Kmflett's Blog

Reasons given for occupying Afghanistan in 2001 did not include women’s rights

On social media and elsewhere fans of a continuing European role in Afghanistan have been claiming that a key objective of the occupation 20 years ago was women’s rights.

It can be agreed that with a Taliban Government the prospects for all Afghan women are likely to be grim based at least on the benchmark of equality.

However the aims of being in Afghanistan were laid out by Alastair Campbell, Blair’s comms man, at the time. ‘Humanitarian’ did come third on the list but that is a far broader category than women’s rights and might for example suggest a focus on refugees.

Also below is an extract from Tariq Ali’s assessment of 20 years in Afghanistan which is on the New Left Review site. It argues for a different reality, while making entirely clear that the Taliban are the enemy of women’s rights.

Alastair Campbell Diary 8^th October 2001

Cabinet was largely TB and the other ministers involved reporting to the rest of them. By and large they were supportive. TB went through the three different planks-military, diplomatic and humanitarian..

The Burden of Power 2012

Tariq Ali, New Left Review

As for the status of women, nothing much has changed. There has been little social progress outside the NGO-infested Green Zone. One of the country’s leading feminists in exile remarked that Afghan women had three enemies: the Western occupation, the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. With the departure of the United States, she said, they will have two. (At the time of writing this can perhaps be amended to one, as the Taliban’s advances in the north saw off key factions of the Alliance before Kabul was captured). Despite repeated requests from journalists and campaigners, no reliable figures have been released on the sex-work industry that grew to service the occupying armies. Nor are there credible rape statistics – although US soldiers frequently used sexual violence against ‘terror suspects’, raped Afghan civilians and green-lighted child abuse by allied militias. During the Yugoslav civil war, prostitution multiplied and the region became a centre for sex trafficking. UN involvement in this profitable business was well-documented. In Afghanistan, the full details are yet to emerge.

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/debacle-in-afghanistan