Good article: thanks, Cheryl Benard. The hypocrisy of UK liberals on this subject is breath-taking. In 2008, Sharia Law in the UK was given the nod of approval by the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Now anyone who criticises Sharia courts, burqas, etc., in the UK is accused of racism by the liberal elite. Yet the same liberal elite are hand-wringing about the fate of the abandoned women of Afghanistan.
Some things are actually just wrong regardless of culture or tradition and should be dealt with subtly but continually .To make continuous public and much reported clamour strengthens the hand of the oppressor in a closed traditional society. The wrong tools have had no real impact on the lives of Afghan women, so yes, thanks Cheryl Benard I so hope those with any potential to bring change have heard your argument.
Eddie Johnson
2 years ago
Amidst UnHerd’s now Guardian-style gloating (Roussinos) and yes, in some ways justified criticism of the West and particularly of the “evil empire” America in its approach to the Islamic world, when will we be treated to an analysis of why not one of the world’s 57 or so Muslim countries can remotely be described as a democracy.
Or why virtually all of these countries are, according to Amnesty, guilty of routinely practicing torture, serious human rights abuses, suppression of free speech and, with very few exceptions, of generally treating both gays and women as fecal matter.
Or why of the nations listed in the UN’s “Worst 10 Countries for Women” virtually all are Muslim majority or Islamic states?
You know, in the interests of balance and all that…
No doubt Islam is the main culprit. But I don’t think the author disputes that. I wish that the US when contemplating an intervention tried to know the situation at the ground level and maybe learn about the people, their history and culture. There was a lot of wishful thinking and amateurism in Vietnam, Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Competely agree. The more I’ve read about the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, the more incredulous I’ve become over the levels of corruption and sheer naivity.
That said, this debacle has also provided an opportunity for many on the left to dust off their old shibboleths about US hegemonial ambitions and neo-imperialism etc.. and, as in the case of Roussinos et al, regard the de facto defeat of the West as a cause for celebration.
It helps that Islam is “the completion, culmination, and perfection of all the previous revelations”, so what was true and correct in the 7th, or 8th or 9th century, depending on when it was “written down without error”, is true and correct now and for ever. Given that democracy in effect places the word of Man above that of God, it is at best irrelevant and at worst heretical.
An excellent and important question. Please can Freddie Sayers respond?
Drahcir Nevarc
2 years ago
“Personally, I had long since lost respect for the self-promoting feminists of Kabul, who knew exactly which Western buttons to push but deployed that skill almost exclusively for their own benefit. They loved attending conferences abroad, were expert at obtaining lucrative contracts to “train” each other in such skills as public speaking, leadership and “advocacy,” “ This made me think of Harry and Meghan.
Richard Barnes
2 years ago
The creation of a small urban elite of professional feminists with no concern for their poorer and less sophisticated sisters is a phenomenon not confined to Afghanistan.
Crap. There are plenty feminists who are trying very hard to encourage ordinary women to be involved in developing policy and legislation and developing community initiatives. The issue is these activities are not “sexy” so are not reported on. Every community has something happening in it started by women for their community of interest or geographical community.
My friends and I have been feminists for more than 40 years and we have been community activists for as long. We are not special. We are professional women, stay at home mums, kinship carers, survivors if abuse, reformed prisoners and recovering addicts. We are the ordinary women doing…
The problem is as the article says, Western ideas do not necessarily translate directly into initiatives in other countries and learning is forgotten do the wheel is constant reinvented. It is time to trust the women at grass roots who know ehat they need in their communities to empower themselves and others. We need to leave our opinions at passport control.
“I would say it’s now mandatory for modern feminism not to care about poorer women”
“Crap”.
Then perhaps you could explain why there was not one single hashtag in support of the 20,000 or so (source: Independent) raped, tortured, traumatised and mainly underage victims of the so-called “grooming gangs”.
Virtually all of them came from deprived backgrounds.
Compare that deafening silence among UK feminists to their response to the #MeToo revelations, which spawned countless thousands of hashtags and even mass demonstrations.
It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that it is not the pain and suffering of the victims of male violence which is of primary concern to feminists, but first and foremost the ethnicity of their tormentors.
Recall how Corbyn sacked Ms Champion from his shadow cabinet – to the enthusiastic approbation of so-called feminists and the Left – for having the temerity to identify the ethnic background of the culprits (“not helpful”).
I can’t remember such scruples in naming those accused of sexual impropriety during the wave of #MeToo allegations, can you?
Brilliant article, brutally honest about the lives of poor afghan women and the wests woeful and corrupt efforts to, if not emancipate them, give them some dignity. The same could be said of others countries (perhaps those we inhabit to some degree) where the middle classes laud the empowerment of elite women, but ignore the repression and struggle of the poor and uneducated women. Well said.
