Blog 10: Why U.S. can’t deliver women’s rights to Afghanistan

Why U.S. can’t deliver women’s rights to Afghanistan

In this week’s blog were back to Middle East, Afghanistan. It looks to me like the women here have a long way to go. They come far but it’s not enough. This article however focused more on how America cannot give Afghan women their rights! It has to come from within the country, America can provide help and assistance but that’s it. The author of this article, Malou Innocent, said that America has to stop promising things they can’t come through with. She said this when U.S secretary of State John Kerry met with female entrepreneurs and the captain of a women soccer team. Innocent said that even though what their trying to do is noble and good intentioned they just can’t do it. She goes on to say that if we have learned anything during the past twelve years it should be that America is not very good at spreading our western life style, especially not with a conservative culture like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since the overthrow of the Taliban regime the quality of many women has improved but there are still very powerful people in Afghan that are conservative and very custom to traditions. President Hamid Karzai seems to not care much about the subject, and local government does the same. There have been many cases of girls being raped, tortured and even stoned to death because they tried to run away from their abusers. Sure on paper women have come a long way but in practice not so much. If the government aren’t going to enforce the laws they claim to abbey by then nothing is ever going to change.  The author of this article is seatrain that someday change will come, it might not be as soon as we wish but it will. She believes that it has to come from within the country as she put it from the roots up. We need to let them deal with their issues as a country without overshadowing them at every step.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/02/why-u-s-cant-deliver-womens-rights-to-afghanistan/

Dalila Aguilar

4/18/13

12:36

Blog 5: Afghan Police Killed

Afghan Police Killed
    In Kabul, Afghanistan there were two attacks on Wednesday that ended up killing twenty Afghan police officers. There was also a report that there was a mass poisoning in southeaster Afghanistan. In the Ghazni Province 17 policemen (who were just trained by Americans) were drugged by their comrades and went into comatose stupors while they were on duty. After, they were all shot to death. In the Kandahar Province three police officers were killed by an attack carried out by a supporter. Two police officers were arrested by Afghan officials because they were thought to be Taliban infiltrators and the ones who did the attack. These attackers poisoned the officers dinners then shot them (close range) to ensure that they were dead. They proceeded to take their weapons and ran away after they set the police car on fire. Ten of these officers had just finished their training, and the other seven were recruits who were still in training. There have been problems of attacks from the inside as well as accusations towards officers for violating human rights. The unit that was murdered was trained by Americans. A week earlier another attack was made on drug policemen in the same district. The drug was not strong enough and they escaped. Fiazanullah stated, "we have repeatedly warned the A.L.P. recruiters and trainers to conduct proper and accurate vetting processes for people who want to join the A.L.P ranks." They were also advised not to admit unknown people or people who "are not vouched by tribal elders." They try to meet the recruiting deadline to get credit rather than taking precautions that Fiazanullah recommends. Zabiullah Majuahid emailed journalists saying that Taliban was responsible for the attack. The authorities in an episode in Kandahar Province said that three National policemen had been found dead (shot) outside of their posts. Ghorzang, a spokesman for the police, claimed that the attacker was a heroin addict and was a relative to one of the victims. Ghorzand said that the victim had taken his relative for treatment and once the police had fallen asleep the relative took a gun and killed the Commander (his relative) as well as two officers. The gunman was not identified and ran away. There have been series of attacks on the inside against these officers. Poison or drugs have been used often against these policemen and once they are unconscious they have been shot. A local police officer killed his commander and some colleagues in the same way. These different attacks have totaled up to seventeen deaths.
    This is a huge violation of human rights. The most sacred and personal right one has is the right to live. These policemen are being targeted and murdered by their own people. Taking a persons life is one of the worse violations of human rights and this is a right that should be protected. It also destroys the trust these officers have for each other and shatters confidence in one another. This can result in inadequate work from these officers because of the inability to rely on their fellow officers. With their own people killing them and no protection being put in place to keep them safe these people have to live in fear.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/asia/afghan-police-officers-drugged-and-killed.html

Molly Winfree
3/01/13
3:02 am

Blog 3

The article I read for this week’s blog was about the rights of women in Afghanistan, more specifically Kabul Afghanistan. About two months ago around three hundred women walked the streets of the capital in protest to a new bill that had been signed into a law. As the women stepped out of their cars, or buses they were assaulted by groups of men who called them profane names. As the woman walked the streets their first stop was the School of the Last Prophet, a madrasa run by Ayatollah Asif Mohseni. This school was one of the main reasons the bill was made into a law. One of Madrasa’s senior clerics said that the law was made by scholars and approved by scholars, implying that the women protesting weren’t educated enough to understand why the law was a good law.

The law that is being protested against has Taliban-like restrictions on women. There are three major parts of the law that has people in an uproar. The first part of the law states that whenever a husband wants to have sexual relations with his wife it is illegal for her to refuse. One of the women in the crowd of protestors was quoted saying “It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants.”  The second part of the law states that the husband has to give permission to the woman if she wants to work outside of the home, or go to school. The third part states that it’s illegal for a woman to refuse to “make herself up” or “dress up” for her husband if she asks her to.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/world/asia/16afghan.html?ref=women

Dalila Aguilar

2/14/13 10:33 pm