Chesler Chronicles

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July 14th, 2008 8:40 am

In Afghanistan, Women are all Prostitutes, Americans are All Infidel-Crusaders.

The photo arrests my gaze. It instantly haunts me. It shows two Afghan women chatting while sitting on their heels, close to the ground. They are both wearing iridescent light blue burqas. One seems to be clutching a shopping bag. They are about to be shot to death by Taliban fighters who accused them of running a prostitution ring that catered to American soldiers. For good measure, the Taliban also accused them of working for the local governor. According to the BBC here:

“A spokesman for the Ghazni governor said the dead women were “innocent local people” and the US has also dismissed the allegations. US military spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said he had never heard of “anything close to that nature.” Ghazni officials told Agence France Presse that the women, killed late on Saturday, had no connection with the government.”

It is impossible to tell how old the women are. Perhaps they are like some of the women I once knew as servants in Kabul: Hearty, shy, good-natured, energetic peasant women who hid their faces in their long veils when they giggled. These two murdered souls could not have been like the more educated women I once knew in Kabul who were serious, impossibly sophisticated, certainly more knowledgeable about western fashion than I was. The Taliban and the endless, hopeless war has made it impossible for such women to survive and flourish.

The photo, taken on July 12th, 2008 could be an illustration for Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Please recall that this novel, tailored to American tastes, still convincingly shows us how sadistic and twisted the Taliban are, how they routinely use orphaned Afghan boys for sex play, force women into prostitution, then kill them for it. Amnesty International has also documented these practices and American feminist groups have denounced them as well.

Many say that “Islam” has nothing to do with such behaviors. And yet–the Taliban view themselves as “holy warriors” and perhaps as Afghan (Saudi) Arabs. Thus far, the Taliban has not been publicly denounced as anti-Islam by leading Muslim clerics world-wide.

Funny, a few years ago, thousands of Egyptian men went on a “sexual wilding” rampage in Cairo right after they heard a Ramadan sermon in a mosque; they undressed and assaulted women who were both veiled and unveiled. And, in Algeria, after hearing their mullah denounce the impoverished women who were working for foreign companies in their city of Hassi Messoud, about three hundred men also went on a rampage–only they killed, gang-raped, mutilated, and buried women alive. I have written about both tragedies.

In both instances, (in Egypt and in Algeria) “foreign influence” or “colonial-imperialism” did not cause the criminal behaviors. What did? Did Islam do it? Or is this bad behavior a perversion of Islam both by mullahs and by their followers? And, if it’s the latter, where are the Muslim reformers?

By the way: We dare not underestimate the Taliban’s willingness to kill and die–and to engage in a lifetime of guerrilla warfare. The same Taliban “militants” who executed these two Afghan women in cold blood the evening of July 12th, also managed to get inside an American military outpost in Ghazni province on July 13th that had allegedly only been constructed three days ago. The Taliban killed nine American soldiers and wounded fifteen more. NPR covers it here.

Historically, each time that Afghanistan has evolved beyond the Middle Ages, it has been plunged back into medieval darkness. What might it take to escape its own history?

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18 Comments

1. George Jochnowitz:

It is interesting that the villain in THE KITE RUNNER was an admirer of Hitler before the Taliban came into existence. His victim was a member of the Hazara minority. I don’t know whether the Hazaras are connected to the Khazars, who converted to Judaism many centuries ago. I don’t know whether the novelist is hinting that the Hitler-loving member of the Taliban is persecuting the Afghan analog of a Jew. It doesn’t really matter. But nowadays, it is Islamists who are the closest analog of Nazis.

Jul 14, 2008 - 9:26 am 2. AP photographer witnessed the murder of two women in Pakistan « Blogging for a free world:

[...] Phyllis Chesler on the photos: [...]

Jul 14, 2008 - 11:43 am 3. Tom:

It appears the sad and disturbing reality is that the dysfunctional seventh century horrors that spew from that region are a result of both ancient “culture” AND Islam.
The terrifying truth that western media and “leaders” are trying desperately to hide is that Mohammed himself WAS just such a horrific dark age warlord who personally ordered and carried out mass murder of prisoners, assassinations, rape of slaves and prisoners. Mohammed was a typical barbaric murderous warlord typical of those times EXCEPT he then codified and institutionalized for all time the attitudes and practices that made modern day Militant Islam what it is today, a plague of violence and hate that threatens to destroy the modern world.
It’s one thing to be a pyschopathic criminal. It’s another when you believe GOD is ordering and approving of your sickening behavior.

Jul 14, 2008 - 11:58 am 4. AP photographer witnessed the murder of two women in Afganistan « Blogging for a free world:

[...] Phyllis Chesler on the photos: [...]

Jul 14, 2008 - 12:07 pm 5. Bruce:

A terrible tale, but well done for reporting and commenting on it. One hopes this is well publicized in Europe and encourages those people to permit their NATO forces to engage against the Taliban.