Last edited 2 years ago by Lee Jones
Tom Lewis
2 years ago
There’s one word for what is described “Corruption”,;sure it might not, to our Western eyes, look like corruption, but that is what it is. Whether it be government projects, NGO projects, or contractor projects, they had , maybe innocently, maybe as an unspoken side aim, maybe even as a cynical main aim, a self fulfilling and self supporting system of patronage, paid for, and squandered by Gimps ( no doubt, highly educated with degrees coming out of every orifice and a plethora of self improvement / enlightenment / awareness courses, to boot) using money ( Not theirs, obviously, or at least so much that they would notice) using other peoples, the toiling masses, just trying to get through life, money, moving on from one “failed” utopian dream to the next with barely a blush of embarrassment between them.
I’m glad this article has been written, I think it sums up, and concurs with thoughts that I’ve had for a long time, a “corruption” in ideas and values at the heart of Western thinking, throwing other peoples money at pet projects all the while stripping out, from the countries, the very people who could most bring about change.
More to the point, the UK has very strict anti-corruption laws, applicable wheresoever it takes place in the world. But seemingly only applicable to private enterprise.
I do wonder how many of those being relocated to the UK had their snouts deeply into the corruption trough and to this we turn a blind eye.
Matthew Powell
2 years ago
A good article. It seems to not have occurred to many Western activists that not only trying to impose a leftist Liberal political model on a population that is predominantly conservative Muslim, but even more astonishingly, not foreseeing that only bestowing its benefits on a small minority of the population, would lead to resentment, if not outright hatred, for the elites in Kabul. The Taliban couldn’t have asked for better recruitment agents.
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Even though I can admire the knowledge of the author, there is something deeply depressing about this essay. Good intent is not always a bad thing and some lives improved and uplifted are better than none – even if this was a lost cause. Being brought up and living in a country with tens of millions of poor people, I can assure anyone that education is the key to upliftment, even though this takes a long time. As a woman this is of course deeply personal. I could easily have been one of these hapless souls.
I have lived amongst and worked with many Muslim women, some are friends and all are unique and different. This said, if given a choice, being born a Muslim woman would have almost certainly been close to one of the bottom of my choices.
“this takes a long time” – Exactly why the west left. The NATO military could have helped the Afghan army but decided to stop. While 20 years is a long time, generationaly quite short. If the graft and corruption could be reduced in the next government the outlays for NATO support could be further reduced. The decision that the Taliban would be the rulers was shameful. Change in societies do take a long time.
Powerful, sad, thought-provoking, challenging and beautifully written. Thank you Cheryl Benard, we needed to read this, have you sent a copy to the new incumbent at the FO?
David Morley
2 years ago
What a great, clear, clear sighted piece. The author self describes as a feminist – which she clearly is. More writing like this might restore feminisms good name.
I know it doesn’t have the same urgency, and the stakes are lower, but the same self critical eye is needed on feminism at home. There’s way too much obfuscation, focussing on stuff that scarcely matters, fixing problems for rich people, fixing problems that are fixed or fixing themselves – and riding the gravy train.
Last edited 2 years ago by David Morley
Gordon Black
2 years ago
Excellent article … fantasies mugged by reality. I am sure an analogous truth could be exposed about similar categories of western women.
Ellen Finkle
2 years ago
Islam does not allow forced marriage and does not require women to cover anything more than what modesty demands; it does not ban them from public spaces, and it energetically prohibits Afghan customs such as settling disputes by giving a girl to the enemy clan as a slave.
“What else but extreme condescension explains the delighted surprise with which we received such stories?”
Who is “we” here? The Washington élite? The Washington élite, the media and the aid experts and technical supporters? “Delighted surprise”: how was this supposedly insincere glee conveyed such that you might know about this? At gala events in hotels in America? In the next day’s headlines? Among the chatter between cool Afghan feminists and their American benefactors?
“Extreme condescension” is a very unflattering term as well as misplaced. It smacks of having nothing to do with the target of the condescension. Nothing at all. That’s what extreme means in that context. But heh hoh, the West must be all out to blame for Afghanistan’s ills along with the West End Girls, cool-Afghan-feminist-style. What will now be next year’s big hit song or movie? “The Taliban can’t help it”, probably.
The delighted and so touched Americans cannot be accused of indifference, at least. But everybody else can! To a greater or lesser degree. From Afghanistan’s near neighbours to much further afield.
Traditionally, well, as has been seen down through the years and decades, even centuries, the poor and downtrodden in America could dream of one day making it big, or of becoming somebody. Both men and women, young and very young. That’s all the Americans want to impart on other nations, peoples, ultimately.
Now that the bright lights of Kabul and District have gone out, where else does the Afghan lady street artist or lady musician or budding robotics engineer go? There is no greyhound bus to take them anywhere else that’s kind and kind of exciting, in that region.
But America and the West are all to blame. As usual!
“But America and the West are all to blame. As usual!”
Which, together with a distasteful element of Schadenfreude, has been the general tenor of every article published in Unherd on this issue, which bizarrely regards the resurgence of the Taliban as a “victory”.
This has been a very somber read.
However who can possibly blame the type 2 and 3 women for leaving? Who wouldn’t, if in the same predicament?
