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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Check this article out. This woman, Esther, on Stan’s radio show
from Women for Afghan Women is wrong. She said she is NOT spreading propaganda,
however, I believe she is being manipulated just as the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> government
wants her to be. I don’t doubt at all that Afghan women are being abused
and killed by the Taliban, however, THOUSANDS OF THEM are being killed by U.S.
soldiers and allied soldiers. TWO WRONGS DO NOT MAKE A RIGHT!!!!! Esther says
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> military is in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> to
keep the region stable and to keep the West safe!!!!!!!!!! She is so full of
shit!!!!!!!!! The subjugation of women under that Taliban actually INCREASED
AFTER THE invasion by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
troops in 2001!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The women of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> are the ONLY PEOPLE who
can liberate themselves!! It is completely arrogant to believe that <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> and allied
soldiers, most of whom are MEN, can liberate women at the point of a gun!<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Read about this CIA Red Cell memo that was leaked to Wikileaks. The
bottom line is that Afghan women CANNOT be liberated from their oppressors at
the point of a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
gun!!!!!! I don’t understand why people cannot understand this plain
fact!!<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Kris<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>t r u
t h o u t, August 8, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<h1><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Between
the Bomb and the Burqa<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h2><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>An
internal Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document released by WikiLeaks in
March reveals a secret plan to use the plight of Afghan women and refugees in
developing media strategies to "leverage French (and other European)
guilt" during an especially bloody summer of military escalation<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=writer><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>By <st1:place w:st="on">Yana</st1:place> Kunichoff and Mike Ludwig<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
The former MP Malalai Joya was an outspoken MP who was abused, silenced and
even beaten inside the Parliament when she spoke against the warlords.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Her
voice was thick with passion as she argued for ending violence against fellow
Afghan women, but the men didn't listen. Instead they hurled insults at her;
they called her a prostitute and a traitor to her religion. The stubborn men's
insults were abusive and frustrating, but it had been worse for other women in
her position. They were threatened and hunted down. Some of them were killed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Like
many recent reports in the media, this story conjures up images of a brave
Afghan villager struggling against the tyrannical rule of a Taliban court or
insurgent militia, but that's not case: the woman in this story is an unnamed
member of the Afghan Parliament supported by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The verbal abuse is
recounted by another female Afghan official in a recent Human Rights Watch
(HRW) report. The men who called her a prostitute were her colleagues and
fellow legislators, the supposed enemies of the religious fanatics fighting for
control of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Such
accounts shed doubts on the narrative of female liberation following the
initial toppling of the Taliban, as the reinvigorated debate over the
occupation has renewed the media's interest in the abuses suffered by Afghan
women at the hands of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
enemies. Human rights advocates may be pleased, but media critics say the
plight of Afghan woman is being used to rally support for the war, and as a
recent military leak reveals, the government secretly considered such a media
strategy as recently as this spring.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Time
magazine became the poster child for this trend last week with a cover story
featuring the disfigured face of a young Afghan girl named Aisha with the ominous
headline: "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"They
are the people that did this to me," Aisha told the Time reporter as she
touched her damaged face, disfigured as part of Taliban punishment for running
away from her abusive in-laws. "How can we reconcile with them?"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Aisha's
heartbreaking plea reveals the harsh reality of living in a war-torn and
ultra-religious society. She puts a face on the Afghan dilemma, but critics
contend that the Time article on Aisha oversimplifies a complicated issue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Feminists
have long argued that invoking the condition of women to justify occupation is
a cynical ploy and the Time cover already stands accused of it," wrote
Priyamvada Gopal, an English professor at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
in The Guardian UK. "Misogynist violence is unacceptable, but we must also
be concerned by the continued insistence that the complexities of war,
occupation and reality itself can be reduced to bedtime stories."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
careful editorial by Time editor Rick Stengel insists that the magazine is not
"either in support of the US war effort or in opposition to it," but
its intention is also an attempt to counterbalance the recent WikiLeaks release
of more than 90,000 documents detailing the military actions in Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>According
to Stengel, the leaked documents cannot provide "emotional truth and
insight into the way life is lived in that difficult land," but a
different WikiLeaks release does provide some insight on using Afghan women to
promote war.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Red Cell CIA Leak</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>An internal Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) document released by WikiLeaks in March reveals a secret plan to use the
plight of Afghan women and refugees in developing media strategies to
"leverage French (and other European) guilt" during an especially
bloody summer of military escalation. The confidential document was prepared by
the Red Cell, a secretive group that consults the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> intelligence community.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
response to the news that Dutch forces would soon withdraw from <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
the Red Cell outlined a plan to use Afghan women and refugees in developing
media strategies to ensure that more NATO allies would not succumb to public
pressure and follow suit. The memo claimed that a "not our problem"
sentiment toward the Afghan conflict allowed European leaders to ignore voter's
vast disapproval of the occupation, but "forecasts of a bloody
summer" could provoke a public backlash.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
forecast was correct: June and July were the deadliest months for NATO and US
forces to date. The record number of body bags coupled with the firing of
former <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the bloody revelations provided by the massive
WikiLeaks release has pushed international support for the war to a new low.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bloomberg
reported last week that, in the wake of the WikiLeaks release, approximately 70
percent of Germans want their troops to leave "as soon as possible." <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> has the third largest military presence
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
number of Americans who believe it was a mistake to invade <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in
2001 reached an all-time high of 43 percent, according to a USA Today/Gallup
poll released this week.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It's
unclear if the CIA anticipated such a perfect storm of public controversy, but
the Red Cell memo reveals a startling strategy for dealing with it, especially
in regards to women.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>The memo suggests that Afghan women
"could serve as ideal messengers for humanizing" the coalition's role
in Afghanistan, citing polls showing that fewer French and German women support
the war compared to males in both countries.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Outreach
initiatives that create media opportunities for Afghan women to share their
stories with French, German and other European women could help overcome
pervasive skepticism among women in <st1:place w:st="on">Western Europe</st1:place>.
