Originally posted by anonymous
babek last time i was there was a little less than two years ago. your description doesnt match up with what i saw or dealt with. who are your sources?
Have you been in west afghanistan - especially in Herat ?
One of my cousins is still now there, working for an iranian help organisiation.
And I believe him when he tells me that the ruler of Herat and Herat province, Ismail Khan, has build a system like in Iran shortly after the Khomeini revolution. At least the women dont have to wear the Burkha but they MUST wear the shador or they are put in jail.
If I am right the central afghan government allowed all afghan women to decide for themself if they wear a shador, a burkha or normal western clothing.
Just a small example how "much" have changed in Afghanistan and how much influence Karsai has in "his" provinces.
And the situation in Herat is - compared with the SE of Afghanistan - relativly good. They get much help from Iran, because this province has a long history with Iran. Iran was an ally of the western afghan warlords during the Taliban wars - long before 9/11. Herat was lost to the Taliban and hundredthousands afghans fled to east Iran where they lived in refugee camps for years. After the fall of the Taliban they returned - many of them in the iranian camps to the province and city of Herat.
And Iran continues to help them by providing humanitarian aid.
My cousin told me that there are soldiers from the central government of Kabul in Herat, but they have no authority or power, while Ismail Khan and his clan-troops rules the city and the province like a king some centuries ago.
If you have been in the NE-part of Afghanistan then you are in one point right: The so called General Dostum is ruling his part of the country like Saddam - the women have more rights than in rest Afghanistan but he has built a terrorregime and is trying to get more and more power from Kabul.
But if you have really such reliable sources then you wont be able to deny that especially in the pashtuni clan territory of SE-afghanistan the rights for the women have not been changed effectivly. They still have wear the burkha.
The examples of the treatment of the women show the dicrepance between the official liberal declarations of the central government and the reality in the provinces.
Not Karsai - the official president of Afghanistan - what is law and what not.
But the clanleaders and warlords.
The powerful of them like Khan or Dostum are ruling Afghanistan today and also all these minor clanleaders and warlords. And that brings all the problems for afghanistan: There is no real powerful central government.
Btw - my cousin is not a fanatic man who hates americans and wishes that Afghanistan remain a civil war country.
He had studied in London, became a M.D., didnt take the chance to work and become rich in Europe but returned to Iran and worked in refugee camps - first in one where iraqui kurds lived who escaped to Iran then he transferred to the east iranian border and he worked in one of the afghan refugee camps where many afghans fled to Iran from Taliban terror years before 9/11.
So I think he is a good source - especially when he tells me that he is always glad when he can leave Herat and come to Teheran in his holidays, because there are so many harsh islamic laws in Herat and he has to be very careful not to be make a mistake there.
He said that Herat is very much like Iran was during the first phase of islamic khomeini revolution.
Fanatics are patrolling and acting when they think that islamic law (by their definition) has been broken.
And the central government has no real power - although it has sent official troops to Herat.
So I think that this the reality - and not the dreams of Karsai in Kabul.
