In this bulletin:

• Call for extra Afghanistan troops
• Outgoing Commander Says U.S. Commitment Will Live On in Afghanistan
• Afghan education minister says Taliban plan to set up schools is 'political propaganda'
• Afghanistan criticizes plan by Taliban to open schools
• Schools for girls come out of shadows
• Conspiracy reports baseless, says Ludin
• Afghan mission is shaken up after Blair tells envoys of his frustration
• Canadian troops in intense battle
• Afghan role defended - 'Retribution,' says Tory
• They walk the line
• NATO struggles with Afghan insurgency
• In remote Afghan camp, Taliban explain how and why they fight
• Afghan women step into commerce
• Afghan women's quiet revolution hangs by a thread
• Emotional farewell for Afghan artist

Call for extra Afghanistan troops – BBC 1.22.05

More troops are needed for a year-long push to defeat the Taleban, the British general in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan has said. Gen David Richards, in an interview with the Guardian, praised the "brave" fighting with "less troops than needed" that had frustrated the Taleban.

It should not be assumed troops could "keep getting away with it", he told the newspaper. The Ministry of Defence said it kept its contribution under constant review. The 32,000-strong Nato force includes about 6,000 UK troops.

Gen Richards said the achievement of troops in frustrating the Taleban's winter campaign was "against the odds" and was a result of some "exceptionally skilled and brave fighting by the soldiers of many nations".

"But all this has been achieved with less troops than are really needed and I am concerned that Nato nations will assume the same level of risk in 2007 believing they can get away with it," he told the Guardian.

"They might, but its a dangerous assumption to believe the same ingredients will exist this year as they did last." A stabilised situation was "not a good enough aim", he added. Instead, the Nato forces "should and can win in Afghanistan".

Military commanders must be given more money to "orchestrate the overall campaign, certainly while serious fighting continues", Gen Richards said. "We need to put more military effort into the country," he added. "We must apply ourselves more energetically for one more year in order to win."

"Military effort alone" was not enough to win the battle, Gen Richards said. "Our civilian partners must improve the speed and scale of their reconstruction and development effort, sufficient to keep pace with the people's expectations," he added.

He also called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to speed up his efforts to root out corruption in the country. And he said plans to stop the production of opium poppies, the source of much of the UK's heroin, were complicated by controversy and disagreement.

"This effort will succeed - it must - but it will take many years and needs much more effort yet," he said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said UK troops were operating as part of a Nato mission. "Overall force levels are ultimately an issue for NATO commanders," he said. "However, we keep our contribution under constant review and will make further adjustments, in discussion with Nato, if they are required."

Outgoing Commander Says U.S. Commitment Will Live On in Afghanistan
By Special to American Forces Press Service - Jan 22, 2007

Blackanthem Military News, KABUL, Afghanistan, - The outgoing commander of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan said the United States is committed to NATO's success in Afghanistan and will remain the single largest contributor of troops to the mission. 

"The U.S. is a member of NATO. NATO's success is the U.S.'s success, which is Afghanistan's success," said Army Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, commander of the U.S.-led Coalition since May 2005. More than 23,000 service members are in Afghanistan, the highest level since Operation Enduring Freedom began in Afghanistan in October 2001.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has responsibility for security operations of international military forces throughout the country. Twenty six NATO countries and 11 other nations are "fully committed to making Afghanistan a viable, self-sustaining country free from international terror," Eikenberry said.

Eikenberry left today after a ceremony in which the command and its accomplishments were honored. Eikenberry has been nominated to serve as the deputy chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium.

The Coalition headquarters of CFC-A is expected to inactivate sometime in the coming weeks. The Combined Joint Task Force 76, a two-star U.S. command headquartered on Bagram Airfield, will assume responsibility as the National Command Element for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, or CSTC-A, the other two-star U.S. command, is charged with training and mentoring the Afghan National Security Forces.

Army Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. Central Command commander, presented CFC-A with the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, its third since the command was created in October 2003. CSTC-A also received the JMUA.

The honor is one of which "all of us can be justifiably proud. But the mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan continues," Eikenberry said.

That mission includes conducting counter-terrorism operations, continuing to help train the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, and executing billions of dollars in reconstruction projects.

"We are fighting a very different war," he explained. "In this war, we are trying to build schools and clinics, we are trying to build roads, and we are trying to help the Afghan people reclaim their middle ground of civil society. What do we need most to succeed here? We need more time, more patience, and more commitment."

Some of the successes already achieved by U.S. and coalition forces include building more than 11,000 kilometers of roads, more than 700 clinics, and hundreds of schools for more than 6 million children.

Terrorism to be key issue during Pranab`s Afghan visit

Kabul, Jan 21: Combating terrorism, the question of security and dealing with drug trafficking will be the key issues to be discussed during External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Afghanistan.

Talking to media ahead of Mukherjee's visit, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said, "I wish to work with India on political, economic and security sectors which are of common interest. The fundamental perspective is that of stabilising security in Afghanistan."

Mukherjee is expected here on January 23 and will return home the following morning. He will have a packed schedule. Besides his engagement with the Foreign Minister, he will call on President Hamid Karzai, and have meetings with the President of the Parliament and with the foreign policy commission of the Wolesi Jirga (the lower house).

Asked how India could contribute to the fight against terrorism when Afghanistan was already well served with the presence of a 35,000 ISAF (NATO) force, 10,000 us troops engaged in counter-terrorism, and the nascent Afghan Army which was performing exceptionally well, the Foreign Minister noted, "all dimensions of the terrorism question will be open for discussion with India."

The cooperation with India in this field is not directed against any other country, he added. He said India had vast experience in dealing with terrorism and was "a victim of terrorism from the same source as Afghanistan".

Two agreements are expected to be signed during the External Affairs Minister's visit. One of them pertains to reforms and modernisation of administration. Thirty Indian experts are to be inducted for this purpose. India and the UN will both contribute one million US dollars each for this project. The second agreement is in the agriculture sector.

Another sector of dialogue will be in the nature of a follow-up on the regional economic cooperation conference held in New Delhi last November.

The building of roads and other aspects of infrastructure, especially the question of transportation of electricity from Central Asia to Afghanistan, is to underpin this segment of the dialogue with Mukherjee.

Spanta said he would also like to discuss with the External Affairs Minister the upcoming SAARC Summit in April in which Afghanistan is to become a full-fledged member of the regional body.

The rights and commitments that this country will assume as a regular SAARC member will be the ground to be covered. The Afghan Foreign Minister said India's contribution to the reconstruction of his country was "huge", although India was itself a developing nation. "Both President Karzai and I personally perceive a special link with India", he added.

Afghan education minister says Taliban plan to set up schools is 'political propaganda'

The Associated Press - Monday, January 22, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's education minister dismissed Monday a Taliban plan to set up its own schools in the volatile south as "political propaganda" and claimed the militia would use them as a front for terrorist training.

"We won't allow these schools," Mohammad Hanif Atmar told a news conference. "Their aim is to shift terror centers from Pakistan to Afghanistan. We won't allow it and the people will never accept these schools."

Atmar's comments follow a weekend announcement by Abdul Hai Muthmahien, the purported chief Taliban spokesman, that the group will begin providing Islamic education to students in March in at least six southern provinces, funded by US$1 million allotted by the Taliban's ruling council. He said education would be available to boys first and later to girls.

Afghan officials claim that Taliban militants are often radicalized and trained at religious schools in neighboring Pakistan.

