This is an excellent article- meaningful and direct. I am concerned about the future of the women of Afghanistan. I am profoundly concerned about the Moral Injury left behind for our veterans. Also, where is the deep objective review of Afghanistan and lessons learned. Maybe a report exists and I have missed it or it is only for the military. It needs to be done if not already done and made public. After 20 years of our losses--blood and treasure-- and the decades remaining for our veterans that lived that experience we are entitled to see this. Thank you for writing this.
As a veteran, this stain on our nation’s honor troubles and pains me deeply. It is a tragedy that did not need to happen. Our politicians (both democrat and republican) deliberately chose the politically expedient path. In doing so they abandoned our allies and harmed our long-term geopolitical and strategic security interests. And we as a nation let it happen.
This moral injury will haunt the U.S. for generations. However the women of Afghanistan shall suffer a far worse fate. History will not judge us kindly & rightly so. We could have made a difference (albeit however imperfect the results may have been…) that would have justified all of the blood, sweat, tears and treasure we lost in the “Graveyard of Empires.”
One thing Sami Sadat said to me stuck with me - America was responsible for educating a whole generation of Afghans - despite our shortfalls and defeats - you and many like you made a huge contribution to the lives of everyday Afghans especially women.
I get your choice not to relitigate Gaza in your piece. But I hope you won't mind if I do it to some extent. I am disgusted at how many high-minded activists, opinion-makers, and NGOs who were prepared to cash in by taking up the cause of Afghanistan's women are now performatively pro-Palestinian but in fact pro-Hamas. In other words, they are supporting a vilely misogynistic Islamic fundamentalist movement. It is, I suppose, a matter of chasing after the fashonable victim of choice, rather than taking and holding to a consistent, principled stance, e.g. that the equality of women is a fundamental right to be fought for and promoted everywhere, including where the aid community is ready to fall into "that's just the way those people are" thinking.
Well written Mr Selber. As an Afghan girl I was just a toddler when the campaign for Afghan women’s rights began nevertheless I was optimistic by the time I was as young as 9.
Things were shaky and we had a long way to go misogyny didn’t die after the first fall of the Taliban and didn’t just spring up after the second takeover of Taliban. Unfortunately it seems Afghan women’s rights was just a trend for organizations and movements.
Organizations that prided themselves on being supportive of Afghan women have been quite dismissive. I remember when I was reaching out to these organizations for help and assistance they all just replied they couldn’t help or be of any assistance it’s like the support died just right around the same time in 2021. speaking up about Afghan women’s rights is seen as nothing more than an old trend one that is no longer cool to talk about. A cause that no longer matters. People have moved past that trend and are now on to the new one.
I’ve always enjoyed reading your posts. Are you active on any socials. I remember I used to follow you on X but I’m no longer active there.
I've read about how much of that "progress" was only available in places like Kabul or certain provinces. Go anywhere else in the Pashtun south, out in the country, and there might be a female provincial governor (who's managed to survive assassination attempts) but the burka yet ruled, even with American troops in a firebase right down the road. In 2009, in Maiden Shar, an hour south of Kabul, women still wore the burka. And I think that was true for most of the women in most of Afghanistan even while America was there. Interestingly, in Paktika in 2006-07, different story: I saw women where head scarves but walking around on their own, in a much more rural area much further away from Kabul. But I think that speaks more to how every province, every valley, every village in Afghanistan has got its own culture going on. Many similarities, but many unique features, too. One place will be fine with a girl's school, possibly, while another just down the road will not tolerate a woman stepping one foot outside her husband's compound. Crazy, but it just goes to show how patchy that "progress" always was.
People need to think before they speak. Especially when they advocate for causes. The problems in Afghanistan and Gaza are actually the same if we zoom out the lens a bit.
A small number of NGO activists went to Afghanistan and walked the walk. The same thing is happening in Gaza to the extent that Israel allows any access at all.
But such activism is fundamentally meaningless because it cannot change the facts on the ground. If you truly want to help Afghan women or residents of Gaza then you have to want your country to create a huge, well armed, and phenomenally expensive million man army capable of invading and imposing your will by force, and staying put until you've beaten this lesson into the bones of whoever opposes your vision of female empowerment.
If you're unwilling to do this, and all you have in your tool kit is tired slogans and pleas for the international community to please do something, then you are unserious and making the problem worse. Sanctions and statements do not deter evil men who want to keep their power.
I would strongly support an advocacy community that understands its lack of power, that recognizes that consistently maximalist demands accomplish nothing, and that calibrates what it is asking for is limited by available taxpayer funding. But endlessly dialing up the outrage to increase donor funding does absolutely nothing for the people on the ground.
This is an excellent article- meaningful and direct. I am concerned about the future of the women of Afghanistan. I am profoundly concerned about the Moral Injury left behind for our veterans. Also, where is the deep objective review of Afghanistan and lessons learned. Maybe a report exists and I have missed it or it is only for the military. It needs to be done if not already done and made public. After 20 years of our losses--blood and treasure-- and the decades remaining for our veterans that lived that experience we are entitled to see this. Thank you for writing this.
