Code Pink Takes Afghan Women Message To ObamaCode Pink Takes Afghan Women Message To Obama
Activists are using every opportunity to reach the President, the most recent group bought tickets to a San Francisco fundraiser to deliver a peace petition to the President.
Code Pink made news recently when the Christian Science Monitor reported that co-founder Medea Benjamin was suggesting that there might be room for alternative strategies and an extended timeline for the military in Afghanistan. Co-founder Jodie Evans quickly clarified this in an interview with Scott Horton, saying that Kabul should be the model “It’s the only safe place in the country … people can get healthcare and education … we need to expand the success of Kabul to the rest of the country.”
This was the message she took to the President as well. Gracious as ever, the President accepted the petition from Afghan women and listened as Jodi made her case, specifically that “The women there are really upset that they are not at the negotiating table.” According to Evans, the President responded with ‘What do you mean, I have (Secretary of State) Hilliary (Clinton)?’… I said no the Afghan women want to be at the negotiating table. He looked at me and said: ‘Oh.’”
That position doesn’t represent all Afghan women however, a point that was made clear to Ms. Benjamin by Masooda Jalal, former Afghan minister of women and the only woman to run for President in 2004. She has been advocating for Afghan women since 2001 when she was one of the few at the Loya Jirga, but still shut out, “we were in the big tent during the Loya Jirga, but most of the deals where made in the small tents, behind the curtains, where women where not allowed to go.”
At recent gatherings sponsored by Code Pink in Afghanistan, Ms. Jalal told Ms. Benjamin that troops and development funds are both needed for reconstruction. “It is good for Afghanistan to have more troops - more troops committed with the aim of building peace and against war, terrorism, and security - along with other resources,” she answered. “Coming together they will help with better reconstruction.”
Ms. Benjamin acknowledged this point in a separate interview with Scott Horton, saying that in addition to those who oppose more troops, there were those who “say that they felt if the U.S. pulled out right now there would be a collapse and the Taliban might take over, there might be a civil war.”
Shinkai Karokhail, an Afghan member of Parliament and woman activist, is one of them and expressed her view that “In the current situation of terrorism, we cannot say troops should be withdrawn,” “International troop presence here is a guarantee for my safety.”
Visit the Code Pink web site for more voices from Afghan women.