Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

[Yossarian]

The Taliban deciding to ban girls from secondary education is being called a "surprise" decision - doesn't seem that fucking surprising, tbh.

Taliban decide against opening schools to girls in Afghanistan beyond age of 11

U-turn seen as concession to rural and deeply tribal backbone of the hardline Taliban

www.theguardian.com

 

[teqniq]

This is fucking unbelievably awful:

Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby

The young Afghan couple raced to the airport in Kabul, clutching their baby girl close amid the chaotic withdrawal of American troops last year.

apnews.com

 

[teqniq]

I would like to say I'm shocked. Unfortunately I'm not:

Revealed: UK has failed to resettle Afghans facing torture and death despite promise

Those who risked their lives helping British government face a ‘toxic combination of incompetence and indifference’

www.theguardian.com

 

[RainbowTown]

Further erosion and suppression of women's rights in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The only country in the world at the moment that has banned both girls and women from attending schools and now universities.

Afghanistan: Taliban closes universities to women

The move further restricts women's access to education, after they were excluded from secondary schools.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[weltweit]

Yes, I saw that earlier. What backward scum they are the Taliban.

 

[Brainaddict]

I don't know if finger-wagging about other people's cultures gets us very far though. As outsiders whose views on Afghan culture are of little interest to rural Afghans particularly, the best way to make Afghanistan better for women would be economic development that would end the huge pool of unemployed and under-employed men, and then draw more women into paid economic activity. The Western powers had 20 years to make that work but they invaded at the peak of neo-liberalism so were constitutionally incapable of encouraging what was needed for economic development - massive, state-led infrastructure development. They probably still would have fucked it up in some way, but at least they would have left a legacy of economic development and greater integration with the rest of the world that could lead to improvement in people's lives, including women eventually.

 

[RainbowTown]

I don't know if finger-wagging about other people's cultures gets us very far though. As outsiders whose views on Afghan culture are of little interest to rural Afghans particularly, the best way to make Afghanistan better for women would be economic development that would end the huge pool of unemployed and under-employed men, and then draw more women into paid economic activity

What's that got to do with the fundamental issue of women and girls being denied an education? It's not 'finger-wagging' anyone, it's pointing out a cold hard fact. Women and girls there are being deliberately targeted and increasingly suppressed because of their gender. End of.

 

[Brainaddict]

What's that got to do with the fundamental issue of women and girls being denied an education? It's not 'finger-wagging' anyone, it's pointing out a cold hard fact. Women and girls there are being deliberately targeted and increasingly suppressed because of their gender. End of.

It's finger-wagging because you, and the West in general now, has no intervention point. You are moralising to people who hold a different moral code to you, so they aren't listening. So what are you doing except establishing your own rightness to people who already agree with you?

I was pointing out that the West did have an intervention point for 20 years (rightly or wrongly). Now that opportunity is gone forever, and its a shame more people didn't understand what the opportunity was - not a moral one but an economic one. There was never any chance that going to Afghanistan and telling the Taliban they had the wrong idea about women was the useful intervention. It still isn't.

 

[ska invita]

Afghanistan: Male students walk out in protest after Taliban bans women from universities

Several male students at the Nangarhar University in Jalalabad and at Kandahar University in Afghanistan staged a protest and expressed solidarity with the women. The male students walked out of the examination hall at the University and stood by women's rights in the country. | OpIndia News

www.opindia.com

 

[RainbowTown]

It's finger-wagging because you, and the West in general now, has no intervention point. You are moralising to people who hold a different moral code to you, so they aren't listening. So what are you doing except establishing your own rightness to people who already agree with you?

I was pointing out that the West did have an intervention point for 20 years (rightly or wrongly). Now that opportunity is gone forever, and its a shame more people didn't understand what the opportunity was - not a moral one but an economic one. There was never any chance that going to Afghanistan and telling the Taliban they had the wrong idea about women was the useful intervention. It still isn't.

