Tuesday, March 08, 2011
(photo: B.K. Bangash, AP)
Saying it’s time to be realistic about foreign policy goals, U.S. officials are downgrading the importance of achieving certain benchmarks for women’s rights in Afghanistan, as President Hamid Karzai’s government courts peace with insurgents.
J. Alexander Their, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s office in Afghanistan, told The Washington Post: “The women’s issue is one where we need hardheaded realism. There are things we can do, and do well. But if we become unrealistic and overfocused . . . we get ourselves in trouble.”
Another U.S. official was more blunt, saying: “Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities.”
In an effort to compromise with conservatives, the Karzai government has drafted rules that would bar private safe houses for women fleeing abuse. Women would be forced to seek refuge in public shelters, where they would be required to take medical examinations and they could be evicted if their families demand their return. The shelters also would come under direct control of the Afghan government for the first time.
Women’s advocates worry that what progress has been made in Afghanistan will be rolled back as Karzai and Washington seek to make peace with the Taliban.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
In Afghanistan, U.S. Shifts Strategy on Women's Rights as It Eyes Wider Priorities (by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post)
Afghan Government’s Takeover of Women’s Shelters Adds Insult to Injury (by Horia Mosadiq, Amnesty International)
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