On Point re: Afghanistan

[dewline]

To those who killed Sitara Achakzai in Kandahar today, I tell you this:

You've made a martyr of her. Surely you must understand this by now?

Comments

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

The Taliban understands that better than anyone, as martyrdom is one of the tools they've been using more and more since the invasion.

But this is a calculated risk: to them, her message is so dangerous that they need to stop it as soon as possible. If that means she gets a bit of a martyr following, well... better that (for them) than that she actually achieve her goals and take her message to the people and government. If more activists crops up in her wake, well... they'll have to be dealt with too, on a case-by-case basis.

Ultimately this reasoning is doomed to fail, as each one will become a martyr, strengthening the cause. Eventually they'll miss one and she'll take the message all the way up.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

As you say: eventually, they'll miss not just one...but far too many for them to be able to stop.

And as for that Hazari-focused marital relations law that's triggered so much deserved fuss in the news services in recent days for its stupid cruelty...well, that too, I suspect, will create its own martyrs after its fashion, if it's taken to the endgame that its proponents envision.