Is it 'moralising' and 'self-righteous' though? Maybe, maybe not. That's a matter of individual opinion. However, I'm sure we all would agree that what is currently happening to women and girls education in Afghanistan, under the Taliban rule, is wholly wrong, no matter whether 'they' are listening or not (and, of course, 'they' are not). And whilst it's correct to point out that the West, or anyone living in West, has no real influence there now, and that opportunities for intervention in the past were lost (or squandered), that doesn't mean legitimate criticism of this regime is now somewhat negated when commenting on them or what is currently occurring there. I honestly don't regard my comments as either 'finger wagging' nor trying to establish my own 'rightness' to a converted audience. It's simply a genuinely held opinion, nothing more. But if others feel differently, fair enough. That's their 'rightness' to feel that.

 

[David Clapson]

It's finger-wagging because you, and the West in general now, has no intervention point. You are moralising to people who hold a different moral code to you, so they aren't listening. So what are you doing except establishing your own rightness to people who already agree with you?

I was pointing out that the West did have an intervention point for 20 years (rightly or wrongly). Now that opportunity is gone forever, and its a shame more people didn't understand what the opportunity was - not a moral one but an economic one. There was never any chance that going to Afghanistan and telling the Taliban they had the wrong idea about women was the useful intervention. It still isn't.

The intervention point is supposed to be famine relief. Don't you buy the theory that there are realists in the Taliban who accept they won't get famine relief unless they change? There used to be a lot of that sort of thinking. Maybe the moderates will have more power after a terrible famine has started.

 

[jeff_leigh]

The intervention point is supposed to be famine relief. Don't you buy the theory that there are realists in the Taliban who accept they won't get famine relief unless they change? There used to be a lot of that sort of thinking. Maybe the moderates will have more power after a terrible famine has started.

If they don’t get their famine relief from the west they can always try asking their new friend China

 

[hash tag]

I recently found out that the male members of the family are supposed to enforce women to comply with the talibans rules.
No doubt this leads to a horrendous amount of domestic violence.

 

[likesfish]

We've got several hundred stealth storm shadow cruise missiles.
Ideal for killing taliban ministers carrot and stick works better than the stick.
If your going to behave like barbarians we shall treat you like uppity pathans in the 20s.
Your not dealing with reasonable people so time to deal with them in langue they understand violence.

 

[eatmorecheese]

We've got several hundred stealth storm shadow cruise missiles.
Ideal for killing taliban ministers carrot and stick works better than the stick.
If your going to behave like barbarians we shall treat you like uppity pathans in the 20s.
Your not dealing with reasonable people so time to deal with them in langue they understand violence.

cough

 

[Sue]

We've got several hundred stealth storm shadow cruise missiles.
Ideal for killing taliban ministers carrot and stick works better than the stick.
If your going to behave like barbarians we shall treat you like uppity pathans in the 20s.
Your not dealing with reasonable people so time to deal with them in langue they understand violence.

Have you been on the Christmas booze?

 

[kabbes]

Just to be clear: are you generally okay with people murdering other people because they don’t like the way the others live, or does it only apply to the ones you personally don’t like?

 

[bellaozzydog]

We've got several hundred stealth storm shadow cruise missiles.
Ideal for killing taliban ministers carrot and stick works better than the stick.
If your going to behave like barbarians we shall treat you like uppity pathans in the 20s.
Your not dealing with reasonable people so time to deal with them in langue they understand violence.

And this is why you were thrown out the Territorial army postal service, that and masturbating over commando comics on your weekend exercise

 

[likesfish]

I'm completely relaxed with murdering people who think it's ok to behead female volleyball players for the crime of playing volleyball and I'm not going to apologise

Afghan volleyball player beheaded by new Taliban regime

An Afghan social network has published the images of the death of volleyball player Mahjabin Hakimi. The media outlet published the content of the young woman's throat being slit. Although the images were published only a few hours ago, her death occurred on 13 August this year, when the...

atalayar.com

if scum like that get used as target practice nothing of value will be lost except the cost of the missile.
That includes are good friends the saudis and the Israelis and the Iranian government a murderous cunt is a murderous cunt

 

[AmateurAgitator]

time to deal with them in langue they understand.

 

[Ming]

These are pretty cool. No warhead. just blades.

Ayman al-Zawahiri's death: What is the Hellfire R9X missile that the Americans purportedly used?

