Evacuation form Afghanistan- women?

[Aprilinspringtimeshower]

So saw this article and the accompanying photo www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/afghanistan-striking-image-appears-to-show-640-people-fleeing-kabul-in-packed-us-military-plane?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This is what concerns me- where are the women? The overwhelming majority of people on that plane are men, adult males. There are a few women and some children.
Yet it is the women who are in greatest danger. Young girls, older women. Single women who won’t be able to support themselves once stopped from going outside unaccompanied, professional women who will be banned from working .

Everyone said that the war was about women’s right and way of life. And that what is happening now is a danger to the rights and well-being of women.

Surely it is women who are the ones that need to get out of the country safely and be offered asylum- so where are they? Why wasn’t that plane full of mostly women or even equal amounts of women and the men that accompany them.

I don’t hear the government saying anything to target protection and refuge for women specifically. And to young girls and women who are in real danger

AIBU that it is always the men that get the preference, and that really no one cares enough to actually provide proper protection to the women and girls ..it’s just all sound bites and noble words

@Balonzette

Women are not MORE at risk than men. The risk to women is awful, but tell the men facing brutal execution that they aren't as at risk as their female relatives.

Exactly. People also tend to forget the plight of gay men. They face execution by stoning or being crushed to death. But so many posters on this forum see everything through the prism of girls and women are always the biggest victims. It's almost as if men don't even count.

It’s a miserable existence for all apart from those senior members of the Taliban

It’s an existence of fear.

Fearful young men join out of fear they will have to prove themselves. Guns in the hands of young men who are afraid well we know what happens we know from how terrible soldiers from all cultures have acted

Women and girls hide, families know what the future holds for their children

It’s hell for all (but yes less freedoms for women and girls)

There are times when I think our fights just pale into insignificance and these past few days I have felt that. I live with choices that I am always thankful for

I'm a feminist. I spend a lot of time lurking and occasionally posting on the fwr boards. I still see why, rationally, men have been going first. A lot of the comments I see on sm about how terrible it is that women are being left behind, are coming from people who ordinarily don't really think about women's rights, or think that we're already equal. A lot of it seems, as other pp have suggested, to be thinly disguised xenophobia and othering.

It is possible to feel horror at what could be about to befall so many women, but also understand why this is the way it is.

How can this be news to people? How can you find this surprising??

Women are always last.

But so many posters on this forum see everything through the prism of girls and women are always the biggest victims. It's almost as if men don't even count.

^

I'll take that liberty. It'd be nice if for just once women counted first.

I don't agree that women are always last. I know it was years ago but I had to travel to a middle eastern country. I was a single woman travelling with two young children. Due to diplomatic issues with the UK I couldn't fly direct so had to go to another nearby country, stay over night and get a flight the next day. Unfortunately the country had issues with other countries overnight and lots of flights stopped.

I got to the airport and found a stampede for checkin, not quite like Afghanistan this week but similar on a smaller scale. I was the only woman on the flight, nearly all men from the country I was in or neighbouring countries but a handful of Brits/Americans. However long I was in the queue I was still at the back. A man in uniform, don't know if he was security/police/military, approached me took my bag and whisked me to the front of the queue. I was so grateful.

Unfortunately the British/American men weren't as helpful. They had a whip round, paid a bribe to an official and went straight to the plane. Although they had been talking to me about the situation it didn't seem to worry them to leave a woman and two children in that situation. I bet the official wouldn't have "charged" extra for me, they just didn't care. Thank heavens the middle eastern man in uniform was kinder.

Just remembered when we got on the plane armed men in uniform got on and started detaining some passengers and dragging them off. I then got to the country I was going to and at immigration they insisted I fill out a form in arabic. Again the British/American men seemed to be whisked through, they were ahead of me. Eventually a well dressed man, he sounded French, was dashing past when he stopped and came and asked me what was wrong. I explained and he got into a discussion with the officials who stamped my passport and let me through.

The most interesting/scary journey I have ever done. The people I was visiting arranged for a man to fly back to the intermediary country with me.

So there are some knights in shining armour, well there were 30 years ago.

And the awful videos on various media now of people desperately passing their babies forward to be saved. How absolutely harrowing.

Agree that it isn't inherently true that women are always last. There are occasions where it works in our favour but they're few and far between. I live in a Muslim country. It is very very common for me to be put to the front of a queue because I'm female. Saved me hours in vaccination queues! There are equally (more) shit things I have to put up with because I'm female, but it's never all 100% bad.

Still when push comes to shove about things that really impact men, in my experience their voices are always the ones heard most clearly.

@2bazookas

Everyone said that the war was about women’s right and way of life

No, they did not . That's not what the war was about so please don't spread fake news. It absolutely beggars belief that America's reason for going to war there 20 years ago has been so swiftly forgotten.

All the wars in Afghanistan have been about territory, politics, power; invaders pursuing revenge, control, territorial and military agendas.

Britain has been to war four times in Afghanistan. Never about women. USSR spent 10 years at war with Afghanistan (1979-89) , not about women , and USA 20 years not about women.

You can easily google Afghanistans bloody history.

Just stepping back into my post here. I did not say this is what the reason was originally. But if you look at the last 5 years or so of US/UK “ occupation” to “keep peace” this is and has been given as a reason over and over. Hence why in last few days UK Gov has had to come out with statements of giving resettlement priority to women and girls. I didn’t actually say I feel it is hypocritical that they now use the “it’s all about female subjugation” argument for remaining in Afghanistan for years then fail to have a plan to ensure women’s freedoms when they withdrew, but it sure felt hypocritical looking at the pictures and hearing stories of high profile women like journalists being left to face the consequences of us/uk sudden withdrawal. It was sort of point of my post. The hypocrisy. Things have moved on a bit in last few days since I posted and I am now hearing more about this conundrum of how to protect the women and girls in the media. However, it is a good discussion thread, and it’s been really interesting to read people’s counter debates and arguments