This is a weird one for me. Some people really defend the idea that women don’t want the rights they enjoy in industrialized democracies. They had those rights in Afghanistan back in the 70’s, they risked death to go to school. There has always been strong resistance to the Taliban within the borders of Afghanistan.
I agree and another question is, if Muslim women in Afghanistan aren’t against the restrictions women have, why have women in Islamic country fought so hard for the right/privilege to drive? They’ve fought for a lot of things lately and many killed for it.
Or, why do they have schools that teach only Koranic messages and also teach little boys how to handle AK-47’s? Why do they have apostasy laws, that they enforce? It’s like they exist only to suppress natural human desires. If everyone went along with that, they wouldn’t be needed.
If Muslim philosophy was seen as healthy and supportive of human flourishing, people would go about their business of making food and learning about how to make the world more beautiful, and they’d also voluntarily choose to follow that philosophy. Oh wait, that’s what we do in Western culture.
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Resistance to Taliban has always been from the non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan. Pashtuns are the biggest and most powerful ethnic group in the country.
As for women’s rights in the 70s, some Afghan women lived that life. Here is some background on them. The situation was similar to Iran back then – relatively few upper class women lived “modern” Westernized lives, but most women did not.
Let us hope that the Taliban has learned a little from US occupation and drop this ridiculous medieval practice of “hiding women” from sight, because men are morally weak.
Therefore, women need to be punished for being desirable.
A self incriminating admission if I ever heard one. Grow up and control your baser emotions and respect all human life. That’s the mark of a moral human being.
Did you spend any time in small towns in the US in the 70’s?
They haven’t. I don’t think it was ever a choice for the more educated women or even for the submissive women. One group rebelled against it (educated) and another one submitted to it. I think the Taliban realized that if a woman is educated, they won’t submit to the practice and will fight against it, thus why they kill many of the educated or abuse them into submission. IMHO, the Taliban de-evolved into caveman mentality.
Looking at some of the scenes coming in from there, with the Taliban cooperating with the US troops, Afghan tri-color flags flying, girls going to school, etc, I think the Taliban has learned … to hold back until the west has left.
“Watches vs Time” thing.
This is about Afghan women’s right activists:
Small town life in 1970s America was light years away from what was happening in Afghanistan.
The same was true even in 1770s America.
It seems unsurprising that the return of the Taliban is the outcome.
The speed with which it happened is what has made this look worse.
Whatever was being called “the Afghan armed forces” were not competent nor capable of maintaining a presence long term. Add that to a corrupt and incompetent civilian government in Kabul and this is the outcome.
I’ll hold out hope that perhaps all of the military misadventures, CIA interventions, corporate background influence will finally stop the US post WWII philosophy of “bestowing” Western style democracy on other places by force.
That is until there’s another terrorist attack perpetrated by foreign nationals and we go through the same large scale group insanity and loss of perspective that happened following 9/11/2001.
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I don’t think you know what was happening in Afghanistan in the 70’s. Do you know where the Taliban came from? Do you know about all the attempts at economic and social reform in Afghanistan’s past?
Women had freedom back in the 50s - 70s. Then the Taliban came and made them stay in their home and cover themselves if they went out. It was no longer a choice.
My link from the other day explains what happened. Some liberal reforms were instituted but they were wiped out by anti-government forces.
Hey has anyone seen George Clooney around?
I read or heard - can’t remember which - a long time ago that no Arab army has ever won a war, ever. Our military must know that. I think the immediate collapse of the Afghan “army” was fully expected and we knew that would not change no matter how long we stayed there. I am one Trump guy that is fully with Biden on the withdrawal.
Afghans aren’t Arab, but you’ve got the right idea.
Although back in the early days of Islam, Arab armies won battles against peoples who were stronger in just about every way. That’s how Islam spread so far and wide.
It’s more accurate to say Arabs are bad at conventional war in the modern era; but they can make extremely good insurgents as we saw in Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
The US military has a long history of unrealistic thinking. Our government isn’t much better.
Seen from France;
Invasion of Afghanistan 20 years ago was officially to punish talibans for supporting Ben Laden.
As usual USA talked about rebuilding the country, bringing progress and democracy. They were invaders, and seen as such.
As usual, they did not learnt about anything from history and previous experiences.
They never controlled anything. Afghanistan is a puzzle of tribes controlled by warlords and drug producers.
the Talibans have been financed and trained by Qatar and Pakistan and armed by them.
They have sold opium. Pakistani borders have never been closed for them.
USA never had a chance of wining.
[quote=“morgankane01, post:79, topic:8088”]
the Talibans have been financed and trained by Qatar and Pakistan and armed by them.
The Taliban were financed by the US against Russia. Half their arms are US made.