When Will Feminists Stand Up for Afghan Women?

weeklystandard.com
Posted by Rachel Hoff 
October 8, 2009

The Afghan women who risked their lives to go to the polls this summer are not afraid of much. But one thing we need not doubt is their terror at the notion that America might abandon Afghanistan and return them to the hands of the Taliban. Eviction from school and work at the least, rape and murder at the worst, were the fate of Afghanistan’s women under that backward Islamist regime.

As the debate over U.S. military commitments in Afghanistan continues to roil Washington, some uncommon alliances are emerging. With Democrats abandoning support for President Obama’s own “good war,” the president’s putative new strategy in Afghanistan has been buttressed primarily by Republicans on the Hill and serious military leaders. A burgeoning coalition of politicians, policy wonks, retired generals, and former administration officials has emerged to express support for the president, his new commander, General Stanley McChrystal, and the troops on the ground to achieve the mission in Afghanistan. It’s these kinds of strange bedfellow alliances that our country needs when it comes to facing the challenge of the Long War.

But one uncommon alliance that has yet to emerge is between women’s rights groups in America and those calling for a renewed military commitment to the war in Afghanistan. Understanding the plight of Afghan women, women’s groups in America have timidly stood for the cause of Afghan women’s rights, supporting for example the “civilian surge” to help improve the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan. But where are the voices of American women’s organizations in the current debate about supporting President Obama’s new strategy and his new commander’s request for more troops?
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