THE BLOWBACK HAS BEGUN : THE TALIBAN SEE THEIR REIGN SOON IN COMING AND ARE ON THE ATTACK EVEN BEFORE TOTAL WITHDRAWAL OF NATO TROOPS

 

Photo: AFP

In the same week when the Pakistani Taliban have killed a top Pakistani general in an ambush, in the frontier region, another bold attack resulted in the death of the top female officer in South Afghanistan.  

She is the second policewoman to be killed.  The woman previously in her position had been shot not long ago.  

The killing occurred in Helmand province.  It occurred solely due to her gender.  

The Taliban are notorious for wanting women in bondage and away from any working position or educational setting.  Their hatred for women who are working or independent or teaching is vitriolic and of horrific depth. 

The policewoman was expected to survive the attack at first, but her condition deteriorated in the night. 

Helmand province is a stronghold of the Taliban.  It was there that the Taliban made their stance and the region where the US maintained the strongest presence after the Taliban was rooted from power in 2001. 

The policewoman, together with her predecessor had been stellar examples of women's gains during the US occupation. But with each passing day that gets closer to NATO's evacuation of Afghanistan, those gains will be erased, and in a most violent way. 

In many cases, the women were mothers. In most cases too, their relatives were against their work.  In the latest case, the policewoman's own brother had been strongly against her taking a job.  

In Afghanistan's backward provinces, and especially in places where education is scarce or nonexistant, women seeking and obtaining jobs strike fear in the heart of men.  The women's success is a strong threat to male dominance and identity.

Her name was Islam.  She only used her first name, as women who work are wont to do.  She was fiercely proud and happy in her job.  She also felt needed, for her work took her to places where women might have been abused and needed help from someone who understood. 

Almost 2,200 serve in Afghanistan's police force, and the government is willing to double that number soon.  But early next year the 87,000 NATO troops will vacate the country completely, and there will be no one to witness or document what happens then. 

Source : France 24/ 9.16.13