The fundamentalist militia, that barred girls from class during its six-year rule, has waged a violent campaign against Afghan state schools, aimed at undermining the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai that took power after the Taliban's ouster from power in late 2001.

Atmar described the Taliban as "enemies" of education, saying its militants had burned 183 schools in the past year, caused the closure of 396 others, forcing 200,000 students out of class. He also said 61 students and teachers had been killed.

"If they want to build schools, why are they burning our (government) schools?" he said. Atmar dismissed the Taliban plan to open its own as "political propaganda," saying they did not control the provinces where it plans to set them up.

He said the government would have the "legitimate right" to attack Taliban schools that became centers of terrorism.

The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.

Afghanistan criticizes plan by Taliban to open schools

OUSTED PARTY APPEARS EAGER TO WIN SUPPORT IN SOUTHERN AREAS - By Noor Khan - Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban said it will open its own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under its control, an apparent effort to win support among local residents and undermine the Western-backed government's efforts to expand education.

The announcement follows a violent campaign by the Islamists against state schools in the five years since the party's ouster by U.S.-led forces. The Taliban destroyed 200 schools and killed 20 teachers last year, and President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that 200,000 children had been driven from the classroom.

The Taliban's announcement that it will open schools ``is like putting salt into the wound,'' said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister.

Abdul Hai Muthmahien, the purported chief spokesman for the militants, said the group will begin providing Islamic education to students in March in at least six southern provinces, funded by $1 million allotted by the Taliban's ruling council. He said textbooks would be the same ones used during Taliban rule.

He said education would be available to boys first and later to girls, but he did not explain if there had been a change in Taliban thinking about schooling girls. During its rule, it banned girls from schools in Kabul, the capital, although elsewhere it sometimes permitted their schooling until age 8 -- but only to study the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Muthmahien said the program had been approved by tribal elders in the region. ``The U.S. and its allies are doing propaganda against the Taliban,'' he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from an undisclosed location late Saturday. ``The Taliban are not against education. The Taliban want Shariah education,'' he said, referring to the legal code of Islam.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan derided the announcement, saying it could not be taken seriously. ``No one can say the Taliban has a particularly good track record in developing Afghanistan's schools,'' U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said.

The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.

According to a report by the aid group Oxfam late last year, more than 5 million boys and girls attend school in Afghanistan, up from fewer than 1 million students during Taliban rule. The report said, however, that 7 million children still did not receive any formal instruction.

Analysts said the Taliban's announcement appeared aimed at undermining the standing of Karzai's elected government and challenging its power in southern areas where insurgents have a foothold. It is the first time since the militia's ouster that it has claimed to want to provide social services.

``They are trying to portray themselves as a real alternative government, not just an insurgent group. They are trying to undermine the government's legitimacy,'' Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said.

``They recognize that Afghanistan has changed. The people desperately want their children to be educated, including girls in most cases, even in conservative tribal areas. The Taliban attacks on schools are very unpopular, and they are trying to win the hearts and minds of the people by showing they share their priorities.''

People in the affected regions had mixed reactions about the Taliban plan. In the southern district of Panjwayi, badly affected by fighting between Taliban and NATO forces, Ahmad Jan Aqa said he sends two of his six sons to a regular school and a religious school, but he would not send them to Taliban schools for fear they would become militants.

``I send my sons to madrasah to learn the holy Koran,'' said the 50-year-old father of eight. ``But the school is necessary for them to become engineers and doctors to help our people. If my sons go only to madrasah, they then will become as conservative as the Taliban, always fighting and destroying the country.''

Another Panjwayi villager, Pir Mohammad, said he wanted only religious education for his sons. ``I would like to send my sons to madrasah, not to school, and I want them to get an Islamic education because our religion teaches peace and how to live with your neighbor,'' he said.

Schools for girls come out of shadows

T he brave teachers who defied Taliban edicts have a new challenge – finding the necessary resources to educate vast numbers of young women who crave the schooling that was forbidden by the clerics.

By Oakland Ross - Toronto Star January 21, 2007

KABUL - Any day that the thought police don't come around to thrash her with a steel cable counts as a good day for Gulghota Hashimi. "When the Taliban came, they beat me up," says the soft-spoken but evidently iron-willed mother of two young sons. "My boys were screaming and crying."

Hashimi is referring to the cabal of fundamentalist clerics and their acolytes who tyrannized this country from 1996 till 2001, especially the dunderhead thugs from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue who patrolled the streets here, ensuring that men wore beards, women wore burqas, no kites flew and nary a girl attended school.

But Hashimi is a teacher. She taught prior to the dark days of the Taliban. She continued to teach, albeit clandestinely, even after the Taliban came to power and promptly outlawed formal education for girls. And she teaches now.

In fact, she is a principal – and not just any principal. The school Hashimi now runs was set up to provide an education to the girls and women who could not go to school while the Taliban regime was imposing its stern and suffocating rule.

The school occupies a two-storey, yellow-stucco house in the Parwan-e-dou section of the capital, employs 20 teachers and daily attends to the dreams and ambitions of 263 girls and women, ranging in age from 13 to 35.

"This year, we have our first class of 11th-graders," says Hashimi, whose appearance is an appealing blend of modern and traditional. She wears a black headscarf over a long brown-and-black sweater and a pair of black slacks. "They enjoy all the subjects, but they especially like computers."

There are just three antiquated machines in the school's computer room, and there is no Internet connection. None of the teenage students interviewed by a visiting reporter possesses an email address or has ever heard of either Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake – not necessarily a bad thing.

"This is the first time I am hearing that name," says a momentarily flummoxed 18-year-old named Nikbakht Arafi, who currently stands at the head of her Grade 7 class. The name in question: Madonna. "I like classical Indian music," Arafi says.

Physical space is at a premium here, too. On a recent weekday afternoon, 31 girls and young women – all in Grade 9 – are crammed into a chilly space that might suffice as a cloakroom in a Canadian school.

Heating of a sort is provided by tin-pot, wood-burning stoves, the usual equipment in Kabul, where winters are cold and central heating is unknown.

Despite such shortcomings, demand for a spot at the school in Parwan-e-dou easily outstrips supply, because there are vast numbers of older girls and younger women in this country who now require an accelerated approach to education owing to the interruption of their lives caused by the Taliban.

"We have stopped taking new students because we don't have the budget," laments yet another of this country's seemingly unlimited supply of courageous women, in this case a thoroughly modern-looking Afghan-American by the name of Hassina Sherjan. "Unfortunately, we won't be able to take any more."

Sherjan is the guiding spirit behind the school at Parwan-e-dou and a network of similar institutions scattered around Afghanistan. She had the vision – and she continues to find the ways, the means and the money to bring that vision to life.

She also has a story of her own to tell. Born in Kabul, Sherjan fled the country with her family in 1978, not long before Afghanistan was invaded by what was then the Soviet Union, the beginning of an ultimately disastrous occupation that lasted nearly 10 years.

A teenager when she left, Sherjan lived for the following two decades in the United States, where her mother and two brothers dwell still. But her Central Asian homeland eventually exerted an irresistible pull upon her soul.

In 1995, when Afghanistan was trapped in a brutal civil war as various factions of what were known as the mujahideen fought for power, Sherjan left her comfortable life in America and travelled to Pakistan to visit the teeming Afghan refugee camps burgeoning there.