Media events that feature testimonials by Afghan women would probably be most
effective if broadcast on programs that have large and disproportionately
female audiences."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Red Cell memo encouraged creating media opportunities for Afghan women because
of their "ability to speak personally and credibly about their experiences
under the Taliban, their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a
Taliban victory."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Role of the Media</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Jennifer
Pozner, the director of Women in Media and News, a media analysis and advocacy
group, told Truthout that the similarity between the Red Cell memo and Time
magazine's push for militarism as the answer to the abuse of women is not a new
phenomenon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pozner
said that, following 9/11, the Bush administration used "the supposed
humanitarian aspect of the war [to sell it to] those few who weren't convinced
by rah-rah patriotism." Support of the corporate press was essential.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pozner,
who had followed the coverage of Afghan women in the media before the 9/11
terrorist attacks, said she saw this cynical trend continue under the Obama
administration. The women's rights issue became a convenient propaganda tool
for corporate media to sell the war.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Once
Afghan women and girls' suffering was no longer needed as a propaganda device,
we quickly lost sight of their stories again in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> media," Pozner said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Nahid
Aziz, an Afghan woman and professor of clinical psychology at <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Argosy</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
in <st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">DC</st1:State>,
who now works with Afghans at home and immigrants in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
also derided the American media's concentration on the plight of Afghan women
as a "political tactic ... that unfortunately is very true and
representative of the American media."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There
are phases of talking about Afghan women, but there is no continued kind of
attention," Aziz said. "It is all dependant on the politics."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Peter
Hart, activism director at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , a media
watchdog group, said that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
had always been the "good war" in the media.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There
was very little built-in criticism of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> war, and I think that
has attributed to the general lack of criticism of the war nine years
later," Hart said. "Focusing on this feminist issue as a way to
maintain public support is the first and last refuge of people trying to
rationalize the Afghan war."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He
noted the similarities between last week's Time cover and the one in the first
week of December, 2001, just as the invasion was getting underway.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
were going into <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region>
to rescue the women from the brutality of the Taliban, but in 2010 the women of
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
are still being brutalized," Hart said. "This makes no logical
sense."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pozner
said the corporate media's addiction to access forces it to forgo truly
critical reporting for the latest scoop from the White House.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
portrayal of women in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
was particularly one-dimensional, Pozner noted. Looking "at pictures of
women in burqas should offend western sensibilities" was the message of
the media as the invasion took off, allowing the running of "a few
pictures of Afghan women in more urban centers removing their burqas" to
equate in American minds with "victory, mission accomplished."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>These
reports never really considered the vast depths of oppression, Pozner said,
such as the abuse Aisha suffered. Aisha's case is an example of some of the
most entrenched excesses of the Taliban and particularly of Pashtun tribal
society in remote areas. At the age of 12, Aisha and her younger sister were
used to settle a dispute. Under a tribal custom known as "baad," the
two girls were given to the family of a Taliban fighter to settle a blood debt
incurred by their uncle.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Aisha
was married to the Taliban fighter and, because he was constantly in hiding,
was housed with her sister with her in-laws' livestock. Aisha and her sister were
used as slaves and frequently beaten, a situation Aisha eventually fled.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
year ago, Aisha's husband tracked her down in Kandahar, took her back to his
remote village and, on a deserted mountainside, cut off her nose, both her ears
and left her bleeding. To this day, Aisha does not remember how she managed to
walk to help.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Obama administration's increased focus on civil society and female literacy has
helped move Afghan civil society away from the worst gender-based oppression of
the Taliban years. Thousands of girls' schools have opened since the fall of
the Taliban, and an estimated half a billion dollars in international
assistance is now destined for gender-equality programs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Debate on the Ground</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Women for Afghan Women (WAW), a community
and advocacy group based in <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State>, but
working on the ground in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region>,
and the Feminist Majority Foundation have been at the forefront of the
discussion as progressive groups in favor of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>
troop presence in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>"If the coalition forces leave, the
Taliban or other conservative factions will be much stronger," said
Manizha Naderi, the Afghan-born executive director of WAW. "Women's
mobility and participation in everyday life will be limited again."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>But Aziz, who herself fled <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in
