is it women or is it men?

No doubt there are many Afghanistan women that hate westerners just as much as many soldiers, terrorists and ordinary citizens. But on the whole, women do not want their husbands and sons dying in wars or explosions. They don't want death and destruction everywhere they look. As a woman I can safely say, that's how we are. So if there are as many people in this country who do not relish the thought of sending their sons out to die as there are people supporting these methods, why are we ignoring them? Why are we not supporting them and giving them a voice? It's a sad surprise and disappointment to me that after so many years of supposed equality, we're still thinking of them as chicks with issues, rather than as human beings with valid and revolutionary opinions. This is not about mini skirts and birth control, important as those issues were at the time to women in the west.

Free thinking women in Afghanistan gather in secret hideouts, in danger of execution every day of their lives. They're not cooking up bombs and plotting suicide missions. They're educating their daughters and sons. They are risking their lives so that the next generation of citizens can make educated choices about their own future, and that of the troubled country into which they were born.

There is a school of thought that believes women in Afghanistan will one day get it together and rebel against their status as chattels, property of their husbands or fathers. Then they can all get sexy haircuts and vote. Apparently we're interfering with their destiny if we try and meddle. That's a lovely, romantic image, but it's missing the point.

The suffragettes of England were extremely strong-willed and lion-hearted women. All females in this country owe them the freedom that we take for granted today. But I don't recall the suffragettes being regularly murdered, gang-raped and mutilated for their cause.

How can we expect our middle-eastern neighbours to respect our human rights as westerners, when the culture doesn't even support the human rights of its own citizens? The brave, free thinking women that risk their lives to educate their children deserve our respect and support. They are heroes in their own quiet way. One day, God willing, there will be peace and equality in that country. The atrocities and barbarities of the past will be a distant and uncomfortable memory. And I would bet everything I own that it's the daughters and sons of these brave women that set the wheels in motion. If you like the idea of your own daughters and sons and their offspring growing up in a more peaceful world, you'd better support the Afghanistan women's struggle for equality every chance you get.

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