Making Peace With The Taliban

When Hamid Karzai spoke of inviting the Taliban to share his government, he was putting out feelers to determine how his Western protectors, supporters and financiers would take the issue. He now knows; NATO and the United States and Canada are tentatively taking a wait-and-see attitude - not without its own encouragement. When Hamid Karzai spoke, also years ago, about making overtures of a friendly nature to Iran, he defended himself by reminding NATO et al that Afghanistan had to live with its neighbours in a future that precluded the presence of Western nations.

So now we learn through leaked documents that Iran has been covertly funding the Karzai government, greatly enhancing their reputations among those in the Karzai cabinet pleased no end to do the bidding of Iran. Of course President Karzai has already been most helpful to the Shia cause within Afghanistan, agreeing with the fundamentalists among them that Sharia must be implemented to ensure that women in Afghanistan know their place in Afghan society. This is an issue the West is no longer invested in; the initial outcry long forgotten.

With the absence of the Taliban over the past decade, Afghan women could be forgiven if they tended to 'forget' for the time being that they are non-persons. They will soon enough be reminded, and many of them are already suffering throes of dread expectation with the prospect of the Taliban, through Hamid Karzai's proposed "reintegration" and "forgiveness" plan, to share the country's administration with the Taliban - those whose allegiance can be bought, and they will be legion.

Loyalty to the prospect of a nation and a government dedicated to the future prosperity of all its citizens, inclusive of education for girls and advancement for women within that society however, may be a trifle too much to expect. The warlords who have grown steadily wealthier, along with the Taliban, through the proceeds of the poppy crop, and who both benefit by Iranian largess, are certain to celebrate the departure of NATO and the oversight of Western countries.

Some of whom are still morally invested in the prospect of future involvement in the country, to assist in modernizing it and bringing it into a level of prosperity that will negate the need for too many of its tribal people to feel left out and abandoned by a central government too busy to view them as equally entitled. CARE Canada would ideally like Canada to devote itself to remaining, in a decreased civilian caretaker force, to ensure that with their encouragement, the cause of women will not be overlooked and forgotten.

For Canada to commit, for example, to fostering close ties with Afghan human rights organizations, invested in the struggle to ensure that women in Afghanistan are not relegated to their previous non-entitled positions to be exploited and their human rights trampled upon. Which will most certainly occur, should the Taliban, even mid-level leadership, be invited to share governance in the country. With the creeping return of the Taliban will come a return of al-Qaeda. And the situation that was reversed will be reinstalled

While foreign aid workers and humanitarian groups, along with various NATO countries' investment in civil infrastructure like hospitals and schools are currently assisting girls and women to achieve educational and workplace goals, this occurs in urban centres, while women and girls living in the outlying provinces are still devoid of opportunities.

The traditional patriarchal society that deems women's place within Islam to be closeted within a home, and women in public to be shrouded and accompanied by male family members will continue without a sweeping cultural change. This is something that can only be achieved through exposure to a more enlightened social system and a deliberate educational experience to convince men in society that the education of girls is a positive element that would lead to a more advanced society.

Returning the "Scholars of Islam" to ranking governing positions will turn back the clock for Afghan women, unless their fathers, husbands, brothers and uncles begin to see them as a equally endowed and requiring fulfilment alongside that of their male relatives. A slow but steady shift away from including women in parliament in the peace initiatives demonstrate aptly that Hamid Karzai is prepared to sacrifice Afghan women to his larger ambition to remain in power, at any cost.