Afghanistan Women's Rights Leader Speaks Out Against Occupation

[Better Believe It]

July 31, 2008

An Interview with Sonali Kolhatkar
What's Going on in Afghanistan
By MIKE WHITNEY

About Sonali Kolhatkar

Sonali is host and co-producer of a one hour daily radio show called Uprising on KPFK (90.7 fm in Los Angeles and 98.7 fm in Santa Barbara), a listener-sponsored community radio station, which is part of the Pacifica network. Sonali's radio show airs from 8 am to 9 am weekdays and is a public affairs political news magazine. Sonali is also co-director and a spokesperson for the Afghan Women's Mission and speaks widely on college campuses, community fora, and conferences. She is co-author of "Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence." She also pursues social, activist and artistic endeavors which include web design, political writing and organizing, song writing and singing, painting and cooking.





This is a brief excerpt of her comments in the interview:

Sonali Kolhatkar:

The US will also have to address the country’s widespread poverty and provide long-term economic solutions that give Afghans hope for the future. The US will also have to create viable alternatives to the production of heroin, so that poor farmers don't have to depend on the sale of illicit narcotics to survive. That means Bush will have to support multi-lateral peacekeepers to protect the Afghan people from the Northern Alliance and Taliban. Most importantly, the US will have to end the occupation and withdraw its troops. But of course, that probably won’t happen any time soon. After all, the real goal of the invasion was vengeance for 9/11. All the promises of liberation and democracy were just a PR-ploy to make Americans feel better about seeking revenge.

I think the primary goal of the war was always vengeance, but the neocons also wanted to pave the way for an attack on Iraq. Bush wanted to go to Iraq even before 9/11. Unfortunately for him, Al Qaeda was holed up in Afghanistan so he had to invade there first and build support for attacking Iraq. It's true that the long-term goals could be military bases (John McCain said last year that he wanted permanent military bases in Afghanistan), and pipeline corridors (Clinton was most closely linked to supporting pipeline contracts between US corporations like UNOCAL and the Taliban before 2000). But I’m not sure how much Bush cared about those long-term objectives even though future presidents will surely capitalize on them.

As far as the occupation goes, people were somewhat supportive of it originally, but as conditions have deteriorated, they have begun to see the presence of foreign troops as a big part of the problem. I would say that a majority of Afghans now want the US and NATO to leave as soon as possible.
Sonali Kolhatkar: It's hard to understand the nature of the anti-US resistance, but it's a very important issue. Unfortunately,the media coverage only makes it more confusing. The fighters that are called the “Taliban” are actually a mix of "former" Taliban and newly enlisted Pashtun fighters trained in Pakistan. Many of them are just disgruntled Afghan civilians whose families and loved ones have been killed and/or tortured by US/NATO forces. Recruiting is always easy when you can show that foreign soldiers are killing more civilians that the "so-called" enemy. But we should be careful to not glorify the resistance. It is strictly fundamentalist and would not be a good option for Afghans in terms of future leadership. The vast majority of Afghans are moderate Muslims who strongly disagree with the Taliban's extremist ideology, but they have joined the struggle to bring an end to the occupation. But, of course, their troubles won't disappear just because the American forces leave. They'll still be stuck with the Taliban and the warlords. When the Soviet occupation ended in the late 1980s, the US-backed warlords began their reign of terror on the people between 1992 to 1996. That could happen again. These same warlords (or Taliban) could once again spread misery and death across Afghanistan. War is an entropic force that cannot be undone by simply hitting a rewind button.

There are always less bloody alternatives, but withdrawal is the first step in a long and complex process. As I’ve said before, Afghanistan’s solutions do not fit neatly on a placard. Perhaps that's why anti-war activists don’t take a clear stand against this war. The withdrawal of US/NATO forces must be accompanied by other developments, like disempowering the warlords in parliament who have a long history of US-supported impunity. This disempowering must include an "Afghan-led" disarmament of their private militias; removing them from political power, and holding them accountable for their past crimes through criminal prosecution of some sort.

Please read the entire and very informative interview at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney07312008.html

And you can find out more about the Afghan Women's Mission at:
http://afghanwomensmission.org/index.php

[jwirr]

1. Good for her. US occupation is no gift to any nation in the world. nt

[bigmoon]

2. Agreed

We need to pull out of there now.

[madeline_con]

3. I may be totally out of line, but

She does realize the Taliban will completely take over if the US leaves, right? Even the little corner of Kabul they control will be a friggin nightmare for women.

She doesn't have to live under the Taliban. Her pursuits of web design and painting would be quashed if she did. She could probably continue to cook, though.


