Well, this falls into the “Miracles Never Cease” category:  The Washington Post daring to print an article describing the abuse of women in Afghanistan. The articles we usually see from the Post tend to ignore the plight of women in certain areas of the world. Not only does the article highlight the misogyny in Afghanistan, but it also includes a photo of a woman peering through the eye slit of a burqa almost as if to suggest she’s  looking out through the bars of a prison.

The article itself outlines a backlash to a proposed law that would protect Afghan women from certain abuses. Key provisions of the law include raising the minimum marriage age for girls from 9 (this is not a typo) to 16, punishing men for beating their wives, and providing shelters for abused women and girls. The proposal tracks a 2009 presidential decree and is meant to make the decree more permanent.  Unfortunately, the law is now blocked in parliament, and in so far as some of the backlash is coming from students, the future doesn’t look too bright for Afghan women.

P.S.:  Every time the Post seems to be getting its act together, the editors demonstrate just the opposite. This time with an article describing the upcoming Iranian presidential election as if Iran were a robust and thriving democracy. Not a word explaining that Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council has already preselected the eight candidates on the ballot. The Guardian Council’s selection completed the real election and all that comes after is just for show. Evidently, the Post has no problem serving as the mullahs’ “useful idiot.”