Using Afghan women to justify war

The CIA has found a new rallying cry to convince Europeans to join the Afghan war: save Afghan women.

A leaked confidential CIA document reveals a NATO public relations effort to garner support among French and German societies for the Afghan war by suggesting French and German governments should push the story of Afghan women, and Afghan women as media spokeswomen, to spread the world about the horror of living under the Taliban and why the war cannot end with a Taliban "victory." This news comes on the heels of the Dutch government's collapse last month after it decided to withdraw from the war.

According to the CIA document leaked on the WikiLeaks web site, increasingly anti-war French and Germans should be told that Afghan women are "ideal messengers in humanising the [international coalition] role" and "speak personally and credibly about their experiences under the Taliban, their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory." The French, of whom nearly half believe all troops should withdraw from Afghanistan, could be further inflamed by what the memo describes the "rolling back (of) hard-won progress on girls' education" which would "give voters a reason to support a good and necessary cause despite casualties." The Germans, who have opposed offensive war since World II, might lend support for another reason: Germany could fall prey to terrorism if the war fails.

The document ultimately serves as another example of how women serve as tools of war, in this case, PR tools. In war-time conditions, according to much well-documented research, women suffer as the victims of not only physical abuse but also sexual abuse. They often become the primary providers for their families and they are the caregivers for injured children. They're victimized by enemies, wielded as shields, and rendered helpless as a means to justify further defense. This final tactic has been fully utilized by the United States' pro-war faction since 2001, when the idea of rescuing women from the Taliban became the ultimate justification for invading Afghanistan. Many Americans still believe, in a rather colonialist or racist way, the war is necessary to save Afghan women even though our continued warfare hurts women--we've improved conditions for women very little, if at all, since 2001. Afghan women tend to oppose the war for these reasons. Just earlier this month, U.S. troops announced plans to train female soldiers to mingle with Afghan women to win them over to the war.

This CIA tactic is a new twist. Why would the CIA view women "messengers" as so appealing to French and Germans? The answer lies in a whole slew of patriarchal ideas about women. Who wants to argue with a helpless woman? Whose heart wouldn't melt a little at a televised plea from an Afghan mother and call for someone to defend her? Women--especially women in Afghanistan--are soft, weak, and helpless. But even if the CIA believes this, its actions are indefensible. It is using women to garner support for a cause that will not save these women but ultimately work against their interests. -Jean Stevens

Jean Stevens is a freelance journalist, blogger, promoter, event planner and novice photographer whose work focuses on issues relating to gender, race, class, sexual identity, food culture, U.S. foreign policy and feminism. You learn more about Jean at www.jeanmstevens.com.