Last edited 2 years ago by Andrea X
Sue Reid
2 years ago
A most important article that those in Westminster and Washington should heed – particularly (though unlikely) the liberal professing charitable foundations and NGOs which have greedily eaten up 20 years of aid funds and worse. All based on absolute falsehoods. Just like Haiti where the most powerful of the US charities were flying in play equipment as shacks lay in ruins and stealing orphans for a life un Utah.
Deborah B
2 years ago
Thank you for an excellent article that informs and provokes real discussion.
Your description of rural Afghan women reminds me very much of the wives of Bangladeshi workers who came to the UK in the 1970s onwards to work at London Brick. My job involved lots of visits to check living conditions. Predictably, their housing was the poorest our town offered.
I learned much during that time about the glaring cultural differences, often blamed on religion but on closer inspection more related to their living conditions in the villages they came from. Poor, illiterate, powerless, lacking understanding of what a bathroom is for or why you don’t leave chicken entrails in your dustbin. Not a criticism, believe me. Merely an observation that feminism, advocacy, human rights, democracy … Afghan women need these things as much as they need a fancy designer dress. Not at all.
In the West we take the basics for granted. Clean water, sewage treatment, sufficient decent food, a roof over your head, good health, being able to read and write. But a hundred and fifty years ago these were still luxurious for the majority of Britons.
My ancestors lived in a two up, two down farm cottage in the middle of nowhere and farm wages kept them fed, just. And there were 12 children! No mains water and a bucket and chuck it. Bury the contents in the garden.
So, we must focus on the basics. Because we have forgotten how important they are.
David McDowell
2 years ago
Certainly a far more honest article on this subject than anything I’ve read elsewhere. Equally, we should just accept that it’s none of our business, period.
Jorge Espinha
2 years ago
This is disheartening. I wish foreigner policy from the US was backed with historians and deep knowledge of the present situation. Local knowledge past and present. We end up talking to he people that most resemble us in those countries. I read “globalization and its discontents” by Stiglitz, and he goes on abour his conversarion with foreigner officials. People like him. Educated in similar universities. Then I lived 1 year in Mozambique in a very rural if tourist area. And I saw what the little guy had to come against everyday. Lack of roads, lack of transport, lack of drinking water and the ever presence of the opressive state never willing to help but always demanding bribes. And this goes over the heads of the Stiglizes of the world.
Nicholas Taylor
2 years ago
“Their lives have barely changed over the past two centuries”. You could easily substitute fourteen or twenty centuries for two. What has happened in the past two centuries is that our lives have changed – ‘our’ meaning European or of European extraction. Two centuries ago ‘our’ women, while not necessarily ‘oppressed’, were hardly more free. Women in Switzerland, that most enlightened of countries, could not vote nationally until 1971. The adventures in Afghanistan and elsewhere can be seen as the conscious exercise of brute power in pursuit of economic interest, or as an unconscious expression of the momentum set off by the Enlightenment, Afghanistan being just one obstacle it has tripped over in its headlong rush. Whence comes the urgency of rescuing women in Afghanistan and similar countries? I doubt it is just the self-interest of ensuring that immigrants leave their uglier or more contagious cultural practices at home. It requires identification. This was little problem even for quite recent generations. I happened to glance at today’s TV schedules which warn that attitudes expressed in movies from the 1950s and 1960s “may cause offence”. Some attitudes in previous decades caused more than offence. There is a danger that, being so bombarded with information that does not discriminate between near and far, ‘we’ may collapse into a state of guilt paralysis. The alternative is to see Afghanistan as just one more revolutionary tornado in a swarm set off by the greater revolution, barely if at all under rational control. Afghanistan can trace its present condition to an earlier revolution and flood of moral fervour, riding on what – naked greed? Unravelling motivations buried in the detail of events is contentious. People understandably identify with women in Afghanistan, but then if you cast the net wider, say to non-human animals, who have not even Huxley’s ‘a word and a blow’ and whose lives really are ‘nasty, brutish and short’, where do you stop? So let it go, and focus on what can actually be done.
‘‘May cause offence’’, eh? ‘TV schedules’, eh? Today, eh?
During the olden days of television, the TV schedule printed in newspapers were often headlined by “TV Entertainment”. And underneath you might have seen “May leave you feeling extremely entertained”. Well, not really.
James Joyce
2 years ago
Who is the “we” that Ms. Benard continually refers to above? We did this, we did that, there are things we failed to do….
Perhaps some interesting insights, but let’s not forget that Cheryl Benard and her husband Zalmay Khalilzad are part of the problem. Cheryl was sitting @ her desk @ the RAND Corporation looking for ways to do good, countries to help–white saviour mentality. I found it! A problem “we” can solve: the basic physical condition of the average Afghan woman. RAND Corporation is on it! Wir schaffen das! We can do it!
What a great formula for success! Let’s see, how did that turn out?
Zalmay was ingratiating himself with American Neo-cons and pushing for removing Saddam Hussein. He also had a major hand in the Afghanistan. How did that turn out?
