Afghan Women's Rights Case Study

Several years ago I had the opportunity to work with Suraia Suhar, an Afghan-born woman who now lives in Toronto, Canada. At the time, Suraia was organizing with Afghans for Peace (AFP) and I was serving on the board of directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Back in 2012, NATO held their annual summit in Chicago, where thousands of antiwar protestors showed up to support AFP and IVAW, and to protest NATO's ongoing and ever-expanding militarism. The rallies and actions culminated when members of IVAW discarded their medals, echoing the actions of Dewey Canyon III in 1971, when Vietnam Veterans Against the War threw their military mementos on the steps of the Capitol in Washington D.C.

The anti-NATO protests were the last massive
troop levels in Afghanistan, she said, "It's just an extension of the ongoing occupation. Concerning the future, well, I think a lot of that will depend on who's elected after Obama leaves office." In other words, "Obviously Trump would have a different approach to foreign policy than Sanders. And given her reputation, I’m worried that a Clinton administration would lead to more war hawk policies abroad than Obama's failed policies."

But what about the Afghan women? Suraia isn't buying it. "This is a tired and debunked orientalist argument. Given that we live in the Information Age, my hope is that those who believe and repeat these claims make the effort to read statistical reports on the quality of life for women in Afghanistan, and how much of the progress, albeit with flawed results, had little to nothing to do with military warfare." Turns out, bombs aren't conducive to gender equality or political rights - imagine that.

In fact, NATO's bombs and raids have created more insecurity. "The entire occupation has been rife with corruption, escalations of violence, preventable casualties, and further disempowerment of the Afghan people. The high numbers of internally displaced people and rise in refugee populations is evident of the deteriorating security in Afghanistan." Indeed, the situation continues to deteriorate in
Almost immediately fear-mongering was fueled with a rise in Islamophobia, xenophobic, and the media had no trouble propagating anti-terrorism rhetoric in the form of jingoism." Further, Suhar notes that, "When the Afghanistan war was escalated at the end of 2009, a Democrat (Obama) was in power, so the anti-war movement subsequently, and cowardly I might add, dissipated. It was disappointing to say the least."

Biting criticism? No doubt. But true nonetheless. I can personally attest to the cowardly position many antiwar organizations took with regard to the war in Afghanistan. Even on the Left, people never understood how to deal with the "good war." Part of the problem, at least from my perspective, is that we did a poor job of educating peace and justice activists about American Empire, its history and the legacy of so-called humanitarian interventions and counterinsurgency operations.

As far as the antiwar movement is concerned, I asked Suraia what advice she would have for those seeking to rebuild the movement, or better yet, build a new movement to oppose militarism and empire. "I can’t stress enough the importance of working alongside people from Afghanistan who are well informed, experienced, and already doing community organizing. This goes for all conflict regions that the anti-war movement is involved