Paying attention

With all that's going on these days between the threat of a homicidal maniac in the D.C. area, terrorist attacks in Israel and Indonesia, nukes in North Korea and the impending confrontation with Iraq, it's hard to keep an eye on Afghanistan. Should we? The liberation of that country is being touted as a model for the good things that might await the people of Iraq if we succeed in ridding them of the cancer that is their "President." But how's the ratio of forward and backward steps doing over in the former domain of the Taliban?

Ampersand linked to (among other things) this article from CBS News a few weeks ago. It's about the "reinstatement" of the "vice and virtue police." I didn't think much of it at first, but then I started checking around. It turns out that the "vice and virtue police" never really left.

In the months after the fall of the Taliban, US-supported moderates came to prominence, but conservatives exerted their influence and gained a majority of Cabinet seats during the grand assembly, or loya jirga, in June. Which camp prevails in the future will determine not only the country's leadership and its willingness to cooperate with the US-led military campaign, but also the face of Afghan society and perhaps even the pace of economic development.

''The future of Afghanistan, its rivalries and power struggles, will be between these two camps,'' said Omar Samad, the Foreign Ministry spokesman who was trained in the United States and France. ''The main question is whether it's going to be confined within the bounds of the constitution and the law, or is it going to deteriorate into armed conflict. ''

In one example of the tug-of-war, Karzai never abolished the Vice and Virtue Ministry that was emblematic of the Taliban's puritanism, although he tried to keep its existence quiet. The whips the ministry's police used to lash men who cut their beards and women whose ankles showed under their burkas sit in the office collecting dust, but employees remain on the payroll.

The ministry was downgraded to a department, the status it had when it was established by the mujahideen government in 1992. Karzai renamed it the Department of Islamic Teaching after the Western media learned of it in August. He has not given orders to the Islamic police, but he has not fired them either, for fear rivals could discredit him as a Western liberal.

It's starting to sound like the newfound freedoms in that part of the world, such as they are, may be short-lived unless someone manages to turn the spotlight back over there. While we clearly have our hands full elsewhere, a laissez-faire approach appears unlikely to succeed against powerful forces dragging Afghanistan backwards.

The rifts reflect the political and social realities facing Karzai as he tries to modernize the country. Men are no longer dragged to mosques, women can attend school and work, and music and television are no longer illegal. But traditional values remain a strong current in Afghan society.

Caught between conservatives and progressives, Karzai is playing both sides of the fence, his critics say, espousing the agenda of moderates but only halfheartedly. Had he appealed to the public for support in abolishing the Vice and Virtue Ministry or showing female singers on television, many believe he would have prevailed. But after surviving an assassination attempt Sept. 5 that some Afghans suspect was orchestrated by rivals in the government, observers say Karzai doesn't want to alienate conservative members of his coalition.

Afghan leaders toppled in the last century, from the progressive kings Amanullah Khan and Mohammad Zahir Shah to Dr. Najibullah, all were discredited by rivals for being too liberal or aligned with foreign interests.

Karzai recently appointed conservative Pashtun governors once loyal to the Taliban and the brutal former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, in Logar, Paktika, and Zabul provinces ''because he is so alone that whoever offers him support, he endorses,'' complained a moderate Pashtun politician who was sidelined when the Northern Alliance rose to power. He asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

And it gets scarier. According to CNN, the V&V department has wised up to the PR angle and now has women doing the job for them.

In the new Afghanistan, women are now being trained to carry the message of Islamic law and to report whenever it is transgressed.

It is Afghanistan's unique brand of women's liberation.

"A woman has great responsibility in Islamic society," one Afghan woman tells CNN.

"She has to lead her children towards Islam and obey the orders of her husband. She is responsible for the education of her children, but also should not leave the house or talk to strangers without her husband's permission," she says.

"We will encourage that."

It's clear, the emphasis of the new vice and virtue department is on a much softer approach towards enforcing Islamic law.

A soft stick is still a stick. Is it our job to convince Afghan women that they want to wear mini-skirts and go to work? Absolutely not. But it would appear that a lot of them already do want these things, and we've held out a promise to them. The question is whether we'll have the fortitude and the focus to follow through.