OSLO — The debate about the Obama administration’s plan to surge more than 20,000 additional troops into Afghanistan has been so vapid that you will still hear suggestions that this approach is necessary to protect the people — particularly the women — of Afghanistan from oppression.
Those who argue this brief would be well to consult Malalai Joya. Selected to serve in Afghanistan’s Constitutional Loya Jirga in 2003 and then elected to the Wolesi Jirga (parliament) in 2005 as one of the top vote-getters in the western province of Farah, she is widely seen as the most courageous political figure in the country. This is because, from the start, she has dared to object to the crude political calculus — imposed and supported by the U.S. — which grants amnesty to warlords who have been linked to well-documented war crimes and ongoing corruption.
Tags: Afghan women, Afghanistan war, Malalai Joya, more US troops, Obama administration, oppression, religious extremism, United States, women's rights
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