KABUL -- Off the dust-coated Kote Sangi road in the Afghan capital stands a worn beige sign on stilts with blue painted letters advertising the Women's World Market.Behind the sign, however, neither a market nor any women are to be seen. Instead, what six months ago was a darkened shopping mall with few open stores and even fewer female customers is now a bustling cement shop filled with men searching for construction supplies. The Women's World Market, which opened in 2007 to donor fanfare, was designed to give women the opportunity to own their own shops, earn income and learn about business in a secure, women-only environment. But its out-of-the-way location -- in a western Kabul district best known for selling construction materials -- meant store owners had little neighborhood foot traffic to draw upon. This problem, coupled with high prices and a shortage of distinctive products on offer, meant the mall never caught on with Afghan customers.
Behind the sign, however, neither a market nor any women are to be seen.
Instead, what six months ago was a darkened shopping mall with few open stores and even fewer female customers is now a bustling cement shop filled with men searching for construction supplies.
The Women's World Market, which opened in 2007 to donor fanfare, was designed to give women the opportunity to own their own shops, earn income and learn about business in a secure, women-only environment. But its out-of-the-way location -- in a western Kabul district best known for selling construction materials -- meant store owners had little neighborhood foot traffic to draw upon. This problem, coupled with high prices and a shortage of distinctive products on offer, meant the mall never caught on with Afghan customers.
Rehashed legislation allows husbands to deny wives food if they fail to obey sexual demandsAfghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work."It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her," the US charity Human Rights Watch said.
Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.
The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.
"It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her," the US charity Human Rights Watch said.
But we knew this already. The Taleban swept to power in the 1990's because the US/Pakistan/Saudi-supported Muyahedeen had established an oppressive islamist regime. And those warlords then became our allies the Northern Alliance. Already in 2001 when Laura Bush was trotted out to sell the Afghan invasion as a women-liberating operation we knew it was bullshit, and for exactly this reason. The peak-to-trough part of the business cycle is an outlier. Carnot would have died laughing.
"Mission Accomplished" "We've always been at war with EastAsia" "You can't make omelettes without breaking eggs" "It's definitely worth it" In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
