Islam is an appalling religion. By far the worst of the big ones.

It is savagely cruel in both theory and practice.

Now that the fanatical Taliban sect is taking complete power over Afghanistan, advancing daily as the US military withdraws from the country, Afghan women will be slaves, downtrodden, exploited, abused, killed at the whim of men or by Islamic law, which prescribes agonizing methods of execution. They can be easily divorced and abandoned. Their children can be taken from them. They will be denied education and medical treatment. (They may not be treated by male doctors, and will not be allowed to train as doctors.) They may not go to work outside their homes, so if they are divorced or widowed and have no male relations to earn money to keep them, they are sentenced to death by starvation.

Afghan women who have been working with the American army will be put to death.

Consider this story of one brave strong American woman trying to save one Afghan woman.

Phyllis Chesler tells her story at the excellent site of Steven Emerson, The Investigative Project on Terrorism:

I have been on email with this one women in Kabul both day and night.

“After international forces leave Afghanistan,” she wrote, “my life will be in danger so I once more kindly request you to save my life. Their withdrawing will be life threatening for all those women and girls who worked with international organizations and were social activists. I am one of those girls.”

Few single Afghan women will leave with smugglers on their own. And for good reason. Smugglers will probably rape, rob, and abandon a woman. Life in refugee camps is similarly dangerous. The only safe way an Afghan woman can leave at this point—and with her family’s blessing—would be on a military transport with someone waiting to receive her, and a process in place so that she can live and work while she applies for political asylum. This is the only route which does not require the almost impossible-to-obtain special or America-related visa. If one has not worked for an American NGO or the American military directly, one cannot apply for a visa. I’m told that if an Afghan woman wants to apply for a “special” visa, she must travel to a third country and remain there for a year.

There are thousands of Afghan women who have hosted Afghan radio and television programs (as my woman in Kabul has), and who have written for Afghan newspapers. There are physicians, nurses, teachers, police officers, politicians, scientists, athletes, etc. What will become of them under Taliban rule?

Perhaps America and the West stayed “in country” too long. In 20 years, we neither found bin Laden hiding in an Afghan cave nor were we able to extinguish or moderate Taliban warlord values. They are quintessential Islamists who live to fight, kill, and die “for Allah”. 

But, at the same time, the presence of Western military boots on the ground allowed countless Afghan civilians, especially women, to succeed educationally and professionally. They enjoyed a taste of what Western post-Enlightenment civilization has to offer. We are now abandoning them to the Middle Ages. 

What else can we do? We cannot afford to airlift half the Afghan population and settle them in the West.

The moment the last Western military boot leaves Afghanistan, the remaining shelters for battered women and schools for girls will be torched, one by one, as will the women who dared to run these enterprises.

And yes, the Taliban will shelter and train anti-Western terrorists from all over the world.

Does all this mean that the US should keep a military presence in the country forever?

If not that, is there anything Americans should do, at least for the women?

Is there anything Americans could do for them?