Sara Pursley on "Unveiling the Bushes"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>They were advised and subsidized by Pakistani intelligence, and 
>their hard core grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan - a kind of 
>foreignness in itself, even if they were ethnically Pashtun. And 
>they grew up with almost no contact with women, which is another 
>kind of foreignness. Besides, Pasthtuns are only what, like 40% of 
>the Afghan population? And they forced women into burkas at 
>gunpoint. So there's not much that organic about them that I can see.
>
>Doug

(1)  Politics of Exiles & Refugees

Being an exile, refugee, etc. in itself doesn't say anything about 
your political persuasion, legitimacy, etc. one way or another.  Some 
exiles have had the (mis)fortune of being handpicked by minor 
regional powers (e.g., Iran, Pakistan, Russia), and others, by the 
American Empire.  Yet others have & will continue to languish in 
camps or be forcibly returned by impatient hosts or try to migrate to 
some rich nations legally or (more often than not) illegally.

(2)  "Organic"

Sara Pursley's argument is _not_ that the burqa was ever "organic." 
We are not talking about vegetarianism here!  :->  It's about the 
danger of _having feminism hijacked by imperialism_.  Once hijacked 
thus, feminism will be seen as "alien," associated with the invasion 
& occupation in popular memories; and when a reaction against 
imperialism rises again in Afghanistan in the future, there will be 
an increased chance that feminism will be rejected again along with 
imperialism.  We might recall the Soviet experience in Afghanistan 
and the US experience in Iran, among other examples.
-- 
Yoshie

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