Page 270 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

260 Chapter 10

human rights groups, which have taken the strongest initiative in publishing
detailed stories identifying the women who suffer under post-Taliban "democ-
racy." The stories of Farishta and Nooria are but a few of the many cases of the
human rights violations committed against women in Afghanistan-atrocities
downplayed by the U.S. in its self-congratulatory quest for democratization. At a
time when coming forward means that a woman may be targeted for violent
reprisal, many choose to silently endure inhumane living conditions.
Human rights reports often deliberately refrain from publishing the names
of victims, to protect them from possible punishment for speaking out. Even
female candidates for public office have chosen to remain unnamed for fear of
reprisals. One female candidate from Kandahar shares her experiences with in-
timidation as she ran for political office in the 2005 elections: "The phone calls
were all threatening my life. They asked me to give up running for parliament or
something would happen to me. They would kill me. I have told [international
human rights groups] about the phone calls." By August, men had begun to
physically threaten her on the street and at home: "I was really fnghtened. . . . I
reported it to the security commander. . . . I am really scared now. I wasn't very
worried about the phone calls. . . [but] these recent events have made me fright-
ened. I don't go out at all. I don't know what I should do when the official cam-
paign starts."34
Amnesty International reports that women have been targeted for assassina-
tion as a result of attempts to register to vote: "the risk of rape and sexual vio-
lence by members of armed factions and former combatants is still high," and
"forced marriage of girl children, and violence against women in the family are
widespread in many areas of the country."35 Human Rights Watch states that
little has changed for most of Afghanistan under the Northern Alliance's "rou-
tine" attacks on women: "the men who replaced the Taliban share the same
views on women that made the Taliban so notorious. . . these warlords have had
a chokehold on regional and local
American Progressive-Left media outlets have made it a major goal to high-
light the repressive post-war situation of Afghanistan. Questions concerning
human rights infringements and the failure of democracy have been a major fo-
cus of editorializing. In Common Dreams Jim Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar ex-
pressed major reservations about the argument that Afghanistan is transforming
into a democracy. They cite a public opinion survey by the Asia Foundation in
2004, which found that 72 percent of Afghans who were questioned believed
that "men should advise women in their voting choices," while 87 percent of
those surveyed thought that "women would need their husband's permission to
vote" in the upcoming election.37 Such answers suggest a serious discrepancy
between what many Americans and Afghan men consider to be the defining
characteristics of democracy. Whereas Western nations traditionally lend sup-
port to the idea that men and women (at least in principle) should be treated
equally and can make their own political decisions, the poll above suggests that
many Afghans feel democracy authorizes male dominance over women when it
comes to voting and other important aspects of economic, social, and political
life.