Mariella Frostrup, fresh from interviewing Nick Clegg in
Cheltenham, writes about women’s rights in Afghanistan in The Times (£). Her pithily-titled piece —
“Women’s rights in, before troops out” — makes the case that British forces cannot withdraw from, and the government should give no development assistance to, a country where the
plight of women is so terrible and declining.
It is hard not to sympathise with Frostrup’s point. During my own time in Kabul I witnessed plenty of examples of female subjugation, and was glad the West was present to help address some of these problems. Western policymakers were, at the time, eager to portray the entire mission as a morally good, progress-guaranteeing task.
It’s just that the stabilisation of Afghanistan now seems to be beyond our means and our will.
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