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August 2, 2005
A Bit of Disbelief
How could anyone in the U.S. read Nicholas Kristof's piece in the NY Times today and not get sick to their stomachs? Reading about events like this make me feel that I have much more to do with my life. I want to not only find ways to live a good, comfortable life, provide for my family, but also do something that prevents this sort of thing from occurring anywhere in the world. Kristof
described
how local authorities reacted after Dr. Shazia was raped early this year: they drugged her and confined her to a psychiatric hospital to hush her up.
It didn't work, and the incident provoked unrest in the wild area of Baluchistan, where the rape occurred, because of rumors that the rapist was not only an outsider, but also an army captain. President Pervez Musharraf became determined to make the embarrassment disappear.
So the authorities locked up Dr. Shazia and her husband, Khalid Aman, keeping them under house arrest for two months. Then officials began to hint that Dr. Shazia was a loose woman, perhaps even a prostitute - presumably as a way to pressure her and her husband to keep quiet.
This happened in Pakistan, one of "our" allies in the fight against terrorism. Isn't this terrorism? This act and others like it are sponsered and supported by the government that we support. I realize that the world is a very messy place, and the much too often we are forced to interact with "unsavory" characters. But our actions indicate that our principles are somewhat wanting.
And what are we to make of the constitution emerging in Iraq. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars, have thousands of our citizens killed deposing a horrible dictator, while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die. We watch a new government form that will treat women like garbage, with fewer rights than they had under Saddam. By all indications we will be responsible for building a prejudicial, discriminatory, anti-western religious government. The biggest winner in the region stands to be Iran, who will have more influence in Iraq than we will.
What do we do? Do we ignore horrid acts against women and minorities, in order to further foreign policy or make money? How long do we let this continue? Do we let others do our dirty work for us? If you know a friend is beating his wife, is he still a friend? Do you still call them, ask them over for dinner, play tennis or golf with him? Do you say anything when his wife ends up in the hospital? Do you call the police, a minister, someone? What is the right thing to do? Or is it not our business?
Posted by Chip Spear at August 2, 2005 3:24 PM
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