I am as shocked as anyone at the report of the killing of Afghan civilians by a US soldier. What also shocked me, as a woman, though was this detail of the event as reported by the New York Times.
“[The man] struggled in an interview to come to terms with the loss of his wife, four daughters between the ages of 2 and 6, four sons between 8 and 12, and two other relatives.”
Eight children between the ages of 2 and 12. EIGHT!
I know I am coming at this from the viewpoint of a European mother-of-two but look at the statistics according to Save the Children reported in April 2011 by the BBC.
“Afghanistan has one of the highest infant mortality rates, with 52 in every 1,000 births ending in death.
“The report said Afghan women faced a one in 11 risk of dying from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. One in five children dies before the age of five.”
Seven days ago we learned of Hamid Karzai's endorsement of a code of conduct which would further reduce the freedom of women in Afghanistan. It is becoming increasingly likely that a “stable” regime in Afghanistan will only be achieved at the expense of Afghan women.
On the very same day NATO published a news item on their website entitled Women's rights: making progress in Afghanistan to which one can only reply “yeah right”.
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