News Article Summary: In Kabul, Afghanistan- Women are being trained to take part in nightly raids against rebels. Also, U.S. armed forces are participating in these nightly raids with Afghan armed forces. The article places somewhat of an emphasis on how this has been an issue in this ultraconservative family society. The Afghan president Hamid Karzai wants to stop foreign troops from entering Afghan homes. Although, the U.S. army has explained that raids are important to capture Taliban commanders. Both special armed forces were told that the insurgent leader was hiding in a house and women and children were inside with him. On the other hand, Obama plan is to withdraw about half of the 66,000 U.S. troops now from there within a year. During these raids Afghan females in Afghan armed forces play a significant role. Their job is to “round up women and children and get them to safety while guarding against the potential dangers of female suicide bombers or militants disguise in women’s clothes.” Sadly, these families’ privacy and culture is disrespected. The article explains, “Having male troops search Afghan females is taboo. So is touching a family’s Quran, the Muslim holy book, or entering a home without being invited. Another focus of anger has been the disregard for privacy and Afghan culture because women and children are usually home during the raids.” In addition to that, Col. Jalaluddin Yaftly, the commander of the joint Special Unit of the Afghan National Army, said,” villagers don’t like foreign forces to carry out operations in their homes.” Furthermore, U.S. armed forces have helped step up this training for Afghan special forces, U.S. armed forces prepares to leave in 23 months. On the other hand, the roles of U.S. female soldiers have been a debate after last month the Pentagon agreed to open the font-line combats job to them. Here the article places more emphasis on Afghan women than what is happening to these families during the raiding’s; “We were faced with so many problems when we didn’t have female special forces in our units, Yaftaly (Special Unit of the Afghan National Army) said ;“Female special forces are quite useful.” Moreover, there is an equal amount of male and females in the Afghan Special Forces unit training. As for the males in the raiding they do the arresting and killing, while the females protect the families. This article has a great emphasis on female equality, but it ignoring the fact that raids are a family social problem in Afghan.
Sociological Analysis& Critique: It is safe to assume that most members of the global societies would consider external forces being a social issue that affects their family lives. From a sociological perspective these families are being harmed from external forces by U.S. and Afghan forces, and this has created a social problem. This is a social issue in this ultraconservative society and filling an emptiness left by departing international forces. This article emphasizes the need for women in the Afghan army, but completely ignores the social issue with family’s privacy in their homes. Family privacy is not the only family issue, but also the family’s culture is being disrespected. When these troops raid Afghan family homes they are being culturally offensive by “touching a family’s Quran, the Muslim holy book, or entering a home without being invited.” Women are searched by U.S. troops in their homes, and this is invading the family homes and privacy. Moreover, from a societal standpoint this social problem needs to be identified, understood, and dealt with more because it is harming Afghan family’s homes. It was important to mention this from a societal standpoint because I believe the article has put more emphasis on the need for women in the Afghan security forces since 2011. This has been going on for many nights in families’ homes; and from a democratic standpoint the Afghan President has not pushed forward politically on social equality for the Afghan’s families. Overall, from a moral standpoint most members of the global societies would consider this as a large number of families being seriously harmed, even though it is raid to find insurgents, children are involved and witnessing these terrifying events.
Blackboard Reading: Charon and Vigilant 2009 Chapter 1 “An introduction to the Study of Social Problems”
Maribel Rivera, February 15, 2013, 8:55 AM
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