America Has Abandoned Afghanistan's Women

The one year anniversary of the Afghanistan Shi’ite Personal Status Law passed without even a whisper from the U.S. media. Apparently, daily stories of oiled-soiled pelicans are vastly more important and newsworthy to CNN and FOX, as well for the alphabet soup of “news” of organizations vying for the attention of the coveted U.S. population.
As I previously posted on Surface Earth, the Afghanistan Shi’ite Personal Status Law grants Shi’ite men the legal right to starve their wives if any sexual demand is not met, requires Shi’ite women to obtain permission from their husbands to leave their home, grants parental custody solely to the father (or in his absence, the paternal grandfather) and allows a rapist to avoid criminal prosecution by paying “blood money” to the father (or paternal grandfather) of the raped woman if she was injured. Not surprisingly, the terms “sexual demand” and “injured” are not explicatively specified in this law.
Surely, only a blind fool in a hurry would confuse this law with the legitimized rape of Shi’ite women in Afghanistan. If you find that statement appalling, consider the following:
Afghanistan’s Shi’ite Personal Status Law, including the rape provision, applies to any Shi’ite woman old enough to marry – in Afghanistan it’s 9 years old, or the age of most 3rd grade girls in the U.S.
Before we go on, let’s pause for a moment to recover from losing our last meal…
Now the longest war of the 234 year history of the U.S., over 100,000 U.S. forces are serving in Afghanistan – thousands of them are women. Yet the call for the most basic of human rights for Afghanistan’s Shi’ite women and young girls have been completely abandoned by the U.S. government, its coalition allies and, most sadly, by the American people.
2010 may prove to be the worst ever in terms of the number of American and coalition service men and women casualties in the Afghanistan war. How does our society justify the sacrificing of the lives of our young men and women for a foreign society that legalizes the rape of its own women and prepubescent girls?
Pentagon spending in February 2010, the most recent month available, was $6.7 billion for the war in Afghanistan (compared with $5.5 billion in Iraq). To be fair, the cost has increased substantially since President Obama’s 68,000 troop build up over the last year. In any event, that total is for ONE MONTH! Do the math for the eight years we have been there. Whatever the sum, for the little girls all across Afghanistan, the questions remains:
What became of the promise of a different life made to the women of Afghanistan, by the U.S. government, on behalf of the American people?
What became of the commitment the U.S. government made to its own population in return for the sacrifice of their children’s lives?
The Afghanistan government (using the word “government” for the lack of a better term) has existed for the last eight years solely as the result of the U.S. taxpayers. Yet despite all their sacrifices, the Afghanistan do not even acknowledge the most basic human rights of over 3 million Shi’ite women and girls in their own country. Sadly, it seems neither does the American public. To put into perspective, the number of Shi’ite women and girls in Afghanistan (roughly more than half of the 6 million Shi’ite population) is larger than the entire population of 21 of the 50 U.S. states and the population of the U.S. capital!. So for the little girls all across Afghanistan, there is no need for an Amber Alert, no need, because the “word” no is still never an option for them.