As a veteran, this stain on our nation’s honor troubles and pains me deeply. It is a tragedy that did not need to happen. Our politicians (both democrat and republican) deliberately chose the politically expedient path. In doing so they abandoned our allies and harmed our long-term geopolitical and strategic security interests. And we as a nation let it happen.
This moral injury will haunt the U.S. for generations. However the women of Afghanistan shall suffer a far worse fate. History will not judge us kindly & rightly so. We could have made a difference (albeit however imperfect the results may have been…) that would have justified all of the blood, sweat, tears and treasure we lost in the “Graveyard of Empires.”
One thing Sami Sadat said to me stuck with me - America was responsible for educating a whole generation of Afghans - despite our shortfalls and defeats - you and many like you made a huge contribution to the lives of everyday Afghans especially women.
Well said, brother! Thank you for sharing this excellent article.
Will, well said. Truly a tragedy and preventable. Unforgivable decisions by the politicians.
Thanks, Liz V.
I get your choice not to relitigate Gaza in your piece. But I hope you won't mind if I do it to some extent. I am disgusted at how many high-minded activists, opinion-makers, and NGOs who were prepared to cash in by taking up the cause of Afghanistan's women are now performatively pro-Palestinian but in fact pro-Hamas. In other words, they are supporting a vilely misogynistic Islamic fundamentalist movement. It is, I suppose, a matter of chasing after the fashonable victim of choice, rather than taking and holding to a consistent, principled stance, e.g. that the equality of women is a fundamental right to be fought for and promoted everywhere, including where the aid community is ready to fall into "that's just the way those people are" thinking.
Totally agree
As I agree with you regarding the fashionable claim of Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Well written Mr Selber. As an Afghan girl I was just a toddler when the campaign for Afghan women’s rights began nevertheless I was optimistic by the time I was as young as 9.
Things were shaky and we had a long way to go misogyny didn’t die after the first fall of the Taliban and didn’t just spring up after the second takeover of Taliban. Unfortunately it seems Afghan women’s rights was just a trend for organizations and movements.
Organizations that prided themselves on being supportive of Afghan women have been quite dismissive. I remember when I was reaching out to these organizations for help and assistance they all just replied they couldn’t help or be of any assistance it’s like the support died just right around the same time in 2021. speaking up about Afghan women’s rights is seen as nothing more than an old trend one that is no longer cool to talk about. A cause that no longer matters. People have moved past that trend and are now on to the new one.
I’ve always enjoyed reading your posts. Are you active on any socials. I remember I used to follow you on X but I’m no longer active there.
Hi Rudaba. I’m on X.
I've read about how much of that "progress" was only available in places like Kabul or certain provinces. Go anywhere else in the Pashtun south, out in the country, and there might be a female provincial governor (who's managed to survive assassination attempts) but the burka yet ruled, even with American troops in a firebase right down the road. In 2009, in Maiden Shar, an hour south of Kabul, women still wore the burka. And I think that was true for most of the women in most of Afghanistan even while America was there. Interestingly, in Paktika in 2006-07, different story: I saw women where head scarves but walking around on their own, in a much more rural area much further away from Kabul. But I think that speaks more to how every province, every valley, every village in Afghanistan has got its own culture going on. Many similarities, but many unique features, too. One place will be fine with a girl's school, possibly, while another just down the road will not tolerate a woman stepping one foot outside her husband's compound. Crazy, but it just goes to show how patchy that "progress" always was.
Hi JGP - thanks for reading and commenting.
Women’s rights in Afghanistan wasn’t even. I spent a year in Ghorak, Kandahar doing VSO and I barely saw a woman outside her qalat.
Nevertheless, there was progress in larger cities in the S/SW.
Go up N/C/W and you would see much more of it.
People need to think before they speak. Especially when they advocate for causes. The problems in Afghanistan and Gaza are actually the same if we zoom out the lens a bit.
A small number of NGO activists went to Afghanistan and walked the walk. The same thing is happening in Gaza to the extent that Israel allows any access at all.
But such activism is fundamentally meaningless because it cannot change the facts on the ground. If you truly want to help Afghan women or residents of Gaza then you have to want your country to create a huge, well armed, and phenomenally expensive million man army capable of invading and imposing your will by force, and staying put until you've beaten this lesson into the bones of whoever opposes your vision of female empowerment.
If you're unwilling to do this, and all you have in your tool kit is tired slogans and pleas for the international community to please do something, then you are unserious and making the problem worse. Sanctions and statements do not deter evil men who want to keep their power.
I would strongly support an advocacy community that understands its lack of power, that recognizes that consistently maximalist demands accomplish nothing, and that calibrates what it is asking for is limited by available taxpayer funding. But endlessly dialing up the outrage to increase donor funding does absolutely nothing for the people on the ground.