"It changed my whole life," she says of the experience. "I had this urge to come back. I had a very difficult time living in the U.S. after this, talking about remodelling kitchens and so on."

Back in the States, she launched a non-governmental organization called Aid Afghanistan and began to raise funds for her homeland.

Four years later, with the Taliban now firmly in control of the country, Sherjan returned for a time, hoping to do something about this inhuman edict, this ban on formal education for women.

Plan A was to persuade the Taliban to permit her to open a girls' school legally. Plan B was to open a girls' school by any means possible. "All the teachers were out on the street, begging," says Sherjan. "I'd see all these cute little girls with their backpacks, with nowhere to go."

Fast-forward to Plan B. She found five teachers whom she could trust, and together they established a kind of school. "I had $3,000 with me. We set up these classes in their homes."

Like similar projects of resistance, the schools established by Sherjan operated in deep secrecy, but they were sometimes betrayed by Taliban spies – with horrifying results.

Hashimi, now principal of the school in Parwan-e-dou, was by no means the only renegade teacher to suffer a vicious beating at the hands of the Taliban and, like many others, she still has health problems as a result.

But, even after that first beating, Hashimi was not deterred. She stopped teaching in her own home and promptly started teaching in someone else's. "I bought sewing machines," she says, "so we could pretend these were sewing classes. But it was really a school."

The students who benefited from such courage and ingenuity – and who displayed no little amount of courage themselves – will forever be in the debt of people such as Gulghota Hashimi and Hassina Sherjan.

Many others, who were not able to attend school at all while the Taliban held sway, are benefiting now. In December 2001, just weeks after the Taliban government was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion, Sherjan returned to Afghanistan to stay, accompanied by her husband at the time, Omar Samad, who is now Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada.

"When I arrived here, it was like the day after an atomic bomb," she says. "Everything was boarded up. All this life that's going on now, it wasn't here then. There was nothing except beggars in the street."

Immediately, Sherjan set about establishing schools for females whose education and lives had been put on hold during the six years the Taliban controlled Afghanistan.

Requiring an intensive program of study, these girls and women also feel far more comfortable being with students closer to their own comparatively advanced ages.

Sherjan found funding, mainly from the Danish embassy in Kabul. Now, five years later – and with funding about to run out for purely technical reasons – some 3,000 Afghan women are studying at eight schools that Sherjan has set up around the country.

The students include Mastura Samatzoda, who at 35 is attending Grade 9 at the school in Parwan-e-dou, where she stands eighth in her class. She returned to school two years ago, not long after the premature death of her husband. She does not comment on whether those two events were in any way related. "I wanted to come back to school," is all she will say. What other reason does she, or anyone, need?

Meanwhile, Sherjan is beginning to wonder whether it is not a mistake to focus solely on girls and women, while ignoring the young men of Afghanistan. They were permitted to attend school during the Taliban years but their formal training was restricted to the teachings of the Qur'an. In other respects, they might as well have received no education at all.

Such men – unemployed, shiftless, resentful – are now prime recruiting material for the Taliban fighters waging a guerrilla-style insurrection aimed at regaining power, a ghostly struggle fought with human bombs and other acts of terror.

"These are the ones who are really the target for the Taliban," says Sherjan. "They don't have any purpose. They are lost." She has drawn up a proposal to establish special schools for these alienated young men and is now looking for sources of funding for those programs, as well as for the existing schools for girls. "Men have even bigger problems," she says. "It's not the women who are becoming suicide bombers."

Conspiracy reports baseless, says Ludin

KABUL, Jan 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai's former chief of staff Javid Ludin has rejected as baseless reports about his removal from the top position.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Ludin said he wanted to resign from the job some six months back, but the president asked him to continue. Ruling out any conspiracy behind his leaving the Presidential Palace, Ludin said he was intended to go abroad for higher education.

He said President Hamid Karzai had offered him the posts of deputy foreign minister, advisor to the president on international affairs and ambassador. He said the president would announce his new portfolio today (Saturday) or tomorrow.

Terming reports about his sacking as baseless, Lundin said he had developed no grudge against any one, nor there any conspiracy behind leaving the job. He also rejected the notion that a group of officials was influencing upon the decision of the president. Karzai is the president of the whole nation and not a single community or nationality.

Ludin worked for about 18 months as chief of staff of President Karzai's office. He also worked as presidential spokesman.

Afghan mission is shaken up after Blair tells envoys of his frustration

Daily Telegraph 01/22/2007 By Tom Coghlan in Kabul - The Foreign Office is to carry out a major overhaul of its mission in Afghanistan, replacing the current British ambassador after less than a year and bringing in a second senior diplomat to front the British effort in Helmand.

Stephen Evans, the ambassador to Kabul since last May, is to be replaced by the ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles.

Sir Sherard is seen as one of the Foreign Office's most accomplished diplomats and an expert on the Islamic world. He is being posted to Kabul in an attempt to galvanise the British diplomatic presence amid fears across the international community that Afghanistan's fragile democracy is sliding into the abyss in the face of a renewed Taliban insurgency and the burgeoning drug trade.

In addition, the Foreign Office is to increase its presence in Helmand with the appointment of David Slinn, until last year the ambassador to North Korea. Some see the shake-up as a response to concern expressed privately by Tony Blair on his last visit to Afghanistan in November.

"The British Embassy people say he made everyone aware that he didn't think anything was going right," said a diplomat at another Western embassy in the city, who declined to be named. Another Western diplomatic source said: "They are looking to install a hard hitter who will make decisions fast."

The new ambassador has previously served in Saudi Arabia and Israel. He made a name for himself in Tel Aviv by becoming one of a tiny number of diplomats posted to the city to learn Hebrew. He would arrive for interviews on Israeli television talk shows driving a London black cab and sporting a bowler hat and furled umbrella. He went on to Riyadh in 2003.

He would have expected to spend another year or two in Saudi Arabia. The arrival of a new ambassador comes as British military involvement in Iraq is expected to decline in the middle part of the year as the focus shifts to Afghanistan.

British diplomats now describe the country as Britain's "number one foreign policy issue". There has been criticism of British vacillation during recent months, particularly over the drug strategy.

Proposals to spray opium poppy fields are highly controversial since little has been done to provide farmers with alternative livelihoods.

Mr Slinn headed the British diplomatic mission in Pristina in the two years after the Nato invasion of Kosovo. He will take over leadership of the British mission in Helmand from Nick Kay, who finishes his tour of duty on Feb 1.

The United States appears to be making similar moves. The replacement of the British ambassador coincides with an upheaval in the American mission where Ronald Neumann, who has headed the US embassy since July 2005, is also to be unexpectedly replaced. The US ambassador to Colombia, William Wood, has been named as his replacement.

Canadian troops in intense battle

Canadian Press - Kandahar — Canadian soldiers manning a fortified position west of Kandahar came under intense attack Saturday night, but suffered no casualties and apparently inflicted none.

The three-hour firefight with Taliban militants happened near Route Summit, the paved road being built near Panjwaii, said Lt. Sue Stefko, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces.

She says the attack happened at a fortified position known as Strong Point West, which is one of several positions designed to defend the roadway. Insurgents used small arms and rocket propelled grenades, pinning down the Canadians to the point where heavy artillery, tanks and air support were called in.

Lt. Stefko says a compound near the Canadian position was bombed. “There was no indication that anyone was injured in that, Taliban or otherwise,” she said.

