This 2013 Interview Foresaw the Tragic Plight of Afghan Women Today

By Phyllis Chesler

“The day after America leaves, every shelter for battered women, every school for girls, every hospital that admits women will be shut down with a vengeance. So the question —the agonizing question —is how much blood and treasure do we expend to hold back the baleful sky?”

I said this over ten years ago. Now, girls in Afghanistan have been banned from school, and women from university. Women are not allowed to see male doctors, and they can no longer study medicine. They can’t even leave the house without a burqa and a man to escort them.

In this ten minutes of an interview about my book An American Bride in Kabul, I lay out insights that came during fifty years of studying the plight of women in Afghanistan and other Muslim shame and honor cultures. Feminists across the West looking to stand up for our sisters are invited to listen.

First published in Phyllis’ Newsletter