Question
How can the rights of women be better addressed and defended in Afghanistan?
Answer
Re-build and re-open the Silk Road as an 8-lane highway network and a high-speed rail network, connecting Afghanistan to Central Asia, China, the Middle East/Turkey (once the pesky problem with Iran is resolved) and India (once Pakistan is stabilized a bit). Never forget that this was once one of the most open and progressive parts of the world. Read the descriptions of the Buddhist pilgrim Fa-Hsien for instance.
http://www.amazon.com/record-Bud...
I don't know about Afghanistan itself, but I have some experience/knowledge of similar cultures in northwest India and Pakistan, mostly hearsay, but also through some friends who have direct, personal experience.
The state of affairs is an explosive combination of tribal patterns of social organization (based on kinship, with very strong emphasis on "honor" since your word is often the only kind of wealth you have) and Deobandi schools of thought (prominent theologically, but not particularly common in the general Muslim population).
I'd say it is actually quite feasible to turn such regions around. It's been done.
Other areas seem to combine similar pairs of forces. Ironically, conservative Jews in Israel seem to be creating a similar environment. In parts of northwest India, Hindus and Sikhs have similar cultures. In the West, such pockets have mostly shrunk to political and cultural irrelevance.
Isolation is what tends to reinforce and sustain such cultures. This is one reason Yemen is such an extreme example (it is more Afghanistan than Afghanistan itself). The cure for isolation is simply extreme openness to new migration. Both subcultures within the broader tribal/religious space a specific silo culture inhabits, and truly alien cultures (non-tribal polities, other religions).
To create such migration, the law and order situation has to be stabilized and a motivation for movement has to be created. The region was once a cross-roads for trade, and will soon be again (thanks in large part due to China's need for ports and Central Asian natural gas looking for a way out).
So... rebuild and re-open the Silk Road for the 21st century. Forget pesky American morality.
http://www.amazon.com/record-Bud...
I don't know about Afghanistan itself, but I have some experience/knowledge of similar cultures in northwest India and Pakistan, mostly hearsay, but also through some friends who have direct, personal experience.
The state of affairs is an explosive combination of tribal patterns of social organization (based on kinship, with very strong emphasis on "honor" since your word is often the only kind of wealth you have) and Deobandi schools of thought (prominent theologically, but not particularly common in the general Muslim population).
I'd say it is actually quite feasible to turn such regions around. It's been done.
Other areas seem to combine similar pairs of forces. Ironically, conservative Jews in Israel seem to be creating a similar environment. In parts of northwest India, Hindus and Sikhs have similar cultures. In the West, such pockets have mostly shrunk to political and cultural irrelevance.
Isolation is what tends to reinforce and sustain such cultures. This is one reason Yemen is such an extreme example (it is more Afghanistan than Afghanistan itself). The cure for isolation is simply extreme openness to new migration. Both subcultures within the broader tribal/religious space a specific silo culture inhabits, and truly alien cultures (non-tribal polities, other religions).
To create such migration, the law and order situation has to be stabilized and a motivation for movement has to be created. The region was once a cross-roads for trade, and will soon be again (thanks in large part due to China's need for ports and Central Asian natural gas looking for a way out).
So... rebuild and re-open the Silk Road for the 21st century. Forget pesky American morality.