Now that Afghanistan has returned to the hands of the Taliban, perhaps Cheryl can move on to other, pressing problems that she and RAND can solve. I hear that Nigerian girls are often kidnapped in Africa…..
As my grandmother–with a sixth grade education sometimes said “The smart ones are the dumb ones.”
Joseph Meissner meissner and associates and Lawyers for Life
Very fine article on Afghanistan women. This certainly adds some balance. I saw the initial protests in Kabul and thought this was the Afghan woman speaking out. But a day or two later I saw the Burka clad women with an opposing view marching in Kabul. So wait a minute, who is the “Real” Afghan woman? Maybe they all are and we should try to listen to all.
There is a certain disdain in this article and I think it needs to be explored. There were many people including soldiers who did their very best in Afghanistan and many who suffered and many who died which includes some 2,300 US soliders, thousands of Allies, 64,000 Afghan government soldiers, and who knows how many Taliban and other groups, and 13 US soldiers at the end, and then ten civilians including seven children mistakenly killed by the “righteous strike” drone. an who can count all the others?. It would be easy to say “this was all a terrible mistake, sorry,” walk away and leave the people there alone. I reject this view, but what should we be doing? Just taking touristy vacations to Mexico which never really visit Mexico, enjoying our cafe lattes, and wandering thru art galleries? Is there another way? For fifty years I have been working wth Vietnamese resettling in America, supporting school construction near Dien Bien Phu, and returning annually to my Second Homeland. I do not have final answers, but I would really love to hear from others especially those who have not given up yet which is i worry where the article on Afghan women seems to be headed. From LTC-RET Joseph Meissner, [email protected]
I read a letter to the editor in the WSJ and it posed this question: What we “owe” the Afghans who helped us depends on whether we were there to help them or they were there to help us? Do you agree?
I did not support the invasion of Afghanistan and certainly not nation building so women can go to school. Really?
Re Vietnam, Frank Snepp–CIA analyst who was there at the end in Saigon, did an excellent podcast on Secrets and Spies, talking about the utter stupidity of the evacuation, repeated in Kabul. I suggest you listen.
Finally, with respect, I disagree with your work on resettling Vietnamese “refugees” in America. Do you agree that there is (at least) a powerful argument that the people you are resettling are traitors to their country? They backed the wrong horse, mate, and actions have consequences. Not our job to save them. If they collaborated with American forces and have Vietnamese blood on their hands, well, let the Vietnamese deal with this.
Joseph Meissner meissner and associates and Lawyers for Life
Thank you for your comments. Why do you use the term “traitors”? Is that just another term for “Losers”? Many today in Hong Kong seem like they have lost. A number are in jail for speaking out. Are they “traitors?” What about the people in Tibet? “Traitors”? “Backing the wrong horse” can be an act of courage and virtue. You mention “not our job to save them.” How do you make that judgment? Right now we are receiving many refugees from Afghanistan. What is your judgment about them? I am not trying to argue points. Having helped many from the different sides in the war in Viet Nam (there were at least fifty different sides all of whom lost blood and took blood), what should we do in response? Love to hear from you.
Joseph Meissner, LTC-RET, Viet Nam Veteran I
Important information here! It strongly speaks to the motives of the author.
Warren T
2 years ago
Just walk through most Walmart stores in most of the U.S., except in the suburban areas, and you won’t see much of a difference in the women, except for being under clothed, fully tattooed and smoking while dragging at least one child along. But at least they are “free”.
A bit of ugly, no? Walmart has well dressed, well educated school teachers shopping as well.
Pete Marsh
2 years ago
“Last time they forbade the keeping of songbirds, which I promise you is a rule found nowhere in the Quran. “
Just because it’s not in the Koran doesn’t mean it’s not Islam. It’s probably from one of the ‘reliable’ Hadiths such as Bukari (there are many thousands) or from the very influential biography of their prophet the Sirah of Mohammad.
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago
“And hope that one fine day, in her own time, in her own ecosystem, the nightingale will sing.”
Is that identity politics there? Know your (forlorn) place. Well, if the ones who come from affluent families and clans need to know their place, you cannot blame them either. They too have been conditioned by their environment, upbringing. Will any of them, anywhere in the country, actually sing? In the distant future?
An American lady who supported a small group of Afghan women to go orienteering and mountaineering during the days of freedom has seen her charges disappear into the buzz of Kabul and District and get rid of their hiking boots. Lest the Taliban wonder what sort of bird they are. Fancy the bird that thinks itself colourful, bold, adventurous! But not in the woke world of identity politics. That world says that if the female of a particular species comes out of her shell in such a desolate, restrictive and hopeless land such as Afghanistan, then that would be anathema to the promoters of identity politics in the West, what with the now millions of both well-off and poor Muslims now resident in Western Europe who, I imagine, like their mostly downtrodden, shut-away female counterparts in Afghanistan, will take all the time in the world, within THEIR own ecosystems, to prove how pious and committed they are to their identity as well as religion. It wouldn’t do to have generous, forward-thinking, celebratory, delighted Americans upsetting the apple cart of established proprieties in far-off Afghanistan, would it?