"I would say that a majority of Afghans now want the US and NATO to leave as soon as possible."

I would say the "majority" that was asked, and allowed to reply, were men.

"
As far as the occupation goes, people were somewhat supportive of it originally, but as conditions have deteriorated..."

It was such a paradise before the troops showed up.

I think a lot of what she says is crap. Just MHO.

[bigmoon]

4. NATO airstrikes have killed many innocents

If the US and NATO and the EU leave they will kill no more innocents

[madeline_con]

5. "they will kill no more innocents"

Innocents will still be killed.

[bigmoon]

6. But not by the US

n/t

[madeline_con]

7. It's o.k. if the Taliban abuse and kill people.

After all, they were doing it before we got there.

[bigmoon]

8. Sorry but you could say the same thing about Iraq

People will be killed by violent factions if we pull out there too.

[madeline_con]

14. Unless Bin Laden and the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11

the difference is, we should be in AFGH, but we shouldn't be in Iraq.

"Fuck, let's get the hell out of here." really won't help the nonTaliban people of AFGH.

[Better Believe It]

10. Who Wrote That? Are We Missing Something?

[madeline_con]

12. I did.

It was my interpretation of the post I replied to.

[Better Believe It]

9. Before You Make Judgements Read The Entire Interview And .....

visit the Afghan Women's Mission website at:
http://afghanwomensmission.org/index.php

And also visit the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) website at:

http://www.rawa.org/index.php

RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977.

[madeline_con]

15. No judgement, just my opinion.

I don't have to agree with her, just because she's a woman who does as she pleases and knows what's best for those who can't.

[jwirr]

11. What will they have left after we do what we have done to Iraq? We

have totally destroyed the infrastructure in Iraq. We are trying to build a pipeline for oil through Afghanistan and that is what we are trying to protect. I do not think the motives in this war are any more clear than in Iraq.

However, I agree with you that the women are going to suffer. But are the women in Iraq having a better time because we are there? Women tend to be the big victims of war regardless of what culture they live in. It is totally unfair but I do not think war can change that. The more threatened the men of that nation feel the tighter their hold on the women will become.

[madeline_con]

16. 93% of the world's opium to fund the Taliban.

Edited to add:

It's not like Afghanistan was big on infrastructure before we showed up. They don't even have a railroad.

[jwirr]

20. They have homes, stores, services, all those things that break down

in war. As to the opium - I understand that it has been getting more profitable since the war began. There are other ways to fight these issues than war.

[madeline_con]

21. Name 3. n/t

[jwirr]

24. Law enforcement - we should have been chasing OBL through law

agencies, diplomacy in partnership with other countries - convincing them there are good reasons to go along with what we want, example - something we used to do, and finally we have used foreign aid funding to change many a countries attitudes.

[madeline_con]

26. 1. Cops against armed militants. okaaaay.

Cops with RPGs, Apache helicopters, bombers and tanks, right.

2. Sic the Pakistanis on them? C'mon!

3. The foreign aid focus might work. But, there is so much funding of this war lord and that tribal leader through diverted funds, our own intelligence and materiel support could be damaged. It's hard to sort out the players.

spell edit

[jwirr]

27. Yeah we are doing so great with everlasting wars!

[madeline_con]

29. Some wars are just, and some aren't.

Nation building, in the case of Afghanistan, seems like the thing to do. They have nothing except misery. The only people getting rich are the Taliban and those funded by DUH-bya. change is possible with level headed leadership.

[Vogon_Glory]

13. You're NOT Out of Line

You're not out of line. You're one of the only people I've seen on this thread who didn't let knee-jerk anti-imperialism get in their way of an accurate assessment of the misogynistic Taliban regime supported by religious extremists and partially subsidized by the Boosh regime until Osama bin Laden sprung his September surprise on Buckaroo Bush and Dead-Eye Dick Cheney.

Many of us remember learning just how repressive the Taliban was back when Georgie was angling for a way to set off a war with Iraq and self-styled progressives chose to let their intentions drift elsewhere. After all, if a regime prohibited widows from earning a living or prohibited women from either getting an education or from leaving their homes without a male relative escorting them, it's no progressive's business if that regime is anti-western, right? :sarcasm:

Yes, the Taliban WOULD take over again if the US and NATO troops pulled out. There isn't support for a non-aligned neutral government that could stand on its own against foreign aggressors or Taliban fanatics.

