The Wire

Afghanistan has almost finished counting the results of the latest election. And while one Washington source quoted by the New York Times claims that the make up of the new legislature will have more of an “Islamic flavour” than the current one, one surprising outcome us that it is expected that more women will also represented. With almost 70% of the vote counted, results so far show women have held their own against a number of male candidates, even in some traditionally conservative provinces. But one observer of women’s rights in the country ? which co-alition forces invaded in 2001 ? is less than optimistic about the future for women. Amena Shams is the foreign affairs spokesperson with the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan. Currently in Australia on a speaking tour, she claims the West must do much more to help advance the cause of women in Afghanistan. She has also condemned what she terms as the hypocracy of the War on Terror, because Western countries continue to protect former Afghani warlords that she claims have committed war crimes in the past. Instead, she says the west should follow the example set by the trial of Faradi Sarwar Zardad, a former resident of London, who was recently given two 20-year terms for hostage taking and kidnapping in Afghanistan. She’s speaking here on how much life has changed since the fall of the Taliban.