But what with the events in America of late, it looks like the politics of identity politics has gained much ground. Unfortunately.
Tom Watson
2 years ago
Excellent article.
Jerry Jay Carroll
2 years ago
You will never hear a peep from the nightingale. Time to move on.
Good article: thanks, Cheryl Benard. The hypocrisy of UK liberals on this subject is breath-taking. In 2008, Sharia Law in the UK was given the nod of approval by the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Now anyone who criticises Sharia courts, burqas, etc., in the UK is accused of racism by the liberal elite. Yet the same liberal elite are hand-wringing about the fate of the abandoned women of Afghanistan.
Some things are actually just wrong regardless of culture or tradition and should be dealt with subtly but continually .To make continuous public and much reported clamour strengthens the hand of the oppressor in a closed traditional society. The wrong tools have had no real impact on the lives of Afghan women, so yes, thanks Cheryl Benard I so hope those with any potential to bring change have heard your argument.
Amidst UnHerd’s now Guardian-style gloating (Roussinos) and yes, in some ways justified criticism of the West and particularly of the “evil empire” America in its approach to the Islamic world, when will we be treated to an analysis of why not one of the world’s 57 or so Muslim countries can remotely be described as a democracy.
Or why virtually all of these countries are, according to Amnesty, guilty of routinely practicing torture, serious human rights abuses, suppression of free speech and, with very few exceptions, of generally treating both gays and women as fecal matter.
Or why of the nations listed in the UN’s “Worst 10 Countries for Women” virtually all are Muslim majority or Islamic states?
You know, in the interests of balance and all that…
No doubt Islam is the main culprit. But I don’t think the author disputes that. I wish that the US when contemplating an intervention tried to know the situation at the ground level and maybe learn about the people, their history and culture. There was a lot of wishful thinking and amateurism in Vietnam, Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Competely agree. The more I’ve read about the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, the more incredulous I’ve become over the levels of corruption and sheer naivity.
That said, this debacle has also provided an opportunity for many on the left to dust off their old shibboleths about US hegemonial ambitions and neo-imperialism etc.. and, as in the case of Roussinos et al, regard the de facto defeat of the West as a cause for celebration.
It helps that Islam is “the completion, culmination, and perfection of all the previous revelations”, so what was true and correct in the 7th, or 8th or 9th century, depending on when it was “written down without error”, is true and correct now and for ever. Given that democracy in effect places the word of Man above that of God, it is at best irrelevant and at worst heretical.
An excellent and important question. Please can Freddie Sayers respond?
“Personally, I had long since lost respect for the self-promoting feminists of Kabul, who knew exactly which Western buttons to push but deployed that skill almost exclusively for their own benefit. They loved attending conferences abroad, were expert at obtaining lucrative contracts to “train” each other in such skills as public speaking, leadership and “advocacy,” “
This made me think of Harry and Meghan.
The creation of a small urban elite of professional feminists with no concern for their poorer and less sophisticated sisters is a phenomenon not confined to Afghanistan.
I would say it’s now mandatory for modern feminism not to care about poorer women
Crap. There are plenty feminists who are trying very hard to encourage ordinary women to be involved in developing policy and legislation and developing community initiatives. The issue is these activities are not “sexy” so are not reported on. Every community has something happening in it started by women for their community of interest or geographical community.
My friends and I have been feminists for more than 40 years and we have been community activists for as long. We are not special. We are professional women, stay at home mums, kinship carers, survivors if abuse, reformed prisoners and recovering addicts. We are the ordinary women doing…
The problem is as the article says, Western ideas do not necessarily translate directly into initiatives in other countries and learning is forgotten do the wheel is constant reinvented. It is time to trust the women at grass roots who know ehat they need in their communities to empower themselves and others. We need to leave our opinions at passport control.
“I would say it’s now mandatory for modern feminism not to care about poorer women”
“Crap”.
Then perhaps you could explain why there was not one single hashtag in support of the 20,000 or so (source: Independent) raped, tortured, traumatised and mainly underage victims of the so-called “grooming gangs”.
Virtually all of them came from deprived backgrounds.
Compare that deafening silence among UK feminists to their response to the #MeToo revelations, which spawned countless thousands of hashtags and even mass demonstrations.
It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that it is not the pain and suffering of the victims of male violence which is of primary concern to feminists, but first and foremost the ethnicity of their tormentors.
Recall how Corbyn sacked Ms Champion from his shadow cabinet – to the enthusiastic approbation of so-called feminists and the Left – for having the temerity to identify the ethnic background of the culprits (“not helpful”).
I can’t remember such scruples in naming those accused of sexual impropriety during the wave of #MeToo allegations, can you?
cf “Rotherham”…
Brilliant article, brutally honest about the lives of poor afghan women and the wests woeful and corrupt efforts to, if not emancipate them, give them some dignity. The same could be said of others countries (perhaps those we inhabit to some degree) where the middle classes laud the empowerment of elite women, but ignore the repression and struggle of the poor and uneducated women. Well said.