Jul 14, 2008 - 12:30 pm 6. Sadly:

Sadly, American feminist groups, like the rest of the American left, do not denounce the Taliban. To do so would be to aid and abet their enemy, George W. Bush, and an enemy of their enemy is, of course, their friend.

Jul 14, 2008 - 1:26 pm 7. Melissa in NorCal:

These women don’t seem to even realize what is about to happen. They are calm and chatting? The Taliban and most Muslims that espouse the same values are less than human and we need not bother with quarter for them. Seek and destroy until they have all been erased. You cannot reason a man out of what they were never reasoned into.

Jul 14, 2008 - 3:39 pm 8. Norman Simms:

And you don’t even have to be Muslim… A local sports celebrity/commentator beat up his girl friend, kicked her back until it broke, waited six hours before calling medical attention, and then paid her $100,000 to keep her mouth shut. Now there is a debate on in the media whether he did anything wrong, should or should not lose job (”role model for upcoming sportsmen and women”). Alas, more defense of him him than condemnation. And she wasn’t even wearing a burqa. Welcome to New Zealand in 2008.

Norman

Jul 14, 2008 - 3:44 pm 9. SFC Cheryl McElroy US ARMY (RET):

The American feminist groups, contrary to Ms. Chesler’s comment, haven’t been very vocal about human rights abuses toward women under Islamic rule, primarily due to their opposition to the war.

Jul 14, 2008 - 3:45 pm 10. AP Photographer Stands by as Taliban Executes Two Women « The Foxhole:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/07/14/in-afghanistan-women-are-all-prostitutes-americans... [...]

Jul 14, 2008 - 3:54 pm 11. Nancy Kobrin, Ph.D.:

What might it take? I feel it will take the current surge that is committed to going into Afghanistan. There is no choice. This is the chance. It is already worse than Iraq but Phyllis, you have framed the essence of the war on terrorism — it is really over who gets to control the female body. According to the Taliban, they do. These two wonderful women who died such a brutal death call to my mind all those of our Holocaust because we died such a death repeatedly. This knowledge is sacred and it is to this end that this administration is committed to protecting our rights and theirs.

Jul 14, 2008 - 4:57 pm 12. Don:

NORMAN!!! Those women were shot to death by a group of men. Murdered, for someone’s psychopathic idea of morality. Were you trying to be ironic? Were you trying to show relativity? Do you know any group that could persuade you to murder a woman for the crime of moral inferiority?

Jul 14, 2008 - 6:58 pm 13. Associated Press Journalist Gleefully Dreams of Pulitzer While Terrorists Murder Women in Front of His Rolling Camera « BUUUUURRRRNING HOT:

[...] being covered by original source Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Pirate’s Cove, Ace of Spades, Little Green [...]

Jul 15, 2008 - 1:31 am 14. Norman Simms:

Dear Don

I was not tryimng to be ironic, nor to draw moral quivalence. But the guy who did this threw his girl friend down the stairs, then kicked her until her back was broken in four placesx, and then waited hourzs to call for help. Now even worse there are men writing in the papers blasming not just the woman, buit women’s refuges. I see this as only slightly less than outright murder.

Norman

Jul 15, 2008 - 3:07 am 15. Jack K.:

To Norman Simms: While such an act is horrible, there is an ENORMOUS difference between one person’s act of violence and organized systemic violence. Can’t you see the difference?

Jul 15, 2008 - 2:43 pm 16. Marcia Pappas:

These pictures horrified me. And to think that anyone could stand by and watch while two innocent women were murdered. We need to put pressure on the United States government to stop these atrocities.

Jul 15, 2008 - 3:07 pm 17. Norman Simms:

Dear Jack,

Do I see the difference between organized state-organized violence and a group of radical Islamicists who work outside of or across national boundaries, yes, of course, I do. But I also see horrible likenesses with cultural attitudes which foster continuous violence against women, police forces and political figures who rationalize and condone it, and a public that accepts that they are helpless to stop it.

I am not talimg about an isolated act of “domestic abuse” but an epidemic of similar events and a wholesale failure of the public, the state and the judiciary to respond appopriaterly. Am I mistaken in thinking that this phenomenon is not limited to New Zealand?

If this single instance had the woman önly” crippled for life, the numbers of others who are killed, whose children are subject to lifelong trauma, and whose society is dragged even further down into the morass of acceptance of debasement of women’s rights–and children’s, and even men’s.

We may just be fooling ourselves if we think these events are trivial compared to what the Taliban or Al-Qaida do. There should be zero tolerance–tout court!

Norman

Jul 15, 2008 - 9:22 pm 18. Bill:

Uhhh…how about some pressure on the Afghani tribalists instead.

You could start by following Ms. Chesler’s lead and encouraging
your fellow female Americans to ask why public reporting in the US on these kinds of (multi?)cultural barbarities seem endemic to certain kinds of social environments.

Jul 16, 2008 - 11:38 am