The US Afghan adventure is a fiasco--because Boosh and his buddies failed to finish off the Taliban. Instead, Boosh pulled out US troops to go fight his "W"ar in Iraq and handed off Afghanistan to NATO allies. Nearly SEVEN years of neglect let the Taliban organize and rebuild its strength. What a decent government should have done is destroyed the Taliban's ground forces back in 2001 and 2002, then spent the remaining years rebuilding at least some of what had been destroyed in decades of war since the Soviet invasion back in 1979. Instead, criminals and bunglers in the Boosh regime pulled out vital support so the Bushies could play "sojer" somewhere else and corner the Middle East's oil supply.

:grr:

[bigmoon]

17. You admit it's a fiasco yet want to keep troops there??

I don't get it.

And the Taliban will never been destroyed unless we invade their safe havens in Pakistan.

[madeline_con]

19. On the border, about 2 feet from Afghanistan.

We can't run to Pakistan, and leave the Afghanis to deal with the Talis on their own. The border is porous. Both sides need to be monitored.

[Vogon_Glory]

22. Not Surprised

I'm not surprised.

I think a change of regime in Washington might bring in people who actually know how to wage a successful ounter-insurgency campaign in place of what appear to be a bunch of incompetent Boosh--Cheney political appointees put in Kabul on the basis of their loyalty to Georgiekins and his relatives, their contributions to the RNC, membership in the American Conservative Union, and their opposition to Roe versus Wade.

Considering the numbers of foreign relief workers killed by the Taliban even before the 2001 US invasion, I find the notion that a US/NATO withdrawl will end the killing of innocents to be fatuous nonsense.

I agree that to eliminate the Taliban, the good guys need to clean them out of their Pakistani safe havens.

[madeline_con]

18. Thank you for that. n/t

[Better Believe It]

23. Perhaps You Should Read What Afghan Women's Rights Activists Have To Say

They certainly know and understand more than you and me about their situation today.

Here's an excerpt from the RAWA statement released on International Women's Day, March 8, 2008:

Women's Rights Catastrophe in Afghanistan

After the US and allies invaded Afghanistan around seven years ago, they misleadingly claimed of bringing peace and democracy and liberating Afghan women from the bleeding fetters of the Taliban. But in reality Afghan women are still burning voraciously in the inferno of fundamentalism. Women are exchanged with dogs, girls are gang-raped, men in the Jehadi-dominated society kill their wives viciously and violently, burn them by throwing hot water, cut off their nose and toes, innocent women are stoned to death and other heinous crimes are being committed. But the mafia government of Mr. Karzai is tirelessly trying to conciliate with the criminals and award medals to those who should be prosecuted for their crimes and lootings.

The true nature of the US “war on terror” drama has been exposed today and we witness that they are killing thousands of our innocent people under the name of “fighting terrorists” while on the other hand they are busy in dealing with the barbaric fascist Taliban trying to gloss some of them as “moderates” in order to share power with them. These treacherous acts of demagogy have revealed it once again to our people and to the world that the US government and its allies were just pursuing their strategic, economic and political gains in Afghanistan and pushing our people to increasing destitution and disasters. Installing the “Northern Alliance” brutal warlords on power and changing Afghanistan into the center of the world drug mafia, have been the first and foremost objectives of their wrong policies.

RAWA from the very first days stated that no country will grant freedom and democracy to another country and today this reality is evident to all. The US disguised the dead rats of yesterday with suits and ties thus released them like wild wolves on our people and are doing nothing about the current crimes, violation of human rights, looting of millions dollars of aid by warlords and corrupt NGOs. If the billions of dollars of aid directed in the name of reconstruction were not poured in the pockets of criminals in the parliament and cabinet, natural hazards like freezing winter would have not taken so many lives today. Even if a small portion of that money was spent for the relief of people, the life conditions of our miserable people, particularly women would have not been so tragic.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) once again proclaims that all gloomy days and miseries of our country have roots in the existence of fundamentalist forces be it Jehadi or Taliban styles and as long as this filthy virus is not removed from the body of our country, our nation and country will never see the light of happiness and development.

You can read the entire statement of RAWA at:
http://www.rawa.org/events/mar8-2008_e.htm


RAWA Celebrates the International Women’s Day
1,500 men and women participated in the event








And here's some information about RAWA which I admit I'm impressed with not having any knowledge about the organization until very recently.
This is their statement on their history and objectives:

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . RAWA’s objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women’s human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.

Before the Moscow-directed coup d’état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA’s activities were confined to agitation for women’s rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance. In contradistinction to the absolute majority of the vaunted Islamic fundamentalist "freedom fighters" of the anti-Soviet war of resistance, RAWA from the outset advocated democracy and secularism. Despite the horrors and the political oppression, RAWA’s appeal and influence grew in the years of the Soviet occupation and a growing number of RAWA activists were sent to work among refugee women in Pakistan. For the purpose of addressing the immediate needs of refugee women and children, RAWA established schools with hostels for boys and girls, a hospital for refugee Afghan women and children in Quetta, Pakistan with mobile teams. In addition, it conducted nursing courses, literacy courses and vocational training courses for women.