There’s one word for what is described “Corruption”,;sure it might not, to our Western eyes, look like corruption, but that is what it is. Whether it be government projects, NGO projects, or contractor projects, they had , maybe innocently, maybe as an unspoken side aim, maybe even as a cynical main aim, a self fulfilling and self supporting system of patronage, paid for, and squandered by Gimps ( no doubt, highly educated with degrees coming out of every orifice and a plethora of self improvement / enlightenment / awareness courses, to boot) using money ( Not theirs, obviously, or at least so much that they would notice) using other peoples, the toiling masses, just trying to get through life, money, moving on from one “failed” utopian dream to the next with barely a blush of embarrassment between them.
I’m glad this article has been written, I think it sums up, and concurs with thoughts that I’ve had for a long time, a “corruption” in ideas and values at the heart of Western thinking, throwing other peoples money at pet projects all the while stripping out, from the countries, the very people who could most bring about change.
More to the point, the UK has very strict anti-corruption laws, applicable wheresoever it takes place in the world. But seemingly only applicable to private enterprise.
I do wonder how many of those being relocated to the UK had their snouts deeply into the corruption trough and to this we turn a blind eye.
A good article. It seems to not have occurred to many Western activists that not only trying to impose a leftist Liberal political model on a population that is predominantly conservative Muslim, but even more astonishingly, not foreseeing that only bestowing its benefits on a small minority of the population, would lead to resentment, if not outright hatred, for the elites in Kabul. The Taliban couldn’t have asked for better recruitment agents.
Even though I can admire the knowledge of the author, there is something deeply depressing about this essay. Good intent is not always a bad thing and some lives improved and uplifted are better than none – even if this was a lost cause. Being brought up and living in a country with tens of millions of poor people, I can assure anyone that education is the key to upliftment, even though this takes a long time. As a woman this is of course deeply personal. I could easily have been one of these hapless souls.
I have lived amongst and worked with many Muslim women, some are friends and all are unique and different. This said, if given a choice, being born a Muslim woman would have almost certainly been close to one of the bottom of my choices.
“this takes a long time” – Exactly why the west left. The NATO military could have helped the Afghan army but decided to stop. While 20 years is a long time, generationaly quite short. If the graft and corruption could be reduced in the next government the outlays for NATO support could be further reduced. The decision that the Taliban would be the rulers was shameful. Change in societies do take a long time.
Your point is? We should stay there ad infinitum?
Powerful, sad, thought-provoking, challenging and beautifully written. Thank you Cheryl Benard, we needed to read this, have you sent a copy to the new incumbent at the FO?
What a great, clear, clear sighted piece. The author self describes as a feminist – which she clearly is. More writing like this might restore feminisms good name.
I know it doesn’t have the same urgency, and the stakes are lower, but the same self critical eye is needed on feminism at home. There’s way too much obfuscation, focussing on stuff that scarcely matters, fixing problems for rich people, fixing problems that are fixed or fixing themselves – and riding the gravy train.
Excellent article … fantasies mugged by reality. I am sure an analogous truth could be exposed about similar categories of western women.
Source?
I’ve often asked, but have yet to receive a reply to what “modesty” actually means in this context.
The Quaran.
Please specify the verses.
“What else but extreme condescension explains the delighted surprise with which we received such stories?”
Who is “we” here? The Washington élite? The Washington élite, the media and the aid experts and technical supporters? “Delighted surprise”: how was this supposedly insincere glee conveyed such that you might know about this? At gala events in hotels in America? In the next day’s headlines? Among the chatter between cool Afghan feminists and their American benefactors?
“Extreme condescension” is a very unflattering term as well as misplaced. It smacks of having nothing to do with the target of the condescension. Nothing at all. That’s what extreme means in that context. But heh hoh, the West must be all out to blame for Afghanistan’s ills along with the West End Girls, cool-Afghan-feminist-style. What will now be next year’s big hit song or movie? “The Taliban can’t help it”, probably.
The delighted and so touched Americans cannot be accused of indifference, at least. But everybody else can! To a greater or lesser degree. From Afghanistan’s near neighbours to much further afield.
Traditionally, well, as has been seen down through the years and decades, even centuries, the poor and downtrodden in America could dream of one day making it big, or of becoming somebody. Both men and women, young and very young. That’s all the Americans want to impart on other nations, peoples, ultimately.
Now that the bright lights of Kabul and District have gone out, where else does the Afghan lady street artist or lady musician or budding robotics engineer go? There is no greyhound bus to take them anywhere else that’s kind and kind of exciting, in that region.
But America and the West are all to blame. As usual!
Pleased that I am not the only one cooing and praising this article.
“But America and the West are all to blame. As usual!”
Which, together with a distasteful element of Schadenfreude, has been the general tenor of every article published in Unherd on this issue, which bizarrely regards the resurgence of the Taliban as a “victory”.
Tragic victory.
This has been a very somber read.
