Women who can, leaving Afghanistan before Obama's retreat

Observer/Guardian:

A brain drain of bright young women is already taking place inAfghanistan before the 2014 handover that many fear will mean a reversal of advances in women's rights.

The lack of commitment by the Afghan government to equality and to tackling the high rates of ill-treatment of women in the home and in the workplace is raising real fears they will be at the bottom of the political agenda in the push for power after Nato forces leave the country.

Worsening security for civilians – casualties among ordinary Afghans have risen year on year for the last five years with 3,021 killed in 2011, and women are thought to be suffering disproportionately – has led to rising numbers of women and girls leaving education and the workforce and staying indoors, according to Guhramaana Kakar, a gender adviser to President Hamid Karzai.

Speaking to the Observer, Kakar said negotiations between the government and the Taliban and other insurgent groups were ignoring women's rights. A recent survey by charity ActionAid suggested 86% of Afghan women were fearful of a return to Taliban-style rule. One in five worried about the education of their daughters but 72% said their lives were better now than a decade ago.

"Women do want the progress that has been made over the past 10 years to continue, but they are being kept away from the political processes," Kakar said. "All Afghans, men and women, want a country without foreign troops, but I think the international community should be putting women on the agenda and making sure their security and freedoms are secured, directly and indirectly."

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That is a subject that does not appear to be on Obama's agenda as he plans his retreat.  It was not on the NATO agenda at the recent Chicago conference and I do not recall Obama ever raising the issue.  It was something that President bush did often.  So the President who accuses Republicans of waging a war on women is ignoring a live fore real life war on women as he tries to leave Afghanistan.  While I call it a retreat, our forces have no obvious avenue of retreat for their equipment because Obama can't cut a deal with Pakistan and the Russian route is not practical.  They maybe required to engage Pakistan is a fighting retreat without the heavy armor such a maneuver would need.