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Insight: Afghan women fade from White House focus as exit nears
Reuters ^ | 5/10/2012 | Laura MacInnis and Amie Ferris-Rotman

Posted on 05/10/2012 9:09:39 PM PDT by Hunton Peck

Shortly after sending U.S. troops to Afghanistan in October 2001, President George W. Bush focused so intently on freeing Afghan women from the shackles of Taliban rule that empowering them became central to the United States' mission there.

More than a decade later, as his successor Barack Obama charts a way out of the unpopular war, Afghan girls are back in school, infant and maternal survival rates are up and a quarter of the parliament's seats are reserved for women who at least on paper have the same voting, mobility and other rights as men.

But Obama rarely speaks about that progress, delegating discussion of women's rights to his secretary of state and other top diplomats so he can focus on narrower goals for Afghanistan: uprooting the militants there and getting out.

Obama's lack of overt attention to Afghan women has led many to fear their hard-fought gains will slip away as the United States hands off security responsibility to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, with ever-present Taliban leaders still holding sway in much of the countryside.

Women's issues are not on the formal agenda at the NATO summit the United States will be hosting in Chicago later this month. Afghanistan is poised to send an all-male delegation.

Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said it was "really worrying" that Obama only made a passing reference to women on his trip to Afghanistan last week, when he affirmed a general need "to protect the human rights of all Afghans - men and women, boys and girls."

Obama's choice of words also was noticed in Afghanistan, which remains a conservative and male-dominated Islamic country. Gulalai Safi, a female member of parliament from northern Balkh province, said it was "somewhat of a shame" that he did not use the visit to...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; afghanwomen; amnestyinternational; islam; obama; obamadoublestandard; obamasilent; waronwomen; women
Kind of interesting that this comes from Reuters.
1 posted on 05/10/2012 9:09:46 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
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To: Hunton Peck

Afghan women are obviously not part of the Julia plan.


2 posted on 05/10/2012 9:14:42 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: Hunton Peck

Now the real war on Afghani women starts. All those uppity young women who tried to get an education by the great Satan are going to get what’s coming to them.


3 posted on 05/10/2012 9:27:09 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Hunton Peck

Of course they’ll hear the screams until Jesus returns and maybe beyond. Tragic wailing and gnashing of teeth.


4 posted on 05/10/2012 9:27:57 PM PDT by Karliner ( Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:38"...this is the end of the beginning."WC)
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To: Hunton Peck
GOOD. It was stupid when Bush's Dhimmi-in-Chief Karen Hughes bleated on about "girls can go to school again!!!" And it is stupid now after thousands dead to give two craps about them. We went there to AVENGE the dead of 9/11, not to setup a Kabul branch of NOW.
5 posted on 05/10/2012 9:35:34 PM PDT by montag813
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To: smoothsailing

They can’t vote for the Messiah so they are thrown under the bus like everyone else.

Obama: The American Taliban


6 posted on 05/10/2012 9:47:47 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Hunton Peck

My thoughts exactly.
And kind of interesting too that NOW and ultra-but-selective feminists like Steineim and Fonda have never made any statements about Afghan women but instead have focused their energies on getting Rush Limbaugh off the air.


7 posted on 05/10/2012 10:49:24 PM PDT by citizencon
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

American Tailiban? That is a gross understatement, I think what is more appropriate is ghazi.

We have a ghazi in the White House, raiding wealth and spreading Islam globally, doing what he can to disassemble the great satan and further the ends of the islamic nations.


8 posted on 05/10/2012 10:56:11 PM PDT by himno hero (UQ)
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To: smoothsailing

“Obama’s lack of overt attention to Afghan women has led many to fear their hard-fought gains will slip away as the United States hands off security responsibility to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, with ever-present Taliban leaders still holding sway in much of the countryside.”

I don’t think the families of our dead servicemen intended them to die for that nonsense; I thought they were told they were fighting for our country.


9 posted on 05/11/2012 4:06:18 AM PDT by kearnyirish2
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: kearnyirish2
I thought they were told they were fighting for our country.

Yeah, right. Have you taken a peek at the ROE lately?

11 posted on 05/11/2012 10:13:16 AM PDT by smoothsailing
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