Democrats torn on Afghanistan, women's rights

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By Jon Ward

As President Obama considers the way forward in Afghanistan, factions within his party are increasingly torn between their strong wish to bring U.S. troops home and their equally passionate desire to protect Afghans — particularly Afghan women — from a return of the dark rule of the Taliban.

Signs indicate that after a lengthy review process, the president is leaning toward sending more troops and is simply considering the exact number. But he has come under heavy pressure from his Democratic liberal base to pull back and even to shut down the U.S. military effort completely.

It is this disconnect — the relegation of women's rights to secondary status by the political constituency that is the standard-bearer for feminism — that alarms human rights advocates, said Karl Inderfurth, who was an assistant secretary of state for the region under President Clinton.

"If the darkness descends again on Afghanistan, meaning a Taliban takeover, that will mean that women will pay the greatest price. They will be returned to that almost subhuman species that they were under Taliban rule," Mr. Inderfurth said.

"They know that if the clock turns back again, they're going to pay the greatest price."

Ellie Smeal, executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the future of Afghan women "has just dropped out of all public discourse."

"What happens with females over and over again is we're forgotten," she said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who has broken with the liberal anti-war movement to support a troop increase up from the 68,000 U.S. forces already in Afghanistan, said the fate of Afghan women must not be overlooked during Mr. Obama's review.

"Women, as the Chinese said, make up half the sky, and it's very important that women's rights be considered and be part of this," said Mrs. Feinstein, who added that she thinks Mr. Obama is weighing the issue.

The president said so himself during an interview with NBC last month.