Women's Rights in Afghanistan | Amanpour and Company

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is currently trying to secure a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Women’s rights campaigner Fawzia Koofi will be wearing an arm cast at the negotiating table after surviving an assassination attempt last month. To assess Afghanistan's future, Christiane speaks with two women who refuse to let their country go backwards.

Originally aired on September 11, 2020.

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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[mikemccarthy]

The Afgan woman being interviewed does not want to give up the gains girls & women have made that have come about at the cost of thousands of dead & injured and billions of dollars spent in the effort to liberate the Afgan people from terror & religious oppression.
We should not continue a clearly futile effort one day longer, deceiving ourselves that the Taliban won’t take over as soon as non-Afgan forces have largely withdrawn from the country. Afghanistan has a warrior society. In recognition of that fact, we might give many Afgan girls & women a fighting chance to avoid the worst of Taliban oppression after we have gone.
Following a modified Israeli approach, and funded from US military contingency accounts, the Afgan govt would require mandatory 2-year military service for all citizens, starting w/ female recruits 16-22 for the first 2 years, paid at mid-level civil service salaries (w/ 50% boys/men thereafter).
Recruit female instructors experienced in hand-to-hand combat training from US, Israeli & other democratic nations’ militaries and experienced military contractors, if any (paid the same high rates as our male military contractors the last 19 yrs).
Using them, build a parallel all-female Afgan interpreter corps (ages 25-30, paid well, too, and run thru 90-day boot camp conditioning & martial arts/hand-to-hand combat training). Interpreters then train as they interpret & are advanced to leadership positions within the female side of the self-defense structure, and/or officer candidate school, after their 2-yr tour, if desired. Training occurs at our safe military bases in-country or outside the country. Interpreters are given added close-combat classroom & language instruction after hours and, along w/ their instructors, participate in recreational & educational activities with their recruits.
At the end of boot camp, each interpreter & enlistee is given a smartphone, if needed, and deposit accounts are set up for their accrued pay to date, and for their remaining 21 months of service.
In the initial two years of establishing the self-defense forces, the “self-defense” in question would be focused on personal self-defense, including escape & evasion techniques fitting their societal circumstances. Each would be given a specialized knife, fit for their size, designed for concealment, along with kit for its maintenance.
Their combat & survival training would be modeled on special forces training tailored to their circumstances. They would be trained in fire-making & trapping small game and, with their knives, would learn how to dress and cook the meat. To reinforce the critical value of their knives to their self-worth & survival, all enlistees & interpreters would learn the words to “This Is My Knife, This Is My One”, and believe them —
“This is my knife, this is my one. Without me, my knife is useless; without my knife, I am useless. There are many like it, but this knife is mine. It is my best friend, it is my life. I will learn it as a sister and know its weaknesses and its strengths. I will guard it against harm as I guard myself. I will keep it clean, sharp and ready. We will become part of each other. And before God, I swear, my knife and I are the defenders of myself, my village and my country.”
— Adapted from “The Rifleman’s Creed” by Brig. Gen. Wm. H. Rupertus, USMC, 1942, who led his men to understand that that their rifle was the only thing standing between them and death, that the rifle creed would be “something so deep, a conviction so great, a faith so lasting” that no marine would ever have to think about it.
Continued physical training would include HIIT, full range-of-motion, and weight training. Instructors, interpreters & enlistees would eat meals together, a high protein, Afgan heart-healthy diet.
As enlistees proficiency develops, they would participate in village organization sessions with their older interpreters designed to improve women’s place in village life, including: self-employment; service such as hygiene, first aid, help in childbirth, leading young girls in games, reading Afgan stories, singing where permitted, and other activities with implicit educational elements; women-led lending co-ops & other strategies for preserving their assets.
This proposal may seem to be an expensive fantasy, but perhaps the Afgan woman being interviewed might be more in favor of it than the lost cause she implicitly favors — foreign powers bogged down in an endless war in a poor Asian country at a cost of $200/gallon gas and $1 million per each trooper in the country.

[annache]

Since the 2020 election is less than 2 months away, what ways can the US ensure that Afghanistan protects the rights of women and minorities?