A daylight patrol was sent out to sweep the area Sunday and found no evidence of dead or injured in the ruins of the compound, she said. “There was nothing found in the area.”

The attack, one of several throughout southern Afghanistan over the last two days, shattered a relative calm in the province that has held for the last several weeks.

A tanker truck carrying oil was destroyed Saturday when it hit what's believed to be an improvised explosive devise while on the way to Kandahar Airfield, the main NATO base in the region. Two other tankers, travelling with the stricken vehicle, were also damaged.

Afghan National Police also reported Saturday the arrest of 11 people in two separate raids on militant hideouts. The first one targeted a suspected bomb-making factory. Nine people, five vehicles and a number of explosives were seized, said the city's chief of security.

The second raid saw the arrest of two alleged suicide bombers in Kandahar city itself, said Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province. He said the two men are suspected of plotting attacks on Afghan security forces and foreign troops.

On Friday, a car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy in Uruzgan province, which is patrolled by Dutch and Australian troops. Five soldiers were wounded and airlifted to hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

NATO spokesman Squadron Leader Dave Marsh would not say which country's soldiers were wounded in the attack. The troops were on routine patrol when the attack happened, he said. As with the Canadians, close air support was called in and insurgent positions attacked.

Afghan role defended - 'Retribution,' says Tory

EDMONTON -- Canada is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in "retribution" for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States that killed at least 3,000 people, including 25 Canadians, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says.

O'Connor made the comments Saturday during a symposium that was attended by about 200 people, many of them from the military.

"When the Taliban or al-Qaida came out of Afghanistan, they attacked the Twin Towers and in those Twin Towers, 25 Canadians were killed," O'Connor said to applause from the crowd.

"The previous government and this government will not allow Canadians to be killed without retribution." After his speech, O'Connor told a reporter the word retribution doesn't necessarily mean punishment.

"What it means is, if our country is attacked, we are not going to stand blandly by and not do anything about it," he said. "I don't believe the (former) Liberal government would have committed us to Afghanistan had there not been Canadians killed."

During his speech O'Connor also said Canadian soldiers are in the country because Afghanistan's democratically elected government wants them there, because Canada has a responsibility to help as one of the world's richest countries, and because the war is in Canada's own interest.

Canada does not want a Taliban government to regain control of Afghanistan because it would provide fertile ground for terrorism, O'Connor warned.

"If they returned and took the government, they then would allow terrorist organizations to operate in the country, international terrorist organizations. We believe that."

They walk the line

Jan 18th 2007, KABUL - The Economist - A border dispute disguised as a counter-insurgency strategy

“IT'S going to be a violent spring,” is the blunt assessment of General Karl Eikenberry, the senior American commander in Afghanistan. Insurgents allied to the Taliban are believed to be planning a big offensive. NATO had hoped its soldiers in Afghanistan could forestall this during the winter, through a mixture of military pressure on the Taliban and huge amounts of civilian aid. That strategy is in tatters.

Afghan and American officials lay much of the blame on Pakistan, for providing havens for the Taliban. General Eikenberry highlighted the stretch of border opposite North Waziristan where the Islamabad government struck a peace agreement with tribal leaders and militants last September. This week, Afghanistan produced a video of a captured Taliban spokesman, alleging that the group's leader, Mullah Omar, was under Pakistani protection in the city of Quetta. Pakistan pooh-poohed the claim.

Before the latest row, Pakistan had revived the idea of fencing and mining the 2,500km (1,560 mile) border with Afghanistan, ostensibly to restrict the movement of Taliban fighters. Afghanistan and the UN objected that this would endanger civilian lives and divide the Pushtun tribes straddling the frontier. Thousands of tribesmen on the Afghan side of what is known as the Durand Line were rounded up to protest against the plan.

The issue smells pungently of red herring. No Afghan government has accepted the Durand Line, which was drawn up by Britain in 1893. Pakistan's ruse is to deflect criticism about insurgents crossing the border, while staking its territorial claim. American military-intelligence officials say that Pakistani border guards often allow insurgents to cross at checkpoints.

The Durand Line is a sensitive issue for Pakistan, which has seen attempts by both Pushtun secessionists and Afghan irredentists to carve away chunks of the frontier. But the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, a Pushtun, does not want to be the man who abandoned the claim for a Greater Afghanistan.

As was perhaps intended, the idea of fencing and mining the border is now obscured in a fog of debate. America and its allies, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are facing the looming spring offensive with worrying disunity.

NATO struggles with Afghan insurgency

By Kim Barker Chicago Tribune (MCT)

KABUL, Afghanistan - In the spring, NATO will face one of the toughest challenges in its 58-year history - holding together an already stretched alliance in Afghanistan while battling an increasingly savvy Taliban-led insurgency.

There are not enough troops here, military officials agree. Some countries have refused to deploy to the south, the hot spot of the fighting and the traditional power base of the Taliban. Aside from the U.S., the governments that have sent troops to the dangerous areas - Britain, the Netherlands and Canada - are fighting not only a resurgent Taliban, but also increasing political resistance at home.

A split has also emerged between leaders in the U.S. military and NATO over the approach toward the Taliban and neighbor Pakistan. And just last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated that U.S. soldiers might have to make up the shortfall in Afghanistan, at the same time President Bush wants to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.

Privately, some U.S. officials complained that the U.S. is being asked to meet unfair demands in Afghanistan. "That's what's disappointing," said one U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Do we have to save the day here because NATO won't at least meet its obligation?"

In its most ambitious military undertaking so far, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization assumed control of all of Afghanistan from the U.S. military last year. The plan was for NATO to take over responsibility for Afghanistan, and for the U.S. military to gradually scale back its commitment.

That has not happened. About 11,000 of the 31,000 NATO troops are from the U.S. As many as 13,000 other U.S. troops are also in the country, training the Afghan army, building roads or hunting for terrorists. The U.S. troop level in Afghanistan is at its highest level since the Taliban was driven out in late 2001. And last week, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan asked to extend the combat tour of about 1,200 soldiers in preparation for the expected spring offensive by the Taliban.

The next few months are seen as crucial to the future of Afghanistan, with some Western diplomats and military leaders talking about the potential for a "tipping point" this year, a time where more and more Afghans could switch sides to the Taliban if nothing changes.

The U.S. military official said there has been discussion of sending another American Marine battalion to fill the gap in Afghanistan, adding that the U.S. had no intention of allowing Afghanistan to fall to the Taliban. But, he admitted, "basically we're out of troops."

In an interview Wednesday, Gen. David Richards, the British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan whose tenure ends early next month, reiterated the need for additional soldiers.

"At no stage have I said anything other than NATO needs more troops here," said Richards, adding that NATO still managed to repel Taliban attacks last year. "What we ought to do is win. This campaign is eminently winnable. What we need to do is a little bit more, a little bit longer."

Afghanistan has always been seen as the good front in the war on terrorism, the winnable battle fought by an actual coalition of 37 countries. Here, unlike in Iraq, most people say they want international troops to stay and help stabilize the country.

But since taking over the volatile south last summer, NATO has faced continual pressure. Last year, the Taliban mounted its biggest ever challenge to international forces. About 4,000 people died in the violence, a four-fold increase over the previous year. Many experts say the Taliban tried to take advantage of the transition in the south from the U.S. military to NATO forces, which the Taliban saw as weaker.

