Afghanistan is a tough place to intervene. The Russians tried it in '79 and found it to be a quagmire. The terrain is not easily overtaken, and the culture is so far removed from Western understanding that it is difficult to penetrate in other ways.
The world seems to look to the West, and to the U.S. in particular, to "do something" about these atrocities, but in reality there is little the West can do without further inflaming sentiment against American or Western imposition of values. Even in Saudi Arabia, where the West was "invited" to deal with the Kuwait situation, there were tensions from the role of U.S. servicewomen in a society where women are expected to cover their heads and faces.
All that being said, I can't help but wonder what would happen if the article you posted read like this instead:
Afghanistan: Men under Taleban rule
By BBC Newsnight's Rebecca Milligan
There was outrage in the West when, in 1996, the Taleban movement took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and imposed its radical brand of Islam on the women and particularly the men of that once cosmopolitan city.
Because the Taleban has outlawed television, and photographing animals or humans is strictly forbidden, the plight of Afghan men has received little media coverage in the West.
Much of our report was compiled using hidden equipment - if the men who helped us were identified by the authorities, the consequences for them would be very serious.
In Taleban-controlled areas - about 90% of the country - men are not allowed to work; they may not leave their homes unless covered from head to toe in the burqa or chadary and accompanied by a close female relative; boys' schools have been closed.
Capital distress
The situation in Kabul is particularly bad. The Taleban is tougher on the cities which, it believes, have been contaminated by western values.
I visited a family of middle class men who now live as virtual prisoners in their tiny flat
The younger boys cannot go to school. The older men - both teachers - have no work. None of them can move around the city freely - they are in despair. The economic consequences of the ban on men working is especially evident in the capital where male beggars can be seen everywhere.
Many of them are widowers, left with children to support after years of war.
And so on.....rewriting the story that way kind of puts a different perspective on the whole thing. If the women in a society treated the men that way, would the world be more anxious to intervene? |
