If a woman doesn't have a husband, she can even decide for herself who to vote for."
Afghan women after the Taliban have not changed yet
Nicholas Kristof
A few days ago I was standing in a shop selling burqas and chatting with the owner, when two women entered the shop to look at the latest fashion (light blue color with gold embroidery). They watched in silence while we, the men, discussed whether women wanted to wear burqas. This situation seemed a bit ridiculous to me, so I asked the women what they thought.
Shaken, the two ran out of the store. In the last week, I encountered similar reactions from dozens of Afghan women. In order to find out to what extent the oppression of women in the country resulted from the Taliban rule and to what extent it was the product of the culture in which they lived, I thought that I should consult the real experts - ordinary women. But men here are not supposed to talk to women unless it is necessary, and approaching a foreign woman to interview her is a shocking violation of the rules.
While the American outrage over the abuse of women focused on the Taliban - also due to a clever media maneuver by the Bush administration - inequality has much deeper roots. It is important to understand this because the war may be ending, but the effort to improve the situation of Afghan women is just beginning.
And this is where the US has the opportunity to play a leadership role. During the American occupation of Japan, after World War II, we drafted a constitution for Japan that guaranteed equal rights for women. Similar pressure from our side can help Afghans - both men and women.
The Taliban no longer rule Kabul, but women are still inferior citizens. They are no longer required to wear the burqa, but they still wear it. Every woman in Kabul looks like a shrouded ghost, and like Japan in 1945, the internal pressures for egalitarian leadership are few.
"We obey our husbands, this is our culture," Wahida Kamili, a 23-year-old high school graduate, told me through the net of the burqa that covers her eyes. I asked her what she thought about the fact that many Afghan men beat their wives. "If a woman does not listen to her husband," she said in a pious tone, "it is right to beat her." In the Dari language, a man who does not beat his wife is sometimes given the derogatory title "To Nadari", which means eunuch, and in the Pashto language there is a proverb that says that "a woman's place is in the home - or in the grave".
Much has been said about the opportunities blocked for women, but Afghan society as a whole is paying a very high price. Afghanistan has a valuable economic resource: half of the population, which has been largely prevented from participating in economic production. Western culture began to get ahead of the rest of the world starting in the 15th century, also because more women were educated in it. David Landes, an economic historian from Harvard, claims in his book "Wealth and Interest of Nations", that "the best evidence of a society's development potential is the status of its women". Working and literate women, making toys, shoes and clothes, provided the fuel that enabled economic development throughout Asia.
Encouraging the creation of opportunities for women does not mean cultural imperialism - no more than the effort to bring Afghanistan a central bank, modern roads or free elections. All these are elements of nation building.
Therefore, for the sake of all Afghans, we must gently influence the new government to improve women's education and employment opportunities, and also direct our aid in this direction.
The beginning bodes well - in the interim government of Afghanistan there are two ministers. "It's good that there are women singing," said Wali Muhammad, 29, who was standing among the destroyed buildings in western Kabul. "Women should be allowed to vote," he added generously. "And if a woman does not have a husband, she can decide for herself who to vote for."
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