Unless the U.S. steps in, troop levels will probably not increase in the near future. A NATO conference in late November failed to win the requested number of troops from member countries. Some countries, such as Germany and France, have refused to send any significant number of soldiers to the troubled south or east, where most of the fighting takes place. At the conference, member nations agreed to rush to help in emergencies anywhere in Afghanistan, butit's not clear what qualifies as an emergency.

There are also no reserve soldiers in Afghanistan, no force that can be used to give a respite in the hottest areas in the country, now considered to be the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. About 2,500 Canadian soldiers are in Kandahar province, and about 5,000 British soldiers are in Helmand. Mounting death tolls have caused political pressure for leaders in both countries.

NATO's former secretary general, Lord Peter Carrington, said recently that the conflict in Afghanistan, the alliance's first mission outside of Europe, could be the "death knell" for the alliance, largely because so many member countries have refused to send troops to the most dangerous areas.

In recent months, U.S. and NATO military officials have also disagreed publicly, causing some to wonder about how the U.S. will ultimately cope with being under NATO leadership.

U.S. military officials have increasingly criticized Pakistan for not doing enough to stop insurgents from operating in the tribal badlands. But Richards has praised Pakistan for its help in the war on terror.

American military officials have talked about how cross-border infiltration has jumped 300 percent since a truce was reached by the Pakistan government in September with pro-Taliban militants in the border tribal area of North Waziristan.

But Richards and other NATO officials dispute those figures. "I don't know where they're coming from," Richards said, handing out a chart showing that violence in Afghanistan has dropped since late August.

The biggest disagreement has been over Musa Qala, a troubled district in Helmand where the U.S. military set up a new base in June.

In the fall, NATO agreed to move British troops out of Musa Qala, after a controversial truce between tribal elders there and the Afghan governor. The U.S. military and the U.S. ambassador here openly criticized the deal, saying it could provide a safe haven for Taliban.

But Richards said he believes the truce has worked and has not established any haven for terrorists.

"A large number of lives have probably been saved," said Richards, adding that a new Helmand governor is in the process of negotiating similar but stricter truces with elders in three other Helmand districts. One of those districts has called for an 18-day cease-fire while the plan is being discussed. A fourth Helmand district has already reached a similar truce.

Afghan officials say they wish that NATO and the U.S. military would present a unified front.

"One says Pakistan does not interfere, and the other says Pakistan interferes," said Mohammad Mohaqiq, a member of parliament and former presidential candidate. "One nation honors a treaty in Musa Qala, but doesn't talk to America or any other nation about it. If this continues, it will destroy Afghanistan. They need to be united. They need to fight terrorism together."

A crucial test for NATO will be in the coming months, after Gen. Dan McNeil, a four-star U.S. general, takes over from Richards.

Despite Taliban claims, NATO is not losing the war in Afghanistan. International troops managed to repel Taliban attacks and inflict considerable casualties last year, delivering the biggest blow to the Taliban in fighting in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province that the insurgents had faced since 2001, Richards said.

The Taliban also did not achieve either of their stated goals last year - defeating NATO or driving the British troops out of Helmand. "We must stop giving credence to the Taliban's cries," Richards said.

But when insurgents are driven out of one area, they regroup in another. They disappear during the day and flood into villages at night. And losses have done little to stop the Taliban from recruiting.

Several Western diplomats and U.S. military leaders have warned that this year will be at least as bloody as 2006. In past winters, the violence has stopped. But this year, that has not been the case. "The enemy has not gone to sleep this winter," said Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman.

In remote Afghan camp, Taliban explain how and why they fight

Claudio Franco San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, January 21, 2007

(01-21) 04:00 PST Konar Province, Afghanistan -- Abdullah Khan, a vigorous middle-aged man who owns much of the land visible from his house in the mountains of Konar's Chowki district, paced impatiently back and forth on the mountain path. He held a walkie-talkie, repeatedly checking the frequency dial and shifting the radio from one hand to the other.

A voice crackled through on the radio and Khan listened intently. "Al Qaeda guys, and they are close -- much closer than they should be," he said, seizing a Kalashnikov rifle and firing three shots into the air. In response, two shots in rapid succession signaled that the Taliban unit was close. Khan was reassured: "They are just slightly late; they will be here soon."

Here in the harsh landscape of the eastern mountains near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, nearly every family has at least one member involved with the Taliban. Occupying powers are the enemy, and anyone from outside is distrusted -- even al Qaeda, whose adherents are called, pejoratively, Arabs and are considered fanatics obsessed with martyrdom.

In Afghanistan today, the central government in Kabul has little or no control over large swaths of the country, and U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a variety of foes: Taliban insurgents, al Qaeda operatives and warlord militias, each with their own turf and their own reasons for fighting the outsiders.

Although both the Taliban and al Qaeda oppose the presence of the American and NATO military, and even the international charities that set up shop in Afghanistan, this is not a place where the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Taliban fighters here use their knowledge of the terrain to strike and then fade away.

Fighting is a family profession -- the sons of anti-Soviet fighters have taken up guns against the new invaders. Time, too, is their ally; they are prepared to outwait any occupation force.

After months of protracted negotiations, Kashmir Khan, the Taliban insurgents' overall commander in Konar and Nuristan provinces, consented to the visit of a Western journalist to meet with these fighters, and guaranteed security. Abdullah Khan was serving as go-between. Such sympathizers -- traders, peasants, landowners and public officials, even smugglers -- are essential to the insurgents' surveillance network.

The meeting place was a few miles from Karongal, the main rebel hideout in the region. Getting there entailed a nine-hour nighttime walk, slowly climbing the endless soaring mountains where the rebels hide and operate. The night cover was critical to avoid being spotted by Afghan government or U.S. forces.

The insurgents maintained a minimal but well-organized camp, surrounded on three sides by sheer rock walls and hidden by abundant vegetation. The site provided an exceptional vantage point over the valley, while the rugged slopes offered a perfect location for sharpshooters armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

The unit's commander, who gave his name as Musa Khan, was a short, lean 40-something man sporting the mustache-less beard of hard-line militants. Kashmir Khan had ordered the unit to attend the meeting, said Musa Khan, who made it clear he had more important business to attend to.

Musa Khan said his unit had 25 to 30 fighters, a handful of whom were deployed on the hilltops surrounding the interim base, securing all the potential access routes to the camp. This is how the Taliban operate in the eastern provinces, Musa Khan explained through a translator -- "groups of 20 to 40 lightly equipped men who are extremely mobile and effective in this rugged terrain."

They can move across their zone of operations -- from Karongal to Shaygal in the north, Chowki to the south, Nuristan to the west and the mountainous Kamdesh area along the Pakistan-Afghan border to the east, in essence almost anywhere in the 3,000-square-mile region -- in a matter of hours, invisible to anything but helicopters. "And those can't fly too low," he said, pointing at the rocket-propelled grenade launcher by his side.

In June 2005, in Konar province, the United States suffered its highest number of casualties in a single incident in Afghanistan, when 16 troops died when their helicopter was shot down while they were trying to rescue a four-man Navy Seal reconnaissance team trapped in the area. Some of the men here said they saw the copter go down.

Over the years, Musa Khan has learned to trust the stringent logic of hit-and-hide tactics: "The U.S. helicopters cannot land if we are around, and they can't always target us from the air. They know we only need a split second to hit them and disappear. We only assemble with other units for large-scale attacks. With a few hours' advance notice, we can be virtually anywhere in the province. Once we have split up, it's extremely difficult to locate us without risking being hit."

