h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Watched a programme tonight on Ch 4, where a Muslim woman revisited Afghanistan 5 years since she was last there, to see if women are being treated any better.

The pictures were shocking. I'll admit, I cried.

Women and girls set fire to themselves in Afghanistan to get away from the hell of their daily lives and to issue one last shout proclaiming their existence at the world. Over 60 each year.

Burkas are as much in evidence now as they ever were under the Taleban. Unlike here in the UK, the women there are quite clear that they wear them out of fear. If they don't, they will if they are lucky, only be harrassed by men and pursued for sex. If they are unlucky, they will be stoned or executed with a bullet to the head.

Amazingly, the reporter found a girl's school in the North. Over 4000 girls travel from miles around. Once inside the perimeter wall, they shed their burkas and it's like someone switches on the sun. Young girls grow inches as the burkas come off and they run around laughing and playing. But they go there at the risk of their lives. In the south, the Taleban execute teachers who try to educate girls.

The combination of religion and culture in Afghanistan is the clearest vision of evil I have ever seen. When half the population is treated with less respect than the goats, you could be forgiven for thinking this is the 15th Century.

But what can be done? It's not enough to say that this is their culture and we must respect it. This is the face of multiculturalism that says we must celebrate all cultures without being judgemental. No. I cannot celebrate depravity.

I've long argued that Islam can only be reformed from within and it will be women who do it. We must give the women of Afghanistan hope and real support. If Afghan men cannot be dragged willingly into the 21st Century, then the West MUST sideline them.

Afghanistan must be colonised and civilised by force. It might take 100 years, but it's worth it. Schools must be built and defended in every village. Let's send our legions of social workers to a land where they might actually do some good.

The fight in Afghanistan against the Taleban and the ignorant is a good fight. There are good people there being suffocated by ignorance.

I cried tonight, but it's nothing to the silent tears being shed every day under the burkas.

Mosul, Iraq -- According to the Kurdish website Jebar.info up to 1000 men from the Yezidi Kurdish community of Mosul killed a teenager who's only crime was running away to marry a Muslim man whom she loved and converting to his religion.

For four months the girl had been given shelter by a local Muslim Sheik. It was reported that in the last few days her family persuaded her to return home, convincing her that she had been forgiven by her parents and relatives for her mistake.

In a short mobile video clip which appears to have been taken by locals at seen of the murder, the girl is seen being ambushed on her way home by a group of up to 1000 men who were waiting for her to return; the men killed her in the most brutal way possible, by throwing large stones on her head. The following clips show that while she is alive and crying for help she is taunted and kicked in her stomach until someone finishes her off by throwing a large stone on her face.

From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing.

According to the website and footage from the clip a number of armed local police officers were present who in fact helped the crowd to kill the woman rather than preventing the crime. Sometime later the Iraqi army arrived at the scene and refused anyone entry, including the press.

Killing women for reasons of honor, shame and religion does happens in regions of Kurdistan and Iraq. The above incidents are not uncommon in some of the deeply religious and traditional communities. For long violence against women has been commonly used as a political and religious weapon and as a means of social control.

By Kameel Ahmady, Mina Rojdar
www.Kurdishaspect.com

I don't have any answers. Raw force sometimes seems the only way, and yet it obviously has to be backed up with a LOT of forethought and reconstructive resources. That last post though ... Just one of so many such things I have read of, and wish that I could cry as well. But I seem to have become too hardened, I guess, by the frequency of the stories.

The answer is right in front of us. The greatest achievement of the west has been education. It liberated and empowered millions here from superstition, religion and ignorance. That should be our weapon. Instead of bombs, we should be dropping books. We should flood the country with teachers, health workers, fridges and printing presses.

There is a loud grumbling here from the s ... To the effect that our troops should not be fighting the Taliban, but instead building schools and bridges. For decades, Canada has been big in "Peace Keeping" and many don't see any other role for us.

What they don't understand is that it is very difficult to build a road, or a water treatment facility, when you are being fired on. Stability first, somehow, is needed.