What is the future of Afghan women?

By FRIDA GHITIS

I spend a lot of time these days thinking about Afghanistan, about what is the right thing for the United States and the international community to do in that inhospitable land. Thoughts of Afghanistan have filled my mind ever since someone killed Ben Sklaver there a few weeks ago.

I would not say that Ben and I were close friends. But I knew him, I liked him and I always admired him. A suicide bomber killed Ben, ending the life of a bright, compassionate, handsome 32-year-old, whose future was filled with promise. A friend described him as a “combatant for peace,” an idealistic civil affairs specialist with an advanced degree in diplomacy, specializing in humanitarian studies. An Army reservist, Ben had recently started an organization bringing water to poor villages in Africa after a tour of duty there. Ben’s death is most devastating to his family and his fiancee. It is also a loss for the world.

We should never forget that wars, even the most just and necessary ones, always bring terrible pain and loss.

President Barack Obama and his advisers are now deciding the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. As they discuss a troop request from Gen. Stanley McCrystal, their deliberations focus on the security interests of the United States and its allies.

Afghanistan is where al-Qaida hatched the Sept. 11, 2001, plot that killed 3,000 Americans and rerouted history’s march.

Obama must consider what would happen if America and its allies lost the war. Would Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers return to power and again welcome al-Qaida? Would nuclear-armed Pakistan become even more vulnerable to its own Taliban insurgency? Will a defeat embolden America’s enemies?

That line of thinking must play the major goal in the discussion. But there is more.

When I ponder Afghanistan, I picture Ben, but my mind returns to life in Afghanistan before U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban. These ultra-fanatical Muslims tried to replicate their vision of seventh-century Islamic life. Even Iran said they went too far.

They destroyed women’s lives. They forbade women’s education, banned them from work, forced them to cover all, even their eyes when they went out, and banned them from leaving their houses unless accompanied by male relatives. Public executions and beatings for minimal infractions became regular events.

‘City of beggars’

In 1998 Physicians for Human Rights declared, “The extent to which the Taliban regime has threatened the human rights of Afghan women is unparalleled in recent history.” PHR researchers described Kabul in 1998 as “a city of beggars — women who had once been teachers and nurses now moving in the streets like ghosts under their enveloping burqas, selling every possession and begging to feed their children.” Women could not be treated by male doctors or go to hospitals, except for a dilapidated 35-bed facility with no running water. The Taliban forbade women to wear shoes that made a sound and even banned laughter. Happiness was out of reach.

Today most Afghan women still struggle under dismal conditions, but progress is undeniable. Millions of girls go to school, even if resurgent Taliban forces still burn their schools and throw acid on girls’ faces to keep them away. Two women ran for president and campaigned openly in the last election. Women now drive, serve in the police, work as doctors and teachers and civil servants. Girls may have a future now, as long as the Taliban forces do not rule.

Under the Taliban, studies show the overwhelming majority of women suffered from depression. Suicide was rampant. Then NATO came.

A 2008 survey by the Asia Foundation showed 86 percent of Afghans had a positive view of NATO forces but wished they would protect them better. The Taliban forces want American soldiers out. Most Afghans don’t. Current reports confirm this.

The president faces a terrible dilemma. If America truly cannot win in Afghanistan, there is little point in postponing the inevitable. A retooled strategy, however, with a greater emphasis in protecting Afghans and rebuilding the country could prove more successful.

X Frida Ghitis writes about global affairs for The Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.