1982 at the age of 15, said the view on the ground is not so simple. Aziz said
that women in the urban city of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kabul</st1:place></st1:City>
or female parliamentarians may have a positive assessment of Western
occupation, but women living in remote areas may have a much different
perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>In addition, women are disproportionately
affected by military conflict or disaster. According to the United Nations,
about 80 percent of the world's refugees are women and children.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Sonali Kolhatkar, founder of the Afghan
Women's Mission (AWM) and Mariam Rawi of the Revolutionary Association of Women
of Afghanistan (RAWA) wrote last month on AlterNet, "Coalition troops are
combat forces and are there to fight a war, not to preserve peace ... Women
always disproportionately suffer the effects of war, and to think that women's
rights can be won with bullets and bloodshed is a position dangerous in its
naivetĘ."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>The American military itself has come under
attack for their treatment of women, both within the civilian population of <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> and
in its own ranks. The highly publicized rape and murder of a young Afghan woman
( <span class=link><a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/09/soldiers.charged/index.html"
target="_blank"><font color=red><span style='color:red'>http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/09/soldiers.charged/index.html</span></font></a></span>
) ended only in the honorable discharge of the accused soldier, and rape among
women in the military is nearly twice as common as it is in the civilian
population - nearly one out of three women.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Malalai Joya, a former parliamentarian and
outspoken critic of the Taliban as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said
Afghan women "are sandwiched between three powerful enemies: the
occupation forces of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and NATO, the Taliban and the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Karzai
was once seen as a champion of women's causes and a welcome change to Taliban
rule until he failed to deliver on promises to appoint women to cabinet posts.
In 2009, he angered international allies by signing onto the so-called
"rape" law, containing clauses making it illegal for woman to refuse
to have sex with their husbands, and women can only seek work, education or
visit the doctor with the permission of their husband. It was dropped under
international pressure.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
addition, the Karzai government, with tacit approval from the Obama
administration, has moved toward discreet negotiations with senior level
Taliban commanders and the men who made decisions that left women all over <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
shrouded and house bound.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Reports
from international observers further reveal the current situation of Afghan women
on the ground nine years into the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> invasion.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Human Rights Watch report released last month revealed that Afghan women
continue to suffer horrific abuses in Taliban-controlled areas and continue to
be ignored - and even violently attacked - while attempting to participate in
the US-backed Afghan government. The report warns that abuse will flourish if
women are left out of upcoming negotiations to end the conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
Afghan government is already undermined by the entrenched power of former warlords
and gangster oligarchs," according to the report. "This situation
reflects years of deal making made in the name of stability and security for
which both the government and its international supporters bear
responsibility."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
2009 report by the UN Assistance Mission in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> found that, although
underreported and concealed, rape "is an everyday occurrence in all parts
of the country" and is most often carried out by individuals who are
immune to the law due to tribal or political affiliations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Crucially, Aziz notes, it must be recognized
that the brutal disfiguring of Aisha occurred during the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> presence in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>"If there was really this protection
provided by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
that would not have happened," Aziz said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
discussion over the contentious Time magazine cover has highlighted a rift in
the progressive, between those advocating a complete withdrawal and those
arguing for a continued presence to mitigate the violence of the Taliban
against women.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But
Aziz notes that media reports leave out a crucial third option for Afghan
society.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
military is not the only solution," Aziz said, arguing that a genuine
commitment to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
must go beyond troop surges. "We have to use diplomacy to make sure that
there is civil society and comprehensive education, issues that were not taken
very seriously in the past nine years."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>According
to Pozner, the continual uncritical coverage of American war efforts in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> by
the corporate media does a disservice to Afghan women and everyone involved in
the conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>"Afghan women deserve far more than to
be used as pawns in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
war games, and journalists need to do their jobs," said Pozner, decrying a
media that "is far more willing to act as stenographers than watch
dogs."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=text><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>There is no question that the struggles and
abuses faced by Afghan women are real. But experts affirm that only fundamental
reforms in Afghan society can change this. Afghan women are trapped somewhere
between the truth and the spin, the bomb and burqa.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p align=right style='text-align:right'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Characters Count: 17804<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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