The movement's leadership is growing in confidence, the commander said, and the same applies to the rank and file: "There are five young men ready to enlist for every fighter killed by coalition forces, and this is something you can't buy with money." Enlistees also get paid approximately $140 per month by the Taliban, compared to $100 paid by the Afghan National Army.

The 1979-89 anti-Soviet campaign is still a vivid memory here, and remains a model for resistance long after the Cold War ended. Musa Khan held up a Kalashnikov rifle taken from the Russians more than two decades ago, and many of the weapons around the camp were Soviet ordnance, sometimes modified, seemingly in perfect working condition. Shells once used by tanks were wired to a battery and improvised into missiles with a range of more than 5 miles, with the ballistic accuracy of a lamppost hurled at the speed of a jet.

Amir -- who like many Afghans goes by only one name -- also was a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad and apparently was in charge of the unit's weapons.

There were the customary Kalashnikovs, "Kalakovs" -- the Afghans' name for AK-74s -- sniper rifles, at least a dozen rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a few heavy 12.6mm machineguns called Dashakas. Amir said there were more weapons hidden underground. "We can move without too much equipment around here. We have interim bases like this one, equipped with all we need to survive and fight for days."

The unit is constantly on the move, Musa Khan said. In the eastern mountains, insurgents don't need to sacrifice men on a costly front line, as the Taliban are doing in Helmand province, because they know this terrain so well. Despite the presence of several thousand U.S. troops engaged here in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Afghans do not make an easy target.

"Afghanistan has grown used to being the victim of others' foreign policy interests," Musa Khan said. "NATO's expansion to the east is a sign that the U.S. is tired. Bush's strategists think that fighting under NATO command will shield the U.S. from the backlash resulting from their eventual defeat in Afghanistan."

Away from their commander, the mujahedeen were remarkably talkative. Hamid, whose black, Kandahar-style turban stood out among the ubiquitous pakol, the traditional felt berets of the Afghan east, knew about "a constant flow of arrivals from Pakistan" -- they were Arabs, he said, but he didn't know precisely where they came from.

"Some of them stay for six months and then go back, nobody knows where. They pay a lot to get in and out. None of them will talk, but they come here to train, I guess. Al Qaeda has its own network in Konar and Nuristan (provinces); they don't need us," he said.

Hamid said the Afghans and the Arabs have a common enemy, but don't necessarily like each other. He described the Arabs as firebrand Islamists who don't obey orders and are obsessed with martyrdom. "They won't stop shooting even when they are told to. And they always write messages home before a battle -- they get ready to die. I know them well, and I don't like them; they just don't trust Afghans."

The fighters are confident about the conflict's outcome. "The American troops move slowly, they carry pounds of body armor and equipment," Hamid said. "You can't win if you can't move on these mountains. Their helicopters are the only real danger for us, but we have learned how to hit them, even without Stingers."

Musa Khan's main grievance against the United States in Afghanistan appears to be what he calls the "cultural invasion" by provincial reconstruction teams -- small, development-oriented, hybrid military-civilian units aimed at winning hearts and minds. The teams take on development projects in rural areas: mosques, wells, schools or whatever else is considered a priority in the area.

The mujahedeen insist that these teams are intended to disguise the activities of undercover agents. "They are uniformed soldiers, not nurses," Musa Khan said.

He would not answer questions on the presence of al Qaeda's leaders in the region. But the Konar-Nuristan triangle, including the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, is thought to be the most likely hideout for bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a number of other key figures.

"You must understand," Musa Khan said, "that one Arab is worth 10 Afghans in terms of religious zeal. They truly hate the West and all Westerners, without exception. They would never allow the press on these mountains. They are not fighting our war, but their own personal jihad. Protecting their own people and achieving martyrdom are their first priority."

Hafizullah, a small-scale trader from a nearby village who sells his wares to the Taliban gunmen, said he could estimate the numbers of Arabs from the quantity of batteries they buy for their walkie-talkies -- and, he added, business was booming. According to Hafizullah, Pakistan is the main source for their arms and ammunition, via the mountains of Kamdesh.

"They wouldn't risk having to deal with the Americans, and they know Afghans would talk sooner or later. Pakistan's tribal areas are different. The tribes and the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service) have complete control over there. Nobody can question what or who they have seen crossing the border with a convoy of donkeys," he said.

The trader's stern analysis seemed to fit the known facts. The road to Karongal was sealed until mid-October, and U.S. forces were screening every vehicle into and out of the area. Pakistan's tribal areas are known to be both a haven and a route for foreign jihadis to get into Afghanistan.

Musa Khan said he is convinced that growing numbers of Afghans would prefer a return of the Taliban and strict Islamic rule: "Our people have learned the truth about (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai and his democracy. The Taliban are an alternative to corruption and incompetence. We aim to be a political movement, but won't disarm until the last infidel is gone. Afghans don't need democracy, but the return of the Islamic Emirate."

As for the conflict's eventual outcome, Musa Khan is confident that Afghanistan can prevail over NATO and the United States, as it has over other foreigners throughout its history.

"It's just a matter of how many corpses the American public will need before realizing that 'Enduring Freedom' was definitely a bad idea. It took 10 years for the Russians, and you are already halfway through. Do you really want to be as stupid as the Russians?"

Afghan women step into commerce

By Tahir Atmar – Reuters Sunday, January 21, 2007

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan woman Kamila Kabuli is causing a bit of a stir in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif just by selling cosmetics on the street.

Kabuli, 35, runs a small stall at a busy city-center roundabout that was set up with the help of the provincial women's department, in a ground-breaking project aimed at getting women into a business long dominated by men.

In a conservative society where men have traditionally run all trade, the stalls are raising lots of eyebrows, some opposition and much approval.

"I'm very proud to have been chosen for this job although it is difficult. It can be a bit tough, but I can show that women can do it," said Kabuli, bundled up against the cold with a scarf wrapped over her head.

She said some shoppers, especially people coming in to the city from the countryside, were astonished to see a woman vendor. "Sometimes men laugh at me, they whisper and say it's funny for women to run a shop. Some come here only to tease me," she said with a sigh.

The women's department has so far set up three women with stalls that sell handicrafts, clothes and cosmetics. It plans to open another 20 and rent them out to women in the next few weeks.

"Men and women have same rights. Women can also deal with people in the city. They can do trading and selling," said the department's head, Friba Majid. Roqya, another woman stall-holder, said: "We are also a part of this society and can do what men can do."

Mazar-i-Sharif, like all of Afghanistan, is a conservative place although its residents, mostly hailing from northern ethnic minorities, always rejected the puritanical Taliban.

More than five years after the fall of the Taliban, many women still wear the all-enveloping burqa when venturing outside and few interact on a professional basis with men.

Many women appeared thrilled to see the female-run stalls. "I heard about it but thought it might not be proper," said Zainab Mezghan, 22, as she bought lipstick from one stall.

"But I came and I'm very happy to see it. Now women can get stuff from women," she said. Shopper Bibi Fatuma said women were more comfortable buying from women. "It's difficult for a woman to buy the stuff she needs from a man's shop. We feel relaxed buying from a woman's shop rather than a man's. We're very happy," she said.

Some men have also welcomed the project. "I'm happy to see women doing business. It's a good move. We hope to have more and more women's shops here, it will make life easier for women," said Wakeel Ahmad.

