Attack on Syria is it justified ?
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[h=1]As US leaves, Afghan women face attacks on rights[/h]
Reuters Photo
In Afghanistan, high-profile women are being targeted by the Taliban and even by their own male relatives.
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A senator is stabbed, a lawmaker kidnapped, a policewoman shot dead. Afghanistan is one of the worst places in the world to be born female.
KABUL/GHAZNI, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters have kidnapped a female parliamentarian who was traveling by car through Afghanistan`s central Ghazni province with her children, a local police commander said Tuesday, the latest in a string of high-profile, violent attacks on women.
Successive, often deadly assaults on women working in state institutions are fueling concern that hard-won women`s rights promoted by the United States and its allies are eroding as international forces prepare to withdraw next year.
Related: Taliban-style edict for women spreads alarm in Afghan district
Fariba Ahmadi Kakar`s three daughters were later released, the police commander said, but her kidnappers were demanding four Taliban prisoners in exchange for the parliamentarian.
Kakar, a member of the lower house, was the second female parliamentarian to be attacked in Ghazni in less than a week. Her husband denied the attack had taken place, saying she was traveling abroad, but the Kakar tribe`s elder, Samad Khan, said attempts were under way to reach an agreement with the Taliban.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he did not know who staged the attack. "We are still investigating," he said.
Under the Taliban`s 1996-2001 rule, women were obliged to wear the head-to-toe covering burqa, allowed only limited schooling and prevented from leaving home unaccompanied.
Restoring the right to work and education has been a cornerstone of the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, but patriarchal attitudes have remained entrenched.
GOING ABROAD THE ONLY HOPE
Survivors of attacks often say their only hope is to leave Afghanistan, still one of the worst places in the world to be born female.
"I need to go outside the country for my treatment and for my security," said Muzhgan Masoomi, a former government worker stabbed 14 times last year. "I was hopeful that the media would help me. More than one year has passed and no organization or media has helped."
Related: Where has America`s cash gone in Afghanistan?
Masoomi still appears on the NATO-led forces website in a article headlined "Afghan woman vows to resume government career after stabbing."
Kakar`s abduction follows the shooting last week of female senator Rooh Gul, police said. The senator and her husband survived, but their eight-year old daughter was killed along with the driver.
Last month, the most senior policewoman in southern Helmand province, Lieutenant Islam Bibi, was shot dead on her way to work in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.
Bibi, touted as a rising star of the Afghan National Police, said she received death threats even from within her own family.
While the Taliban have often targeted senior female government officials, honor killings by conservative male relatives remain commonplace.
Sunday, a woman in her twenties was shot by her husband after going to the market alone, the 11th female in northern Kunduz province killed by relatives this year, police said.
Related: Afghan women lose their political voice
Concerns have also been raised about a rise in Taliban-style edicts in some regions not overturned by the government.
In June, clerics in a region of Baghlan province, north of Kabul, barred women from leaving home without a male chaperone and shut down beauty parlors.
In the same month, female parliamentarians discovered that conservative male members had removed a legal provision that women make up a quarter of all provincial elected officials.
Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni in Kabul and Folad Hamdard in Kunduz; writing by Jessica Donati
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I read the above article with disbelief because the usual suspects on the Board keep telling me that Islam is the religion of peace.
http://www.yalibnan.com/2012/11/25/afghan-shiites-fear-losing-their-gains-once-u-s-leaves/
[h=2]Afghan Shiites fear losing their gains once US/allies leave[/h] November 25, 2012 ⋅ 6:59 pm ⋅Post a comment
Filed Under Ashoura, Ashura, Iran, Shiites, Sunnis, US allied forces
For the past week, the Afghan capital has been draped with black cloth arches and festooned with huge colored banners. Mournful, pounding chants pour from loudspeakers across the city, filling the air with slow martial intensity.<
The dramatic display is all part of Muharram, the 10-day Shiite festival that commemorates the slaying of Imam Hussein, a 7th-century holy figure and early champion of Islam. But it is also a symbol of the growing religious and political freedom that Afghanistan’s long-ostracized Shiites have had in the past decade.
Now, as Western military forces prepare to leave the country by 2014, Afghan Shiites, most of whom are from the Hazara ethnic minority, fear that their window of opportunity may slam shut again, leaving larger rival ethnic groups as well as Taliban insurgents, who are radical Sunni Muslims, dominating power.
“Everything we have achieved, our ability to come out and participate in society, has been in the shade of the international community and forces,” said Mohammed Alizada, a Hazara Shiite who was elected to parliament in 2009. “We are very concerned that once they leave, the fundamentalists will reemerge, ethnic issues will return, and we will lose what we have gained.”
There are more immediate fears, as well. Sectarian violence, historically absent from Afghan society, has been intensifying in next-door Pakistan and spilling across the border. During last year’s Muharram festival, two Shiite shrines in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif were bombed, killing more than 80 people. Shiite leaders say the Kabul attack was carried out by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, an outlawed Sunni militant group based in Pakistan.
Tensions increased palpably in Kabul on Saturday, the climactic 10th day of Muharrram known as Ashura, when groups of young men beat their chests and whip themselves with chains and knives in penance for the death of Hussein, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
No terrorist attacks were reported, and Afghan officials attended Muharram ceremonies under heavy security. But at Kabul University, clashes erupted between groups of students after an Ashura ceremony in a dormitory. Police reported that dozens were wounded and at least 30 arrested. One student was killed.
Afghan Sunnis, who make up about 80 percent of the populace, generally tolerate Shiites and observe Muharram in a quieter way, praying and giving charity to the poor. At other times of year, Afghans of all backgrounds flock to majestic Shiite shrines to meditate, feed pigeons or celebrate the Persian new year in the spring.
In West Kabul, the heart of the Hazara community, a heady, almost frenzied atmosphere has been growing all week. But this year, the arches and banners and chants have reached farther than ever across the city, arousing new resentment from the Sunni populace.
The hostility also stems from another concern: the widespread belief that Iran, Afghanistan’s Shiite neighbor to the west, is promoting Shiism and bolstering Hazara leadership as a way to gain cultural and political influence.
Washington Post
[h=2]Afghan Shiites fear losing their gains once US/allies leave[/h] November 25, 2012 ⋅ 6:59 pm ⋅Post a comment
Filed Under Ashoura, Ashura, Iran, Shiites, Sunnis, US allied forces
The dramatic display is all part of Muharram, the 10-day Shiite festival that commemorates the slaying of Imam Hussein, a 7th-century holy figure and early champion of Islam. But it is also a symbol of the growing religious and political freedom that Afghanistan’s long-ostracized Shiites have had in the past decade.
Now, as Western military forces prepare to leave the country by 2014, Afghan Shiites, most of whom are from the Hazara ethnic minority, fear that their window of opportunity may slam shut again, leaving larger rival ethnic groups as well as Taliban insurgents, who are radical Sunni Muslims, dominating power.
“Everything we have achieved, our ability to come out and participate in society, has been in the shade of the international community and forces,” said Mohammed Alizada, a Hazara Shiite who was elected to parliament in 2009. “We are very concerned that once they leave, the fundamentalists will reemerge, ethnic issues will return, and we will lose what we have gained.”
There are more immediate fears, as well. Sectarian violence, historically absent from Afghan society, has been intensifying in next-door Pakistan and spilling across the border. During last year’s Muharram festival, two Shiite shrines in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif were bombed, killing more than 80 people. Shiite leaders say the Kabul attack was carried out by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, an outlawed Sunni militant group based in Pakistan.
Tensions increased palpably in Kabul on Saturday, the climactic 10th day of Muharrram known as Ashura, when groups of young men beat their chests and whip themselves with chains and knives in penance for the death of Hussein, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
No terrorist attacks were reported, and Afghan officials attended Muharram ceremonies under heavy security. But at Kabul University, clashes erupted between groups of students after an Ashura ceremony in a dormitory. Police reported that dozens were wounded and at least 30 arrested. One student was killed.
Afghan Sunnis, who make up about 80 percent of the populace, generally tolerate Shiites and observe Muharram in a quieter way, praying and giving charity to the poor. At other times of year, Afghans of all backgrounds flock to majestic Shiite shrines to meditate, feed pigeons or celebrate the Persian new year in the spring.
In West Kabul, the heart of the Hazara community, a heady, almost frenzied atmosphere has been growing all week. But this year, the arches and banners and chants have reached farther than ever across the city, arousing new resentment from the Sunni populace.
The hostility also stems from another concern: the widespread belief that Iran, Afghanistan’s Shiite neighbor to the west, is promoting Shiism and bolstering Hazara leadership as a way to gain cultural and political influence.
Washington Post
Not really, by most reckoning Mother Teresa was a horrible person.LMAO!!!
This post should win nomination for, Stupidest Post of The Year! .....
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates the following cumulative statistics about US drone strikes in Pakistan:
Total strikes: 373
Obama strikes: 322
Total reported killed: 2,513-3,595
Civilians reported killed: 407-926
Children reported killed: 168-200
Reported injured: 1,112-1,494
This is what awaits Syria after Assad is "Regime Changed"
Total strikes: 373
Obama strikes: 322
Total reported killed: 2,513-3,595
Civilians reported killed: 407-926
Children reported killed: 168-200
Reported injured: 1,112-1,494
This is what awaits Syria after Assad is "Regime Changed"
She certainly was not one of my favorite people - but it all depends upon how you mean the above.
Wow, who would have guessed. Putin, who destroyed Chechyna(sp) is now a peacemaker. BTW: How is young Ed doing in Russia?
If we believe that Putin solely was responsible???? throw him a piece prize??? .FOR WHAT????? ....getting sarin gas off the table...???? !!!!!!
Might it have been the US talks between Putin and Obama, not to mention the pending military torque being applied by the Americans....that allowed this outcome to materialize.
WAY TOO NARROW MINDED..to think that Putin did this on his own. If so, he could have done it a month ago!
Of course, my post was sarcasm and we all know the usual suspects on this Board will never give any credit to President Obama and/or the West for anything.
They hate men (although at least one is married), and are imprisoned. Perhaps that explains the Vodka?
Even if they miss a few locations this is worth doing. Every litre of sarin that is transferred to safe hands makes the world safer and reduces the odds that Al Qaeda or Hezbollah will wind up with it.
It will be impossible to verify that they got it all, but getting most of it is still worth doing.
It will be impossible to verify that they got it all, but getting most of it is still worth doing.
The Syria situation has just devolved into;
parent 1 saying i caught you doing something serious that i told you you shouldn't do, what until parent2 gets home, you're gonna get it.
parent 2 comes home and says I'm going to spank you, take away your iphone, laptop, xbox, but just give me a minute Ive gotta call your grandparents and make sure its ok ... and then your favorite uncle, who took you out to see a hooker and got you drunk, shows up and says he's now in charge of your discipline.
Smart diplomacy. Right.
parent 1 saying i caught you doing something serious that i told you you shouldn't do, what until parent2 gets home, you're gonna get it.
parent 2 comes home and says I'm going to spank you, take away your iphone, laptop, xbox, but just give me a minute Ive gotta call your grandparents and make sure its ok ... and then your favorite uncle, who took you out to see a hooker and got you drunk, shows up and says he's now in charge of your discipline.
Smart diplomacy. Right.
