More Fantasy Island Spin

Are the women of Afghanistan really free and empowered? Probably not!:

"Despite the fact that women comprise some 60 percent of Afghanistan's adult population, they make up only 43 percent of the new voting rolls. Recent surveys suggest that many Afghan women's votes will likely be determined by their husbands or by local faction leaders.

Largely deprived of education, particularly during the years that the Taliban ruled the country, the large majority of women are illiterate, according to Malaly Volpi of the Policy Council which has pressed the administration to provide more voter-education programs for women.

'Ninety percent of Afghan women are illiterate,' she said. 'How will they know who to vote for?' "
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As with the less than truthful spin President Bush is casting on Iraq, Afghanistan is in far more trouble than he wants the world to know:

"In making the case for the Afghan war, President Bush promised to make women a centerpiece of U.S. actions in the country after the ouster of the Taliban," she added, noting that he had pledged to get girls into schools and restore rights and dignity to Afghan women.

"Now, three years later, the President is touting the great strides of Afghan women and girls," she noted. "While we have seen some gains, Afghan women are not doing as well as many want to believe."

T. Kumar, Advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific at AIUSA, was even harsher about the administration's performance.

"They have failed, misguided, and betrayed Afghan women by giving them false hope," he said, noting that, as sympathetic as Karzai has been to women's rights, "the entire legal system is (stacked) against women. It's time to take the issue of Afghan women's rights more seriously," he said.

In addition to the prevailing insecurity, Washington's biggest failure, according to the groups, has been the "paltry" aid it has provided to programs and organizations designed specifically to promote the status of women in Afghanistan.
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