But not everyone is upbeat. "How can a woman run a shop? My God! Afghan women are practicing the democracy they have in the West. It is against our culture," said city resident Abdul Hamid.

Qari Azizullah, a prayer leader at a city mosque, said it was not proper for women to be shop keepers. "In the current situation, women cannot open a shop in the city. According to Islam, they cannot deal with men. I am opposed to this idea," Azizullah said. But another cleric, Mullah Hekmat, said women could be shop keepers as long as they dressed appropriately.

"Even during the time of the Prophet Mohammad, women used to be involved in business ... women can sell stuff to people if they observe Islamic rules," Hekmat said. But the stall owners are unfazed by criticism. They know they are providing a service that people want.

"Maybe 10 percent of people don't agree with women being shop-keepers but the rest, 90 percent, welcome us," said stall holder Bibi Raqeeba, wearing just a scarf over her head.

"A lot of women have expressed their happiness, they say they want a big market for women selling stuff."

Afghan women's quiet revolution hangs by a thread

Each step toward equality has been a struggle, but the nation's instability is eroding their gains. By Alissa J. Rubin The Los Angeles Times January 21, 2007

Kabul, Afghanistan — EACH morning, the policewoman puts on her uniform, goes to her precinct office, sits behind a bare desk. And waits. She is one of several officers appointed to make it easier for women to report domestic violence. Her job ought to be one of the busiest in the district. Instead, Pushtoon, who goes by one name, has one of the loneliest.

"Last week we had one woman. Before that there had not been anyone for several weeks," she said, twisting hands left scarred by her attempt at suicide years ago in a Taliban jail. "Women are afraid to come, but we are not allowed to go to them. "The police chiefs will not let us. They say it is unsafe for women officers," she said.

Five years after the end of the Taliban era, there are new opportunities for women in Afghanistan, and notable efforts are underway to make their daily lives better, especially in Kabul, the capital. Improving the status of women has been a core goal of U.S. policy here, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a congressional hearing in 2005 that enshrining women's equality in the Afghan Constitution was an important advance for the entire region.

But conversations with dozens of women suggest that each step forward has been a struggle. Afghan society remains deeply uncomfortable with the idea of women gaining independence and authority. The Taliban's resurgence has reversed incremental gains, particularly in the south. If the Taliban incursions spread, more women are likely to lose ground.

Families in the south that recently began allowing their daughters to go to school and wives to enroll in vocational programs have pulled them out because of Taliban attacks.

"Women's future depends so much on security. As much as se-curity deteriorates, women's situation deteriorates," said Masuda Jalal, former acting minister of women's affairs. "At the first sign of insecurity, the head of the family protects his women and children, and the first measure they take is to keep them inside the house."

Women who have gained ground haven't talked of the constitutional principles of equality. Instead, they focus on the respect accorded women by the Koran, and on the importance of mothers and homes, where older women have long held positions of power.

Their goal, often unstated, is to convince fathers and brothers, husbands and sons that when a woman is empowered, the males benefit as well. They hope their daughters will at least have more choices than they had.

Women are learning to drive, some at their husbands' urging so they can help with family errands. Small numbers have opened bank accounts. Women have become a regular presence on television talk shows, and they deliver weather reports and other news features.

According to Farsona Simimi, a popular television talk show host, "There is a quiet revolution here." But, she added, "I do not know whether it will succeed."

THREE times in the last century, the status of women has improved, only to suffer reversals. The first time was in the 1920s, when ruler Amanullah Khan abolished the requirement that women be completely covered in public and encouraged his wife to wear a hat without a veil. He was ousted by the mullahs.

The lot of women improved again in the 1960s, when four women were elected to parliament. One of them was the mother of Nasrine Gross, now an Afghan American lecturer in sociology at Kabul University.

A family album contains photos of her mother and several friends at a picnic 40 years ago. They wear knee-length dresses with short sleeves; a couple of them have beehive hairdos, strands blowing free in the summer breeze as they lean against a sleek car. Two men in Western clothing stand nearby.

"No one can believe these pictures were taken here," Gross said. In the 1970s, political turmoil stymied women's progress. But in the next decade, ruling communists prohibited women from wearing burkas and appointed many to government posts. More than 50 were given judgeships, and many others took positions in the police and healthcare professions.

When the Taliban took power in 1996, it banned all education for women, even small girls. It removed women from almost all jobs outside the home and required them to cover their faces in public by wearing a burka. In some areas, it demanded that house windows be painted black so women could not see out and men could not see in. Women were whipped in public for the smallest infraction.

Educated Afghans and international aid workers say the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has done little besides removing the Taliban restrictions. He has only one woman in his Cabinet of 25 and none among his top advisors.

Several Afghan women said that they had encouraged Karzai to do small things, such as have his wife accompany him to public events, but that he had never done so.

RAHALA Salim was one of those who became a judge under the communists, and she recalls watching in horror as the Taliban dismantled every vestige of protection for women.

"As a judge, when I saw women coming to me crying because they had been abused, I felt responsible, I felt I had to defend their rights," said Salim, who was removed from her post by the Taliban. Under its rule, she said, "if a man was accused of rape, it was the woman who was arrested and blamed."

Salim knew from her legal studies that Sharia, or Islamic law, offered women some legal protection. The Koran and hadiths, the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, are open to an array of interpretations. And early Islam glorifies several women, including Muhammad's daughter Fatima, who is portrayed as an independent leader of her people.

"We have to know the real Sharia; we have to be able to point to passages in the holy Koran and say, 'Here, read this,' " Salim said. "In Islamic history, men have been the boss. They want to be the boss forever. That's why they never want women to appear in public, but that is not Islam; that is cultural tradition."

The notion of Islam as a pillar of freedom came from Salim's mother. "My mother didn't have any sons, and so my father took a second wife, and it made her extremely sad and it made her life very hard," Salim said. "She told me, 'Unless you can have enough education, you can never stand against men. You must learn Islam so you can struggle against them.' "

During the Taliban era, Salim began to teach the Koran. Once a week, 70 women would gather for classes, sometimes at her house, sometimes elsewhere so the Taliban would not become suspicious.

"l would cook something as if we were just gathering for a meal, and then we would recite the holy Koran and discuss Islamic questions and then political issues," she recalled.

After the Taliban fled, Salim ran for parliament. But she understood that she would need the mullahs behind her, and when she was elected, she asked them whether she could address families in the mosque. Her appeal opened the door for women to enter there. In her district, women never had; they prayed at home.

"It was the first time that women saw the inside of the mosque," she said. Then, with the mullahs' assent, she asked the families to send their daughters to school.

Other women have reached similar conclusions: that if they are to persuade men to stand behind them, they will need mullahs as allies and Islam as a shield.

Jalal, the former women's minister, has convened meetings of mullahs to discuss Koranic interpretations of women's rights. A meeting last summer in Kabul drew 100 mullahs from around the country. She also has asked new "women's councils" to work closely with local mullahs. So far, the councils are active primarily in Kabul and on its outskirts.

In Chakadera, a district at the foot of mountains about an hour north of Kabul, Maseema Sakhi acts as the local liaison to the Women's Affairs Ministry. A tiny, graceful woman of 45, she went to college and teaches at the local grade school. But she married a village man and lives in a typical Afghan mud compound with several generations of family, where chickens and turkeys roam the yard.

She has made overtures to local mullahs, so when there are domestic problems they consider coming to her.

