Afghan Women Still in Chains Under Karzai

Common Dreams has an article by Ramita Navai.

"It was three years ago that George Bush triumphantly announced: "The mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school - today women are free." However, most women still wear the all-encompassing burqa, through fear of attack and social pressure, a third of women in Kabul do not leave the house, forbidden from doing so by the male members of the family, and it is still almost impossible for women to get a divorce. It might be three years since the Taliban were toppled but age-old traditions and social attitudes are deeply engrained. "

Why is it we must look at everything around us through eyes and minds only interested in our particular culture? Shouldn't our State Department and foreign offices be aware of the cultures, tradition, mores, internal intricacies of a region before we try to install our form of "freedom and democracy?" Some ideas and traditions are not changed by bullets. Some traditions and allegiances are generations old, they cannot and will not be changed in three years by force or decree.