Do (Muslim) Women Need Saving?
Afghan Women and Their Enemies
The Other Afghan Women (New York Times) 2021/9/6
Anand Gopal
In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers
who claimed to be helping them
“More than 70% of Afghans do not live in cities. In rural areas, life under the U.S.-led
coalition and its Afghan allies became pure hazard; even drinking tea in a sunlit field, or
driving to your sister’s wedding, was a potentially deadly gamble”.
Shakira
daughter–Nilofar (20 years old) “deputy”
son–Ahmed (19 years old)
8 children
Husband–opium dealer
Taliban and Afghan National Army (“offensive to wrest the countryside back”)
August 15th “Taliban captured Kabul without firing a shot”
→ “Some women burned their school records and went into hiding, fearing a return to the
nineteen-nineties, when the Taliban forbade them to venture out alone and banned girls’
education. For Americans, the very real possibility that the gains of the past two decades
might be erased appeared to pose a dreadful choice: recommit to seemingly endless war,
or abandon Afghan women” (4).
“Shakira has a knack for finding humor in pathos, and in the sheer absurdity of the men
in her life: in the nineties, the Taliban had offered to supply electricity to the village, and
the local graybeards had initially refused, fearing black magic. ‘Of course, we women
knew electricity was fine,’ she said, chuckling’” (5).
“When the authorities began forcing girls to attend classes at gunpoint, a rebellion
erupted, led by armed men calling themselves the mujahideen” (7).
, “Soon, Afghanistan was basically split in two In the countryside, where young men were
willing to die fighting the imposition of new ways of life–including girls’ schools and
land reform–young women remained unseen” (7).
→ Soviet-backed government: “girls enrolled in schools and universities in record
numbers…”
1989 the Soviets withdrew in defeat
● “Competing mujahideen factions were now trying to carve up the country for
themselves”
Amir Dado
Mujahideen warring factions and war against the communist backed government
⇒ “the mujahideen toppled the Communists in Kabul…In the capital, their leaders–who
had received generous amounts of U.S. funding–issued a decree declaring that ‘women
are not to leave their homes at all, unless absolutely necessary, in which case they are to
cover themselves completely”.
Mujahideen government quickly fell apart, and the country descended into civil war
“Shakira hadn’t ever heard of the Taliban, but her father explained that its members were
much like the poor religious students she’d seen all her life begging for alms”.
→ “now, they said, they were remobilizing to put an end to the tumult”
→ “The Taliban soon dissolved Dado’s religious court”
**”they were unwilling to judge the movement against some universal standard–only
against what had come before”.
“As the Taliban rule established itself, a conscription campaign was launched”.
→ “Young men were taken to northern Afghanistan, to help fight against a gang of
mujahideen warlords known as the Northern Alliance. One day, Shakira watched a
helicopter alight in a field and unload the bodies of fallen conscripts”.
Afghan Women and Their Enemies
The Other Afghan Women (New York Times) 2021/9/6
Anand Gopal
In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers
who claimed to be helping them
“More than 70% of Afghans do not live in cities. In rural areas, life under the U.S.-led
coalition and its Afghan allies became pure hazard; even drinking tea in a sunlit field, or
driving to your sister’s wedding, was a potentially deadly gamble”.
Shakira
daughter–Nilofar (20 years old) “deputy”
son–Ahmed (19 years old)
8 children
Husband–opium dealer
Taliban and Afghan National Army (“offensive to wrest the countryside back”)
August 15th “Taliban captured Kabul without firing a shot”
→ “Some women burned their school records and went into hiding, fearing a return to the
nineteen-nineties, when the Taliban forbade them to venture out alone and banned girls’
education. For Americans, the very real possibility that the gains of the past two decades
might be erased appeared to pose a dreadful choice: recommit to seemingly endless war,
or abandon Afghan women” (4).
“Shakira has a knack for finding humor in pathos, and in the sheer absurdity of the men
in her life: in the nineties, the Taliban had offered to supply electricity to the village, and
the local graybeards had initially refused, fearing black magic. ‘Of course, we women
knew electricity was fine,’ she said, chuckling’” (5).
“When the authorities began forcing girls to attend classes at gunpoint, a rebellion
erupted, led by armed men calling themselves the mujahideen” (7).
, “Soon, Afghanistan was basically split in two In the countryside, where young men were
willing to die fighting the imposition of new ways of life–including girls’ schools and
land reform–young women remained unseen” (7).
→ Soviet-backed government: “girls enrolled in schools and universities in record
numbers…”
1989 the Soviets withdrew in defeat
● “Competing mujahideen factions were now trying to carve up the country for
themselves”
Amir Dado
Mujahideen warring factions and war against the communist backed government
⇒ “the mujahideen toppled the Communists in Kabul…In the capital, their leaders–who
had received generous amounts of U.S. funding–issued a decree declaring that ‘women
are not to leave their homes at all, unless absolutely necessary, in which case they are to
cover themselves completely”.
Mujahideen government quickly fell apart, and the country descended into civil war
“Shakira hadn’t ever heard of the Taliban, but her father explained that its members were
much like the poor religious students she’d seen all her life begging for alms”.
→ “now, they said, they were remobilizing to put an end to the tumult”
→ “The Taliban soon dissolved Dado’s religious court”
**”they were unwilling to judge the movement against some universal standard–only
against what had come before”.
“As the Taliban rule established itself, a conscription campaign was launched”.
→ “Young men were taken to northern Afghanistan, to help fight against a gang of
mujahideen warlords known as the Northern Alliance. One day, Shakira watched a
helicopter alight in a field and unload the bodies of fallen conscripts”.