However who can possibly blame the type 2 and 3 women for leaving? Who wouldn’t, if in the same predicament?
A most important article that those in Westminster and Washington should heed – particularly (though unlikely) the liberal professing charitable foundations and NGOs which have greedily eaten up 20 years of aid funds and worse. All based on absolute falsehoods. Just like Haiti where the most powerful of the US charities were flying in play equipment as shacks lay in ruins and stealing orphans for a life un Utah.
Thank you for an excellent article that informs and provokes real discussion.
Your description of rural Afghan women reminds me very much of the wives of Bangladeshi workers who came to the UK in the 1970s onwards to work at London Brick. My job involved lots of visits to check living conditions. Predictably, their housing was the poorest our town offered.
I learned much during that time about the glaring cultural differences, often blamed on religion but on closer inspection more related to their living conditions in the villages they came from. Poor, illiterate, powerless, lacking understanding of what a bathroom is for or why you don’t leave chicken entrails in your dustbin. Not a criticism, believe me. Merely an observation that feminism, advocacy, human rights, democracy … Afghan women need these things as much as they need a fancy designer dress. Not at all.
In the West we take the basics for granted. Clean water, sewage treatment, sufficient decent food, a roof over your head, good health, being able to read and write. But a hundred and fifty years ago these were still luxurious for the majority of Britons.
My ancestors lived in a two up, two down farm cottage in the middle of nowhere and farm wages kept them fed, just. And there were 12 children! No mains water and a bucket and chuck it. Bury the contents in the garden.
So, we must focus on the basics. Because we have forgotten how important they are.
Certainly a far more honest article on this subject than anything I’ve read elsewhere. Equally, we should just accept that it’s none of our business, period.
This is disheartening. I wish foreigner policy from the US was backed with historians and deep knowledge of the present situation. Local knowledge past and present. We end up talking to he people that most resemble us in those countries. I read “globalization and its discontents” by Stiglitz, and he goes on abour his conversarion with foreigner officials. People like him. Educated in similar universities. Then I lived 1 year in Mozambique in a very rural if tourist area. And I saw what the little guy had to come against everyday. Lack of roads, lack of transport, lack of drinking water and the ever presence of the opressive state never willing to help but always demanding bribes. And this goes over the heads of the Stiglizes of the world.
“Their lives have barely changed over the past two centuries”. You could easily substitute fourteen or twenty centuries for two. What has happened in the past two centuries is that our lives have changed – ‘our’ meaning European or of European extraction. Two centuries ago ‘our’ women, while not necessarily ‘oppressed’, were hardly more free. Women in Switzerland, that most enlightened of countries, could not vote nationally until 1971. The adventures in Afghanistan and elsewhere can be seen as the conscious exercise of brute power in pursuit of economic interest, or as an unconscious expression of the momentum set off by the Enlightenment, Afghanistan being just one obstacle it has tripped over in its headlong rush. Whence comes the urgency of rescuing women in Afghanistan and similar countries? I doubt it is just the self-interest of ensuring that immigrants leave their uglier or more contagious cultural practices at home. It requires identification. This was little problem even for quite recent generations. I happened to glance at today’s TV schedules which warn that attitudes expressed in movies from the 1950s and 1960s “may cause offence”. Some attitudes in previous decades caused more than offence. There is a danger that, being so bombarded with information that does not discriminate between near and far, ‘we’ may collapse into a state of guilt paralysis. The alternative is to see Afghanistan as just one more revolutionary tornado in a swarm set off by the greater revolution, barely if at all under rational control. Afghanistan can trace its present condition to an earlier revolution and flood of moral fervour, riding on what – naked greed? Unravelling motivations buried in the detail of events is contentious. People understandably identify with women in Afghanistan, but then if you cast the net wider, say to non-human animals, who have not even Huxley’s ‘a word and a blow’ and whose lives really are ‘nasty, brutish and short’, where do you stop? So let it go, and focus on what can actually be done.
‘‘May cause offence’’, eh? ‘TV schedules’, eh? Today, eh?
During the olden days of television, the TV schedule printed in newspapers were often headlined by “TV Entertainment”. And underneath you might have seen “May leave you feeling extremely entertained”. Well, not really.
Who is the “we” that Ms. Benard continually refers to above? We did this, we did that, there are things we failed to do….
Perhaps some interesting insights, but let’s not forget that Cheryl Benard and her husband Zalmay Khalilzad are part of the problem. Cheryl was sitting @ her desk @ the RAND Corporation looking for ways to do good, countries to help–white saviour mentality. I found it! A problem “we” can solve: the basic physical condition of the average Afghan woman. RAND Corporation is on it! Wir schaffen das! We can do it!
What a great formula for success! Let’s see, how did that turn out?
Zalmay was ingratiating himself with American Neo-cons and pushing for removing Saddam Hussein. He also had a major hand in the Afghanistan. How did that turn out?
Now that Afghanistan has returned to the hands of the Taliban, perhaps Cheryl can move on to other, pressing problems that she and RAND can solve. I hear that Nigerian girls are often kidnapped in Africa…..
