HERE is an interesting piece in the New York Times this morning about the rejection of a women’s rights bill in Afghanistan. The article by Azam Ahmed and Habib Zahori (typical bylines for an American newspaper) describes the Muslims who rejected the law, and see it as Western imperialism, simply as “conservatives.” From the piece:

Even in Kabul, one of the most liberal cities in Afghanistan, many young men and women express beliefs that fly in the face of the messages coming from American Embassy outreach efforts. Censorship, particularly when it comes to religious offenses, summons little ire. Many consider democracy a tool of the West. And the vast majority of Afghans still rely on tribal justice, viewing the courts as little more than venues of extortion.

On a recent afternoon, young women gathered on the third floor of a wedding hall, enduring the stifling heat in black niqabs to protest a recently proposed law aimed at protecting the rights of Afghan women. The men remained outside, forming a barricade along the busy street to prevent strangers from entering the hall.

One poster read, “I am a Self-Aware Woman, I Will Not Be Deceived by the Empty Slogans of the West.”

“This law is not only against Islamic values; it is also against all other ethical values,” one protester, Saida Hafiz, said to a crowd of about 200 young women and children assembled in the room. “If we remain silent today, soon our society will be morally corrupted like that of the West.”

The reporters only vaguely refer to what the disputed law was. “The measure would essentially cement rights that have ostensibly been in place through presidential decree for several years — including protections against child marriage, polygamy and violence against women.” So we are supposed to be surprised that a law that controverts polygamy, which was approved by Islam’s holy prophet, has encountered resistance?

It strikes me in reading this that the foolish American campaign to import democracy and rights to Muslim countries may actually prevent development away from some of the harsher, despotic tendencies of Islam, as Muslims will see even laws preventing the selling of child brides as representing Western feminism. The Hillary Revolution may actually hurt women.

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