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Mustafa Rasuli | Photography |
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| Booming Business, Prostitution | 2/21/2003 8:41:44 AM | |
| I wonder sometimes about why Muslims and people in general can not feel the pain of the less fortunate. I look around and I can’t help but feel sadness sometimes for the state of the people. A friend of mine sent me a nice quote today that said something along the lines of how in the last moments of life, in the last breaths of the world, we measure our lives not by our amount of wealth or materiality, but by our goodness and giving. I am no example to follow, but I hope that we can all do our part to make this world a better place for everybody. The reality of things in Afghanistan is this; large populations of Afghans have done well with the new economy and influx of wealth, but a still larger population is forced to fend for themselves while inflation is rampant. I have been hearing the last couple of days from two different people that prostitution has increased to numbered unimaginable. These poor girls whom have no other way to feed themselves and most often their family must turn to this new source of revenue. I do not blame the women for this, I feel sorrow and pain for them. I can’t imagine any women would ever aspire to be in that line of work. I feel anger and resentment towards those that use these services and more towards those that make these women available. If those of us in Kabul would spend a dollar less everyday, eat one less meal, take one less taxi ride, eat one less cup of tea, and take the time to look around and help those around us, we wouldn’t be in this mess. The repercussion of these types of things is this. First of all I think the best thing that has happened to Afghanistan in the last 23 years is the presence of foreign troops. Afghans have proven that they cannot hold the peace themselves, and considering the interference from outside it’s nearly impossible without the support of our international peacekeepers and US troops. That said people will no doubt start blaming the presence of foreigners for the prostitution in Afghanistan. No doubt if there was no market for such activity amongst the Afghan population the prostitution business would close down in a matter of days. But uneducated Afghans do not see it that way. They are going to see it as a direct relation to the presence of troops. I fear that more people will resent the presence of troops. Myself as I said earlier hope that it never comes to that, and that Afghanistan’s relations with the rest of the world continue to grow and become stronger. I have heard a lot about all of these women’s organizations trying to liberate the women of Afghanistan. Liberate them from the Burqa, which in the context of the Koran is not law for Muslim women to wear. But I hope that there are those who will look to this growing business of prostitution in Afghanistan and try to liberate those women from the horrors of everyday life, to liberate them from what must be the most difficult choice for a woman to ever have to make. And understand this that in most Muslim countries prostitution is so taboo that once committed the women can never hope to be part of the society again. I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but I genuinely feel pain when I hear of these types of things. I’m not even going into detail as to what happens and how old these girls are. Pakistan our “Muslim” neighbor started this trend amongst the Afghans in Peshawar and all across the country. They even had markets that, wear young girls as young as 14 would be inspected by male buyers from “Muslim” countries all around the world. Why am I putting quotes around the word Muslim? It’s because Islam and being Muslim is not just something you can say from the top of your tongue and then turn around and commit every kind of heinous act you can possibly think of. Being Muslim is being generous and being kind, giving to those needier a piece of your wealth. Loving thy neighbor, weather he be Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, or of any other faith. Being Muslim means having a soft heart and loving those around you. I wish the Muslims around the world were half as descent as my friends in America, friends from every faith and religion. Good people whom I would stand up with if the need ever came. Good people whom I have learned many a good deed from. Sometimes we use our journal as a reception for our daily frustrations and I’m sorry for putting you through this grueling read. |
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