Washington is reported to have used a 'ninja bomb' equipped with six blades that deploy before impact to shred its target without any blast effect.

www.lemonde.fr

 

[Serge Forward]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like there's a distinct whiff of cultural relativism that's appeared on this thread (Brainaddict), using the neo liberal/western invasion as a reason to excuse the Taliban shitcunts. The Taliban's ideology, by the way, is no more "Afghan culture" than George W Bush, Obama or Biden's values are. I don't know the answer to the horrors of islamist misogyny and repression, but I do know it's not poo-pooing any sympathy for the women currently opposing rulings from the religio-fascist cunts in charge at present.

 

[Serge Forward]

We've got several hundred stealth storm shadow cruise missiles.
Ideal for killing taliban ministers carrot and stick works better than the stick.
If your going to behave like barbarians we shall treat you like uppity pathans in the 20s.
Your not dealing with reasonable people so time to deal with them in langue they understand violence.

This, however, is fucking garbage.

 

[Brainaddict]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like there's a distinct whiff of cultural relativism that's appeared on this thread (Brainaddict), using the neo liberal/western invasion as a reason to excuse the Taliban shitcunts. The Taliban's ideology, by the way, is no more "Afghan culture" than George W Bush, Obama or Biden's values are. I don't know the answer to the horrors of islamist misogyny and repression, but I do know it's not poo-pooing any sympathy for the women currently opposing rulings from the religio-fascist cunts in charge at present.

You misread. I was talking about what's gone wrong in the West, which doesn't mean I think nothing has gone wrong in Afghanistan. There has been an entire Western industry for over twenty years now, producing books and films and motivational speakers, about how badly the Taliban treat women, and sending aid workers there to help liberate women. The net effect of this? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. No long term benefits for the women of Afghanistan. Maybe there are other things to say about Afghanistan that might help understand and solve the problem.

 

[Serge Forward]

That's fair enough. But you seemed to be suggesting that islamist misogyny was a matter of "Afghan culture" VS "Western liberal" culture. It isn't.

 

[zahir]

The issue is whether or not you support opposition within Afghanistan, as with Iran. It's not about what 'the West' is doing.

 

[teqniq]

Not just related to Afghanistan. Pretty crazy that this device was bought on Ebay and still had data on the memory card:

For Sale on eBay: A Military Database of Fingerprints and Iris Scans

 

[CNT36]

Interesting interviews here with former Taliban fighters living in Kabul adapting to life in the city and as wage slaves.

At the time the Americans invaded, I was only 11 years old. Because of that invasion and the subsequent indiscriminate bombardments and night raids, I was determined that the jihad against the foreigners[1] was fard [obligatory in Islam]. I had only studied up to wara dawra [12th grade of madrasa] when I abandoned the rest of my madrasa studies, and for the next 14 years or so, I would go on tashkil.

I assume, it’s the most gorgeous city in Afghanistan. In contrast to Kabul, our Paktika seems very displeasing. It’s like the Karzai government only spent money on Kabul.


What I don’t like about Kabul is its ever-increasing traffic holdups. Last year, it was tolerable but in the last few months, it’s become more and more congested. People complain that the Taleban brought poverty, but, looking at this traffic and the large number of people in the bazaars and restaurants, I wonder where that poverty is.


Another thing I don’t like, not only about Kabul but broadly about life after the fatha, are the new restrictions. In the group, we had a great degree of freedom about where to go, where to stay, and whether to participate in the war.


However, these days, you have to go to the office before 8 AM and stay there till 4 PM. If you don’t go, you’re considered absent, and [the wage for] that day is cut from your salary. We’re now used to that, but it was especially difficult in the first two or three months.


The other problem in Kabul is that my comrades are now scattered throughout Afghanistan. Those in Kabul, like me, work from 8 AM to 4 PM. So, most of the week, we don’t get any time to meet each other. Only on Fridays, if I don’t go home, do we all go to Qargha, Paghman or Zazai Park. I really like Paghman and going there with friends makes me very happy. Such a place doesn’t exist in the entire province of Paktika.


What I like most in Kabul is its relative cleanness and how facilities have been modernised and improved, the buildings, roads, electricity, internet connection, and so many other things. You can find taxis even at midnight, hospitals are on the doorstep, and schools, educational centres, as well as madrasas are all easily available on every corner of the city. The other positive feature of Kabul is its ethnic diversity. You can see an Uzbek, Pashtun and a Tajik living in one building and going to the same mosque.