As my grandmother–with a sixth grade education sometimes said “The smart ones are the dumb ones.”
Very fine article on Afghanistan women. This certainly adds some balance. I saw the initial protests in Kabul and thought this was the Afghan woman speaking out. But a day or two later I saw the Burka clad women with an opposing view marching in Kabul. So wait a minute, who is the “Real” Afghan woman? Maybe they all are and we should try to listen to all.
There is a certain disdain in this article and I think it needs to be explored. There were many people including soldiers who did their very best in Afghanistan and many who suffered and many who died which includes some 2,300 US soliders, thousands of Allies, 64,000 Afghan government soldiers, and who knows how many Taliban and other groups, and 13 US soldiers at the end, and then ten civilians including seven children mistakenly killed by the “righteous strike” drone. an who can count all the others?. It would be easy to say “this was all a terrible mistake, sorry,” walk away and leave the people there alone. I reject this view, but what should we be doing? Just taking touristy vacations to Mexico which never really visit Mexico, enjoying our cafe lattes, and wandering thru art galleries? Is there another way? For fifty years I have been working wth Vietnamese resettling in America, supporting school construction near Dien Bien Phu, and returning annually to my Second Homeland. I do not have final answers, but I would really love to hear from others especially those who have not given up yet which is i worry where the article on Afghan women seems to be headed. From LTC-RET Joseph Meissner, [email protected]
I read a letter to the editor in the WSJ and it posed this question: What we “owe” the Afghans who helped us depends on whether we were there to help them or they were there to help us? Do you agree?
I did not support the invasion of Afghanistan and certainly not nation building so women can go to school. Really?
Re Vietnam, Frank Snepp–CIA analyst who was there at the end in Saigon, did an excellent podcast on Secrets and Spies, talking about the utter stupidity of the evacuation, repeated in Kabul. I suggest you listen.
Finally, with respect, I disagree with your work on resettling Vietnamese “refugees” in America. Do you agree that there is (at least) a powerful argument that the people you are resettling are traitors to their country? They backed the wrong horse, mate, and actions have consequences. Not our job to save them. If they collaborated with American forces and have Vietnamese blood on their hands, well, let the Vietnamese deal with this.
TO James Joyce
Thank you for your comments. Why do you use the term “traitors”? Is that just another term for “Losers”? Many today in Hong Kong seem like they have lost. A number are in jail for speaking out. Are they “traitors?” What about the people in Tibet? “Traitors”? “Backing the wrong horse” can be an act of courage and virtue. You mention “not our job to save them.” How do you make that judgment? Right now we are receiving many refugees from Afghanistan. What is your judgment about them? I am not trying to argue points. Having helped many from the different sides in the war in Viet Nam (there were at least fifty different sides all of whom lost blood and took blood), what should we do in response? Love to hear from you.
Joseph Meissner, LTC-RET, Viet Nam Veteran I
Important information here! It strongly speaks to the motives of the author.
Just walk through most Walmart stores in most of the U.S., except in the suburban areas, and you won’t see much of a difference in the women, except for being under clothed, fully tattooed and smoking while dragging at least one child along. But at least they are “free”.
And definitely not starving.
A bit of ugly, no? Walmart has well dressed, well educated school teachers shopping as well.
“Last time they forbade the keeping of songbirds, which I promise you is a rule found nowhere in the Quran. “
Just because it’s not in the Koran doesn’t mean it’s not Islam. It’s probably from one of the ‘reliable’ Hadiths such as Bukari (there are many thousands) or from the very influential biography of their prophet the Sirah of Mohammad.
“And hope that one fine day, in her own time, in her own ecosystem, the nightingale will sing.”
Is that identity politics there? Know your (forlorn) place. Well, if the ones who come from affluent families and clans need to know their place, you cannot blame them either. They too have been conditioned by their environment, upbringing. Will any of them, anywhere in the country, actually sing? In the distant future?
An American lady who supported a small group of Afghan women to go orienteering and mountaineering during the days of freedom has seen her charges disappear into the buzz of Kabul and District and get rid of their hiking boots. Lest the Taliban wonder what sort of bird they are. Fancy the bird that thinks itself colourful, bold, adventurous! But not in the woke world of identity politics. That world says that if the female of a particular species comes out of her shell in such a desolate, restrictive and hopeless land such as Afghanistan, then that would be anathema to the promoters of identity politics in the West, what with the now millions of both well-off and poor Muslims now resident in Western Europe who, I imagine, like their mostly downtrodden, shut-away female counterparts in Afghanistan, will take all the time in the world, within THEIR own ecosystems, to prove how pious and committed they are to their identity as well as religion. It wouldn’t do to have generous, forward-thinking, celebratory, delighted Americans upsetting the apple cart of established proprieties in far-off Afghanistan, would it?
But what with the events in America of late, it looks like the politics of identity politics has gained much ground. Unfortunately.
Excellent article.
You will never hear a peep from the nightingale. Time to move on.