Demonstrations against the Soviet invaders and their stooges and later on against the fundamentalists, and unrelenting exposure of their treason and heinous crimes has been a hallmark of RAWA’s political activities. It was in consequence of its anti-Soviet occupationist struggle and agitation that RAWA was marked for annihilation by the Soviets and their cronies, while the Islamic fundamentalists vented their wrath on our organisation for our pro-democracy, pro-secularist and anti-fundamentalist stance. Our uncompromising attitude against these two enemies of our people has cost us dear, as witnessed by the martyrdom of our founding leader and a large number of our key activists, but we have unswervingly stood, and continue to stand, by our principles despite the deadly blows that we have been dealt.

Since the overthrow of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in 1992 the focus of RAWA’s political struggle has been against the fundamentalists’ and the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban’s criminal policies and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan in general and their incredibly ultra-male-chauvinistic and anti-woman orientation in particular. Apart from the political challenges facing RAWA, tremendous social and relief work amongst unimaginably traumatised women and children lie ahead of us, but unfortunately we do not at the moment enjoy any support from international NGOs or governments, therefore we can't run our humanitarian projects as effective as we wish due to lack of funds..

The US "War on terrorism" removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries. In fact, by reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan, the US administration is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. The US government and Mr.Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

RAWA believes that freedom and democracy can’t be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values. Under the US-supported government, the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.

Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved. Today RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.

[madeline_con]

28. How will our leaving improve the situation in which...

"But in reality Afghan women are still burning voraciously in the inferno of fundamentalism. Women are exchanged with dogs, girls are gang-raped, men in the Jehadi-dominated society kill their wives viciously and violently, burn them by throwing hot water, cut off their nose and toes, innocent women are stoned to death and other heinous crimes are being committed."


Maybe a change in tactics, by a new American President, might be a better approach than hauling ass.
Karzai could die in a tragic bombing ala Bhutto, and a new leader installed.

Abandoning the Afghanis is just wrong.

[uppityperson]

25. I don't think you are out of line. Things need to be changed, and I don't think just leaving is how

to do it. I don't think throwing more troops in to continue as they are doing is the answer either. It doesn't have to be and either/or choice (stay and continue the same or leave). I see shades of grey and yes, if the USA just leaves, there will be a lot of dead people and women will revert to slaves even more than they are now.

But yes, there does need to be a change.

[Better Believe It]

30. So The Best Sources For Factual News About Afghanistan Are ....

organizations that are actually involved in the struggle for a free, democratic and secular Afghanistan.

The Afghan Women's Mission and RAWA are two of those organizations.

Does anyone here have information and links to other Afghan organizations we should follow?

Post them please.

[ConsAreLiars]

31. Rec -Thank you (and Sonali) for cutting through the warmongers' BS about "liberating" Afghanistan

This is a brutal war of occupation, and those who buy the crap that the US invaders are there to improve the lot of women there are just being used and deceived. Easily fooled, since almost nobody has anything but some cartoon propaganda to base their opinions on.

If the goal had been to de-fang the murder cell led by bin Laden there were two VERY easy ways to accomplish that without an invasion and occupation. But that was neither the goal nor the result.

This quote is key: "The vast majority of Afghans are moderate Muslims who strongly disagree with the Taliban's extremist ideology, but they have joined the struggle to bring an end to the occupation."

In an earlier period the Taliban also gained support when they were seen as better than the chaos of a decade of civil war and chaos created when the US brought foreign religious crazies into that previously rather moderate country. That evil monster Brzezinski (dismissing his actions as merely causing "a few stirred up Muslims") had succeeded in turning Afghanistan into a killing field, arming and organizing the religious zealots, and turning the whole land into a killing field.

No, Afghanistan was never a utopia or the holy grail for the women's liberation struggle. It was more like India or Turkey than Holland. But it was an intact society making changes and progress on its own terms and at its own pace before the multinational corporatists decided to butcher the people who lived there to expand their global dominance.

Before the US turned it into a slaughterhouse, there was a long history of progress and setbacks. People who are actually interested in learning a bit of that history can find some instructive reading at: http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/web/JournalofInternationalWomensStudies/2003/Vol4Nr3May/Afghanistan.pdf

For a direct look at that land and the people the US is now bombing and murdering, from several visits from 1973 through 2003, see http://www.lukepowell.com/

(edit to note the recommendation for this post and the information in it)

[Better Believe It]

32. And Thank You For Your Information