Some people have a very negative picture of Kabul. What I experienced here in the last years, though, is that one can come across the perfect Muslim and the worst. Unlike villages where a lot of people go to the mosque to impress others, people in Kabul go there just for the sake of Allah. Unlike the villages where people endeavour to be called generous, people here do charity for the sake of Allah – people know little about each other and so they don’t need to impress each other.


Similarly, there are plenty of bad and wicked people. They’re morally corrupt, Muslim only in name, sinners. I can’t make up my mind whether there are more good people or bad here, though there are both, and it’s up to you who you interact with. Living in Kabul could have either consequence; it could corrupt a very good mujahed or turn a very bad mujahed into a good man. It all depends on who you socialise with.

It was the first time I ever saw Kabul. I haven’t seen all the provinces, but people say Kabul is the most beautiful city in Afghanistan. When I joined my group, I was of the idea that Kabul would be full of bad people, but to be honest, in the last couple of years, after we met some of the people living here, I realised I was wrong. Of course, it has plenty of negative aspects, like their support for the occupation, women not wearing proper clothing, youths flirting with girls and cutting their hair in a style even people in America might not adopt, but these are the problems that nowadays exist also in the rural areas.


After we arrived in Kabul, we were stunned by its complexity, its expanse, its size. We didn’t know where to go. Everything was strange to us and of course, we were strange to the local people – to the extent that they were afraid of talking loudly to us. When we came to our hawza [police district] and saw the compound, the weapons and the security measures, it was unbelievable how they’d abandoned such places without firing a single bullet. We were stunned by the cowardice of the [former] army and police. If even a very small number of them had tried to fight us, we couldn’t have made it to Kabul for years, given its complexity and the weapons they had. Praise be to Allah, [the victory] was directly because of His help.

And the savageness of people against each other, in particular against women – dozens of women approach the hawza on a daily basis and register their complaints. They’re victims, subject to different forms of brutality. The head of the hawza and all other mujahedin pay special attention to solving their problems. During the first days when women approached us, many mujahedin, including myself, were hiding from them because never in our whole lives have we talked to strange women. In the days that followed, the head of the hawza instructed us that sharia does allow us to talk to them because we are now the authorities and the only people that can solve their problems.

There is another thing I dislike and that’s how restricted our lives are now, unlike anything we experienced before. The Taleban used to be free of restrictions, but now we sit in one place, behind a desk and a computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Life’s become so wearisome; you do the same things every day. Being away from the family has only doubled the problem.


I’ve made friends with three guys who are from our province but have been living here [in Kabul] for more than 15 years. We sometimes go to Qargha, Bagh-e Wahsh [Kabul Zoo], Sarobi and Tapa-ye Wazir Akbar Khan. To be honest, every time I go with them, they pressure me to play and listen to music in the car. At first, I was resisting, but now I have given in, with the one condition that they turn it off when passing through security checkpoints because many other Taleban don’t like it, and it’s bad for a Taleb to be seen listening to it.

It is interesting reading for a few reasons. It is difficult to know how much they are holding back but it is interesting for a few reasons. Their views of women although misogynistic seem to have evolved to the point where many would accept (if not condone) behaviors and ways of dressing that are far from the conservative values of the Taliban. There seems to be a satisfaction in and hopes of a more modern way of life but also a dislike of the the daily grind. One of them cites ethnic diversity as a positive of city life. Even views of the americans are not purely negative with one giving them some praise for their role in the development of Kabul while criticising the corruption of the Karzai government it enabled. They also are disillusioned in places with the leadership and how they are no longer among them like they were during the war but off elsewhere while they struggle with the 9-5. It is stressed in the analysis that many Taliban still have a strict conservative outlook.

 

[hash tag]

I don't know what I would do if I were a woman in Afghanistan, it strikes me as a living hell and I would do anything I could to get out.
Who wouldn't want to grant Afghanistan women asylum, goodness knows they must meet the criteria. If I had the room, I would certainly offer one or two
somewhere to live.

Evacuated Afghan women's team included 'false' footballers

Women footballers evacuated to the UK included some who were not the top players it was claimed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[teqniq]

Please give this a watch: