Afghanistan: Atrocity ‘Right Under Our Noses’
It is the kind of occurrence that is absolutely exasperating about Afghanistan and our continued presence there.
According to Ben Arnoldy of the Christian Science Monitor, an Afghan woman accused of adultery was publicly executed — by shooting her nine times — in Parwan Province “directly under the noses of the Afghan government and the international community,” and just north of massive U.S. Bagram Air Base.
The entire atrocity was caught on video.
[In another report by the Christian Science Monitor:
In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province.
"Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed."]
Now, to be fair — if that is at all possible in this case — Afghan officials claim the executer was a member of the Taliban and the execution was the work of the Taliban. The Taliban denies this.
If it wasn’t the Taliban, then who?
The answer to that question is sadly of no concern to the woman who was murdered and is little consolation for her family, but it certainly should interest a government, a country and a people where and for who we have been sacrificing so many American lives and have squandered so much of our treasure for more than ten years.
This is some of what Arnoldy says about “lovely” Parwan Province, in addition to “There’s a lovely ice cream shop off one of the rotaries, and a decent restaurant serving fish and kebabs overlooking the Panjshir River”:
Since the Taliban’s ouster in 2001, the province has always been the most obvious place for foreigners looking to work or relax outside Kabul. It’s one of the safest places in the country, with the large security footprint, good connectivity to the capital, and the mostly-Tajik ethnic makeup.
The province has received a lot of development assistance, both by nongovernmental organizations based out of nearby Kabul and from the military Provincial Reconstruction Team operating out of Bagram.
A local elder in Parwan once told me how the foreigners had now built three girls’ schools within a mile of each other. Girls schools are a popular project for foreigners, and Parwan is a popular place to put them, given the relative security, but there weren’t enough girls in the area to fill three, the elder claimed. Instead, the security guard at one of the schools did nothing but protect the squirrels and birds who nested in the empty building.
Paraphrasing the author, if there’s any place in Afghanistan where one might expect that our presence, influence and efforts would bring some change, some enlightenment and would at least prevent such atrocities, “Parwan would be it.”
Alas, and back to the author’s words:
Parwan presents a problem for those who argue that foreign militaries need to stay to hold the country together and protect its women. As regional expert Christine Fair told CNN in the wake of the execution, “We can ask the question what will happen when we leave, but let’s remember that this is actually happening while we’re still there.”
Having supported our military efforts in Afghanistan to capture or kill those responsible for 9/11, I must agree with the author and find the situation in Afghanistan, as I said, exasperating.
Ben Arnoldy is the Deputy International Editor at The Christian Science Monitor. He has served as the Monitor’s bureau chief in India and Northern California.
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Thank you for this post. Suggesting that a reason that the U.S.-led NATO coalition remain in Afghanistan is to protect women is sadly laughable.
I have a key programmed in my MacBook Pro that on demand produces the following paragraph:
As the Mongols, Chinese, English and Soviets learned to their bloody dismay, Afghanistan is ungovernable. The U.S. and its allies have chosen to ignore history and the sooner they up and go the better for everyone — including Afghanis.
A manhunt is on for the group shown in the video. I wonder who took the video.
[The commander of NATO's 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, offered to help local security forces track and capture the men involved in what he called "an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty".]
This report gives more information.
http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-plea-rights-afghan-women-134043486.html
Shaun and T.O, thanks for your comments.
T.O., also thanks for the link. I found the following heartbreaking in the article you linked to:
“Roshna Khalid, Salangi’s spokeswoman, separately told AFP the 22-year-old woman, named as Najiba, was married to a member of the hardline Islamist Taliban and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander.
“Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death. They shot her in front of villagers in her village, Qol,” she said.”
Its sad how much things like this go on over there. I try to be open minded about different cultures, but the way women are treated in the middle east is just something I can’t not see red over. How am I supposed to respect a culture that institutionalizes this kind of behavior.
Why an “exasperating” occurrence?
Adulterous adults have yet to be taken withing the pale of ‘normalcy’ anywhere. Just look at what happened to future world leader Dominique Strauss Kahn, or that ‘Presidential’ contender (read the list). For some of them death might seem preferential to a destroyed career path.
The Afghans, failing the presence of whatever stops us ‘civilized people’ from killing straying mates, were dealing with an age old problem in an age old way. Had they had Jesus as a model, or not had access to modern automatic weapons and video equipment, the procedure might have been different. As it is, we’re shocked.
Well we’re not shocked when similar things are presented for our viewing pleasure (or not) if we’re given to understand they ‘deserved it’. Hell, we’re not even shocked if it was a ‘mistake’. This woman might have had a different emotional response if she was being shot for planting IEDs.
The sad, and stupid thing is that we can say we’re ‘exasperated’. As if we’re really trying to do Afghans some good. For the intial reason for invading Afghanistan was for some kinetic ‘payback’. That most Afghans haven’t greeted the effort, and payback, with flowers and cake shouldn’t be all that surprising. John Lobsterback probably felt the same way after a couple of years ‘peacemaking’ in the Carolinas.