A job half done

Remember when we marched on Kabul to free the women of Afghanistan? Remember the utterly spurious stories about Afghan women tearing off their burkas (later contradicted here and here)? And then as if we needed proof of their "liberation", they started opening beauty schools, entering Miss World contests in their bikinis, running magazines with women-must-have horoscopes? What a load of cr*p!!

Surprise, surprise... once we got our oil pipeline down we completely forgot about women's rights... Try this link from Human Rights Watch for the short version, there is also a link on there to the longer version. To quote RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), "They cannot go without a male relative outside their houses, and they have no access to education and there are health problems for them. So we think that the bombs in Afghanistan - the bombing by the U.S. administration - has not changed the situation because they replaced one fundamentalist [group] with another one". You really have to admire the courage of the women at RAWA, who are regularly risking their lives to fight for their rights. It also comes as a slap in the chops to those who insist that these terribly oppressed women are happy as they are. When they have proper freedom those that want to stay home will still be able to! For those wanting to support the cause, it is also probably the best place to send donations, they run schools, hospitals and literacy campaigns for women.