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Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
1 year ago

Far, far too indulgent of the taliban – they are not a bunch of “..bearded old men sitting around in Kandahar dreaming up the next ridiculous way to annoy girls and women..”, they are a barbaric medieval theocracy, who think of women and girls, if they think of them at all, as chattels. The reason they don’t see the point of sending girls to school, is exactly the same as the reason you wouldn’t see the point of sending a field full of cows to kindergarten. Moreover, it be can’t the theocracy oldies making decisions there, because, the country has amongst the youngest age demographics in the world. The taliban in fact arose out of militant islamic student movements – these are hoardes of semi-literate young men, giving themselves the veener of deeply held religious faith, so they can behave ferally within a framework of formality.

And what I find curious about this article is this: these are not people who are even willing to treat their own sisters and daughters as fully formed humans – a typical talibani type wouldn’t think twice about marrying off his own barely teenage daughters to men four times as old, for the sake of cementing some dumass tribal alliance, so my question to the author is: why the soft-pedalling, verging on the edge of understanding, rather than outright condemnation? Why the kid-gloves language? Face it, these are horrible men – book burners and statue destroyers and so on, who want to wipe history off the face of the earth – exactly what is the problem with saying so outright?

Last edited 1 year ago by Prashant Kotak
Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

A bit of restorative justice as described in Julie Bindel’s article will put it all right. You have just got to understand the Taliban are victims too. Yada Yada.

Andrew J Roman
Andrew J Roman
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

I see the difference between the writer and you as being that he sees the Taliban as heterogeneous 3 dimensional humans while you see them as homogeneous one dimensional monsters. As I have no personal knowledge of the Taliban I can only hope for the sake of the girls and women that his vision is more accurate.

Andrew D
Andrew D
1 year ago
Reply to  Andrew J Roman

I think you’ve mis-gendered the writer

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

There’s clearly a level of naivety in the article. For instance, issuing edicts and then partially rowing back on them is almost certainly a way of gaming the Western response – “oh, they’re having a think about it, let’s give them some headspace”. If there is an element of genuine dissent from within the tribal ranks, it’ll be a dispute between complete oppression of women and some lesser but still unacceptable level of discrimination.
The simple fact is that the Taliban, thinking themselves to be real men, are in fact absolute cowards. Their fear of the sexual power of women is what drives them in their repression – religion is just a front, a way of justifying what their pathetic egos can’t accept.
What a waste of life.

Last edited 1 year ago by Steve Murray
ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

Correct, but who really cares? This a “far away country of which we know little” filled with Semitic/Islamic nutters ossified in the 7th century who have ‘missed the bus’ and will never catch up.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

“Why the kid-gloves language? ”
Fairly simple.
Modern, western culture (and in particular feminist women) are happy to accuse men and society of being “patriarchal” and intentionally horrible to women.
Except when it comes to cultures which are genuinely horrible and nasty to women, in which case they will go all out to defend them.

Islam based cultures such as Afghanistan is one example.
Inner city US black culture is another. (80% of fathers missing, very high rape rates)
In either case, a certain class of whiny westerners otherwise spouting a out “toxic masculinity”, will be their biggest defenders.

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Reply to  Prashant Kotak

Hear, hear totally agree. These barbarian men don’t deserve one iota of recognition and should be shunned everywhere. The new catchphrase “Islamophobia” is the ridiculous lefts mantra to make people such as myself feel embarrassed by calling out Islam for it’s apathetic treatment of women. I live in South Africa and they have infiltrated this part in vast numbers.
I have always treated people with the respect they deserve, however, when and where does one draw the line?
I live in a most tranquil part of lower Natal and every week I expect the hideous wailing from the turret of some ugly mosque. When that day comes – the gloves will come off.
And if I hear that Muslim women are happy with their lot once more, I will lose any faith I have always had in women’s ability to think rationally.
One does not support cruelty.

Mike Bell
Mike Bell
1 year ago

Good article. The main failing of the West in Afghanistan has been our failure to see things from The Taliban point of view. Not that we should agree with it, just that actions taken with bad information are not likely to be effective.
One common mistake the West makes is believing that, if they back a friendly horse, that it will end up winning. In reality, outside intervention simply polarises the situation further and empowers the ideologue.
All ideologies are based on a false interpretation of reality. Many extremist regimes soften if you just leave them alone and let reality dawn on them.
Do we really believe that all this external ‘moralizing’ about girls’ education will hasten the restart of girls’ education?

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago

It isn’t just “old men sitting around in Kandahar dreaming up the next ridiculous way to annoy girls and women”. Look at virtually every global leader since the start of the Covid panic (as just one example). Dreaming up ways to annoy is their raison d’être. The only difference between the old men in Kandahar and the sparkly sophisticates currently cooking up new controls in Davos is money, hygiene, and private jets.

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
1 year ago

Well said, a voice of sanity in a rather sick world…….bravo!

Steve Jolly
Steve Jolly
1 year ago

This is a thoughtful and well written article, but there’s no amount of lipstick that will make this pig into a princess. The odds of the Taliban turning Afghanistan into a ‘mildly prosperous’ nation are probably considerably worse than the odds of hitting the Powerball jackpot. The Americans couldn’t do it, the Soviets couldn’t do it, the British couldn’t do it, and so on and so forth before that as far as recorded history goes. That so many attempts have been made stands as a monument to the hubris of man. The area is rugged, landlocked, isolated, resource poor, strategically unimportant, and unsuited for modern mass agriculture. Geography isn’t necessarily destiny, but it does shift the odds considerably in one direction or the other. I hope the Taliban become more enlightened in their views towards women, but in the end, that would only make the nation marginally less awful.