Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

What happens if Abdul Rahman is set free in Afghanistan and is then killed by a fanatical lynch mob? After all, clerics in Afghanistan have threatened to tear him to pieces. It is an entirely convenient outcome for all concerned. The West can say that they pressured the Karzai government to release him; and they would be right. The Karzai government can claim that they reconciled Western values with Afghan tradition and released the man (albeit on a technicality); and they would be right. The Afghan judiciary can say that they wanted to prosecute him but he was found insane; and they would be right. The Afghan clerics would say that justice must be served, and so a mob killing would be justified; and, by their logic, they would be right.

Everyone wins under this scenario except:

• Abdul Rahman (obviously, I don’t need to explain why he loses here)
• Afghanistan because it does not face the kind of hard choice that societies must confront in order to develop socially and politically
• Islam because it does not get to settle once and for all that the date on the calendar is 2006 and not 622
• The rest of us because we all have a stake in protecting basic human rights (codified internationally in the UDHR).

So, we should not embrace this ducking of the issue by Afghanistan or by our leaders. We should resist it. We should demand that the Afghan constitution resolve the conflict in its language between its acceptance of the UDHR and Islamic Sharia law. We wanted a revolution in that part of the world, well, now we’ve got it. This is the moment of Afghanistan’s liberation, not Tora Bora. We have considerable clout with the Karzai government (we pay his bills and provide for his security). It is time for us to demand a return on our investment. It is time for the Karzai government to move the Taliban out of the Afghan judiciary and offer some real protections. If his government falls, so be it. It was and is an impotent government anyway.

The real war against terror was in Afghanistan until we exported it to Iraq. That war still rages for all Afghanis - in the degradation of women, in medieval justice, in the illiteracy, in the ignorance, in the poverty. We must fight this war, now that we are called to wage it. This war is the "long war", to borrow a phrase. It requires bombs and teachers. It requires guns and books. It requires the exposition of one simple idea: that the basic right of human beings is the right to exist. And to exist means to think (tip to Descartes), and to think freely. All else follows: votes, democracy, wealth, pursuit of happiness, etc.

Whether this President and this Government has the political capital (after the humiliation in Iraq), the political will, and the requisite foresight and competence to carry out this long war remains in great doubt. Past experience suggests that the Administration is not capable of confronting this complex challenge. It pays lip service to words like "freedom" and "liberty" without understanding what lies behind these ideals. This Administration started the process in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from official power. Now it must follow through by giving the Afghan people the tools needed to remove the Taliban from their lives. Anything less will be another defeat for the United States in this war.

What can we do as citizens? The easy answer is that we should make our leaders accountable to us. We should remind our leaders who the enemy is and who attacked us. We should remind them that those who attacked us are still out there and their mystique grows with the passing of each humiliating day in Iraq for the United States. Our leaders must find a way to contain the damage we have done to Iraq, to ourselves and to our ability to project moral and military power. They must find a way to restore the image of the United States in the world - with each passing day and each defiant swagger of the likes of John Bolton this task is that much harder. Our leaders must restore the international alliances and organizations that we have left in tatters. Our leaders must commit to doing all of these things, or we must send them off to early retirement.

Make no mistake, there is a battle going on not only for the soul of Islam but also for the soul of the United States. Where we stand in this fight will determine what kind of planet we leave our children. We must decide whether we choose a clash of civilizations or a historic leap forward in our understanding of one another. The stakes are nothing less than that.

In the 24 hour news cycle, it is hard to keep up with so many stories flying past us at dizzying speeds. Important stories by necessity get pushed aside to make room for the more current story. Sometimes, however, it is worthwhile to step back and remind ourselves of lives that have not stopped living as the spotlight of the news has faded. Some of these stories, and the lives that live those stories, tell us larger truths about the world we live in. One such important life is that of Mukhtar Mai.

Nicholas Kristof propelled her story into our world in his column through the pages of the New York Times. You can read them here and here  (The first link will get you to Times Select; pay to read at your own risk; the second link is still free). She is a woman from a small village in Pakistan who was gang raped as punishment for a crime her younger brother allegedly committed. The villagers who raped her expected her to commit suicide in humiliation (far too many women are forced to take that escape). Instead, with help of the local Imam from the mosque, she filed a criminal case against her attackers. Her attackers were convicted, and then acquitted on appeal. Under immense international pressure, the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled that five of the six attackers would be retried.

Mukhtar Mai received a financial settlement of $8000 from the Pakistani government. She used this money to open two schools in her village. She was invited to travel to the United States to speak about her experiences. However, the Pakistani government refused to let her leave the country and confiscated her passport by order of our friendly neighborhood dictator, Pervez Musharraf. He was concerned that her visit would tarnish the image of Pakistan. Apparently allowing local tribal leaders to gang rape a village woman did not do the requisite amount of tarnishing. Musharraf was forced to reverse himself after yet another international outcry.However, the Pakistani government has continued to harrass her periodically since then.

Why do you suppose the maximum leader felt there would be further harm to the image of Pakistan by letting Ms. Mai leave the country? Musharraf gave an interview to The Washington Post where he asserted that no one in Pakistan does more to advance the cause of women than him; and that women in Pakistan like to get raped so that they can make money and become famous. He later denied that he made those statements until The Washington Post produced a tape recording of the interview. I urge you to listen to the audio yourself. I cannot decide if Musharraf is just arrogant or if he is a chauvinist or both (ok, both). If you ever want to hear what absolute power sounds like, this tape is for you. I am comforted at night when I reflect on our strong alliance with this man. I am, however, certain that in the judgment of history the grace of Mukhtar Mai will overcome the wretched stench from this dictator’s bowels.

The story of Mukhtar Mai, though extra-ordinary, sadly is not uncommon. Untold numbers of women and girls in the under-developed world are subjected to unspeakable brutality. These women are poor, illiterate and at the mercy of their captors, i.e., their husbands or other unscrupulous men. Poverty and illiteracy has not stripped these women of their dignity and beauty. For those who have any doubt, come with me to where I was born (Bangladesh), walk with me in an impoverished slum or village, and see with me into the eyes of a mother, sister or daughter.

Mukhtar Mai puts a human face to an otherwise hidden tragedy. I urge all who read this post to raise awareness and keep this issue in the collective consciousness of our world. Our Government lately is in the business of reshaping the world; democracy, liberty, freedom, capitalism and other high ideals are merely words until the true evils of ignorance are addressed. Mr. President, if you want to change the world, you can start by clicking this link.