Recently a girl arrived in the village in tattered clothes, exhausted and battered. She had run away from her husband's family. She said she had been badly beaten and was afraid she would be killed.

In the past, the elders and the mullah might have forced the girl to tell them where she came from and taken her back, all but condemning her to death. This time, the mullah sent for Sakhi.

"She had walked three days and three nights through the mountains without stopping. Her feet were torn," Sakhi said. "She said she was so miserable in her home that she wished a wild animal would eat her. We took her to the women's ministry, and now she is in a shelter and she calls me her mother."

PUSHTOON, the policewoman, never thought of herself as a crusader. Her mother died when she was an infant. Brought up by her father in Logar province, south of Kabul, she gained a rudimentary knowledge of reading.

At 13, she was married to a man many years her senior. At 15, she bore the first of her six children. The family moved to Pakistan, where her husband, who was often unemployed, took up with a younger woman.

Depressed, confused and only dimly aware of how the Taliban treated women, Pushtoon returned to Logar to claim a piece of land her father had left her when he died. She wanted to sell it to help support her family.

But the Taliban arrested her, saying she must have killed her husband since he wasn't with her. Her only relatives were her husband's family, and they wanted the land for themselves. The Taliban accused her of murder and took her to the women's prison in Kabul.

Locked in a cell barely large enough for a bed, she became desperate. "I was shouting and shouting that I was innocent, and no one was listening," she recalled, nervously touching the braid on the cuff of her police uniform.

After six months, she shut herself in a tiny, squalid latrine, lighted a match and held it to her clothing. "The flames licked over the material and burned my hair and was burning my face and burned my hands," she said. "I burned myself to die there. That would have been better than a life in prison. I knew no one in Kabul. No one came to visit me. I had two daughters and four boys and they were in Pakistan and I missed them."

But she didn't die. And a few days later the Taliban released her. She still has scars on her hands and a dark, pitted mark on her forehead from the flames. She covers it with the ornamental red makeup that some Afghan women daub above their brows.

And she has a cause. She cited the case of a woman who sought her help: "Her husband didn't have a job. He was home all the time and he beat her every day. He broke two of her teeth, and he put a pillow over her mouth when he hit her so she wouldn't shout and so the neighbors would not hear."

Such women are often afraid that if they complain, their husbands will kill them and they will bring dishonor to their families, Pushtoon said. "I am doing this job now," Pushtoon said, "because when a woman says she is innocent, someone should listen."

FARSONA Simimi has taken a different road, becoming a popular television talk show host on the Tolo network, one of Afghanistan's new private stations.

She uses the nonthreatening idiom of shows such as "Bride" and "Happy Morning" to help women think about asserting their rights and to help men understand the problems women face. She often alternates taboo topics with ones that even the most conservative men would not oppose.

"Today I had two subjects on the family program: how to teach a child and how to get dark spots out of a shirt," she said with a smile.

Dressed modestly in a high-necked white blouse and an ankle-length white skirt, only her veil suggests her independent views: It perches so far back on her head that it looks in danger of slipping off, and it shows a swath of her slightly hennaed hair.

"When I first was on TV, my family was afraid for me," she said. "People said to my husband, 'How can you let her do that?' "

A year ago, one of Simimi's female colleagues was slain. Many people think it was because someone in her family considered her too modern. She wore blouses and tight jeans and went to clubs at night, said colleagues at Tolo.

It has taken almost three years, but Simimi has found that her audience is beginning to trust her. Women telephone her at the station and send her e-mails, and when she attends weddings or other large gatherings, they seek her out to ask questions or tell her their stories.

Her greatest regret is that television cannot yet show the cracked ribs and the burns and the other abuses women suffer.

"But we can talk about some of these things. One of our main topics on the family program is men beating their wives…. And we talk about arranged marriage from many perspectives, [such as] the father picks a person and doesn't talk about it or discuss it with the woman."

When she looks at her own family, she sees the problem writ small. Her young son recently told her as she was leaving for work, "Mama, you must wear a bigger scarf."

"Now, where did he get that idea? He is only 8, but he spends time with his father, with his grandfather — they must say some of these things," she said. "It will take a long, long time for things to change. We must wait for this generation to grow up, and then maybe in two more generations we will see some changes."

OUTSIDE Kabul, where villages sit lonely in the mountain desert, women's prospects are far bleaker. In Chakadera, Sakhi's village, formation of a sewing circle was seen as a major advance. It allowed women to meet and share their stories. But the conversations often turn to domestic violence.

Chakadera was on the front line when the Taliban took over, and its women were forbidden even to go to the village market. They married first cousins because those were the only people they could meet. Now the women gather in a school room to sew, to laugh a little, cry, and support those among them most battered by their men.

But no one knows how long the sewing group will last. In early autumn, a nearby school was burned. If there is another attack, the women might not be allowed to go out, or their daughters to go to school. For now, Sakhi said, "everybody can come here to sew and weave and forget her sorrows for two or three hours each week."

One of the women, Malalai, 29, managed a smile even though she expressed little affection for her husband, who forbids her even to buy clothes for their children without his permission. Married at 15, she was a mother of three boys and two girls before she was 24. She wants a different life for her girls. "I want them to get an education, to work, and only then to get married," she said.

What will happen if the Taliban returns? She brushed her hand over several spools of thread sitting before her on the floor, knocking each one over as if they represented the sewing circle, the dreams for her daughters, the possibility of a different future. "Gone," she said. All gone.

Emotional farewell for Afghan artist

The Hamilton Spectator- R. Italia - (Jan 22, 2007) - About 500 people crowded inside a Hamilton mosque to mourn the loss of Afghan artist Said Shiraga Rahimi, 35, yesterday. Rahimi died tragically last week when his minivan was struck by a freight train at a crossing on Mount Albion Road. He was delivering pizza. Rahimi was the father of seven children, and the family's sole breadwinner.

"The political cartoonist, who has 80 painted cartoons here, was looking forward to his first exhibition of paintings to be held in March," said Yar Taraky, director of the Immigrant Culture and Art Association, who helped Rahimi get started when he arrived in Hamilton last year.

Hundreds of women and men congregated in separate meeting chambers at the Ibrahim Jame Mosque on King Street East. They comforted Rahimi's widow, Karime, 33, and children who cried uncontrollably during the three-hour prayer ceremony.

"In our community, the male is the sole provider," says Rahimi's cousin and friend Mir Mahdavi, "so when that is lost, all here in his family (are) at a loss."

"But it's also a loss for the Hamilton art community," added Marufa Hishinwari, manager with Settlement and Integration Services Organization, who was with the Rahimi family all of last week.

"Although he was here for only eight months, he organized several events here and was very well respected by all." Described as a great husband and father, Rahimi spent the last hours of his life helping his daughter complete a project, Hishinwari noted.

"The wife says she can't remember anything bad about him," said Hishinwari, adding that Rahimi told his wife just last week that she should start becoming more involved here. "What will happen to you if I die," he told her.

Those words now seem prophetic. A group of Afghans are also trying to get Rahimi's paintings published by a United States publisher who has shown interest in the project. Some money has also been donated by Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School, where four of the children attend classes.

A trust fund has been set up by the community at the Barton Street East TD Canada Trust branch. Donations can be made to account number, 1026339535. Samin Ahmad, a board member at the Ibrahim Jame Mosque, which provided food yesterday, said donations can also be made at the mosque. ritalia@thespsec.com

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]