"Daughters of Afghanistan"

Since getting her new library card, my wife looks to be on track to devour a library book or three a week. She's also been working her way through the library's DVD collection.

The other day she brought home, "Daughters of Afghanistan", a documentary about the state of women's rights in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

I'd like to be able to say that "Daughters of Afghanistan" gives an upbeat account of great progress being made for women's rights in Afghanistan. Sadly, the picture the documentary paints is grim. In Kabul, a few schools struggle to teach women to read in the face of official and unofficial harassment. And the rest of the world is letting it happen without objection.

A few impressions:

* The documentary tells the stories of five Afghani women from different walks of life. The journalist behind the film, Sally Armstrong, is dogged in her investigation, going to great lengths to track down a few of the women who were thought to have disappeared. When she ventures outside the relatively safe Kabul area, we get a chance to see what life is like in the rest of the country.

* Two of the women she profiles are Sima Simar, the most recognized advocate for women's rights in Afghanistan, and Hamida, the principal of a school for women. The courage and tenacity of these two women is unbelievable.

* The film shows several Afghani men who spend their time harassing women and publishing anti-women's rights publications. In a way, I felt sorry for these men. Wasting so much time and energy oppressing women because they fear change, when Afghanistan has so many real needs with which they could be helping.

If they only knew that there is nothing to fear, nothing important for them to lose, by treating women as equals. Makes me happy to live in a society where my wife is my partner, not my chattel. Where she was allowed to learn to read and gets to visit the library any time she wants to. Before watching "Daughters of Afghanistan" I took such simple rights for granted.