-Caveat Lector-
Mar. 2, 2003. 01:00 AM
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Afghanistan documentary exposes Bush's promises
MICHELE LANDSBERG
Remember Afghanistan? U.S. President George Bush was going to go in
there, bomb the Taliban out of existence, catch Osama bin Laden, install a
brand-new democracy and make sure that "all the boys and girls could go
to school." Not only that: By routing the Taliban, Bush could enjoy the
rare pleasure of draping himself in the silken mantle of a fighter for
women's rights. During his post-war January, 2002 state of the union
speech, he introduced leading Afghan feminist and cabinet minister Dr.
Sima Samar ("Today, women are free," he said) and basked in the applause
of Congress. If you'd like to check up on the progress of those grand
promises, you can do so tonight when The Passionate Eye (CBC Newsworld
at 10 p.m.) shows The Daughters of Afghanistan, a new documentary
featuring journalist and activist Sally Armstrong, who has visited that
country dozens of times since she began crusading for Afghan women's
rights in 1996. The state of Afghanistan is especially relevant right now —
though little-reported — because the chaos and misery there give us a
glimpse of just how difficult it is to reform a country by means of aerial
bombardment. Armstrong says that only about 30 per cent of Afghan girls
attend school today, due to lack of resources and a Taliban-like
fundamentalist grip on the country outside the capital. The warlords are
still running the country, and their rule is cruel, violent and deeply
misogynist. Outside of Kabul, girls and women are still jailed for trying to
escape forced marriages. They are forced to wear the burqa, attacked by
fanatic vice squads, and even seized and subjected to demeaning
gynecological "chastity" exams if caught anywhere near a man. Schools are
firebombed; warlords' troops rape with impunity. Dr. Samar, so admired by
President Bush, was forced out of government by a vicious hoked-up
fundamentalist plot a mere six months after becoming deputy prime
minister. Reduced to a human rights commissioner, she is left without
protection or funds by the indifferent U.S. In Armstrong's documentary,
the camera follows five women over the course of a year. Among the most
heartbreaking: Kamala, reluctantly pregnant with her ninth child, who
shrugs that she has no right to refuse sex with her husband. "He hits, so
what can I do?" she says. The husband grins and boasts that Islam gives him
the "status" of having so many children. Even more wrenching is the plight
of Lima, a shy 13-year-old, orphaned by a Taliban attack, who spends her
days cooking and cleaning for five younger siblings. Her only breaks are
lonely visits to the cemetery where she watches over her mother's grave.
The United States has utterly failed to keep its promises to Afghanistan,
and especially its promises to reinstate democracy (as though democracy
could ever be imposed by outsiders, from above ...as it were). It's worth
watching this compelling documentary just to taste the courage and
resilience of the women, and the depth of their betrayal by American
power. The Washington Post says that American hamburger joints are
springing up everywhere in Kabul. There might be post-war hamburgers in
Baghdad, too, but there will be no fast-food version of democracy.
Speaking of Afghanistan, I was vastly amused recently to receive an e-
mailed copy of a National Post editorial from Feb. 21. The editorial scolded
me and other "hard-left conspiracy theorists" for predicting that Unocal,
an American energy company, would be in Afghanistan "two seconds after
the end of bombing in Afghanistan." (Yes, I did write that.) The Post was
furious with me and hoped, it said, to make left-wing theories "look silly"
for ascribing oily motivations to American wars in Central Asia and the
Middle East. It wants to show how wrong we "hard lefties" were about
Afghanistan in order to prove that we are equally mistaken about American
designs on Iraqi oil. The Post did admit that, back in the mid-'90s, Unocal
had entertained Taliban leaders in Texas, hoping to build a natural gas
pipeline across Afghanistan to carry Turkmenistan's huge gas reserves to
the west. But "Unocal turned its back on Central Asia a long time ago,"
claimed the Post. True: in 1998, a fierce public relations campaign led by
Mavis Leno (wife of Jay Leno) and The Feminist Majority organization made
Unocal back off dealings with the fundamentalist fanatics. Unocal
explained on its Web site that it respected women's rights too much to do
business with the Taliban. Strangely, however, things are not quite so cut
and dried as the Post imagines The U.S. energy companies are not yet
swarming over ruined Afghanistan because the country is still in a
shambles, with no infrastructure, no peace and no safety. The instability
and danger are so great that even the most intrepid aid agencies, like
Médecins Sans Frontières, are talking of pulling back. Nevertheless, last
year a former U.S. State Department adviser, Martha Brill Olcott, was
predicting that "we're 18 months to two years away" from a stabilized
Afghanistan and "serious discussion of a U.S.- built pipeline." Although
Unocal strenuously denies any involvement in Afghanistan, its name keeps
popping up in news accounts. President Hamid Karzai was formerly
employed by a Unocal subsidiary, and last year Bush named a Unocal
executive, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as his special envoy to
Afghanistan. Really, we "hard lefties" aren't the only ones who think energy
resources have a lot to do with U.S. war aims. A metaphorical two seconds
after the Taliban were ousted, in December, 2001, the New York Times
business section noted that the state department was investigating "post-
Taliban energy projects in the region" and U.S. companies were said to be
putting up $1 billion of the costs of a Caspian Pipeline Consortium. Last
May, the BBC reported that Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan were
signing a huge deal to build the long-planned pipeline. Mohammed Razim,
Afghanistan's mines and industries minister, told the BBC that "Unocal will
be the lead company" in funding the pipeline. Unocal denied it. At the
same time, a Unocal spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the
company had no plans there for the foreseeable future, but that "I don't
think it would serve me to say `forever.'" "Business has its secrets and
mysteries," said the Afghan deputy minister of mines. "Maybe ... they don't
want it to be disclosed in the media." While I'm flattered to be the subject
of such rapt scrutiny by the Post (a favour I rarely return), I think perhaps
they ought not to be so hasty and emotional on this subject. Time will
prove them wrong.
Michele Landsberg's column usually appears in the Star Saturday and
Sunday. Her e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Additional articles by Michele Landsberg
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