Here's an item in which so many self appointed experts suddenly find themselves bereft of knowledge.

Afghanistan is a key country in this world and is the connection between East and West. Or the blockage. Same as Tibet in many ways, a tactically key place.

Australia should be doing everything it can to create a free Afghanisatn. Their economy is drugs and that isn't going to change. The Warlords and their like have a stranglehold on products the world wants and will kill for. Does anyone really think they will stop the trade? Not a chance. Even if they did the trade would just migrate over the border to a government that is keen to profit from a trade that knows no bounds.

The author uses this young woman's plight to raise yet again the women's issues. Good stuff, they need help of course but this lady's problem is not as simple as we think. She is sitting in a Parliament populated by old, corrupt and vicious men. Lorded over by the US who couldn't care what happens there as long as they don't get blamed, any more that is.

Women's plights in Afghanisatn are a lot more basic than what this write is highlighting. They have no freedom, no education, effectively no rights. How is that going to change? Only by removing the power of those old, vicous men. Whos going to achieve that? I could only suggest an organisation such as the Mafia, Russian or otherwise. No one else could even consider taking over what has been there for thousands of years. A Nomad culture.

Has the writer actually seen Afghanistan on the ground? Visited and lived there? If not then how can you comment at all? You haven't mentioned it so I guess you haven't been there.

Betty's comment has been brought to my notice.

Concerning her queries, I was one of a group that visited the North West Frontier Province on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan briefly in 1981. There, large tribal areas overlap both countries and are governed by the Pathan tribesmen, whatever the official designation. We met muhajadeen fighters (then welcomed by the west); visited a hospital for men, women and children, and a refugee camp near the Afghan border. It is not likely that tribal customs or lives have changed much.
Later an Australian nurses journal published my article on the hospital visit - I hoped Australian nurses might be inspired to help. There was dirt, peeling paint and litter on the hospital stairs and in corridors. There, we saw a young mother with a gangerous arm nursing a young baby; nearby an old lady lay dying, and an old man was left unattended although a puddle of pee had gone through his mattress to the floor below. A six year old boy, wrapped in dirty bandages, was moaning on a bed - he was dreadfully burnt after falling in a fire. The nurses said they could do no more for him without a doctor's permission. The doctors were on strike. The nurses said they did not believe the boy would last more than a day or two.

Since that time I have maintained an interest in the region. The story, hopefully, will be one of the collection of travel tales I am working on. The memories of that visit still burn inside me. - Judy Cannon.

Thank you Judy Cannon for bringing Malalai Joya's message to this forum. Joya's immense and fearless courage in speaking out the truth on the gross atrocities and horrific repression of women in Afghanisatan must inspire us to use our freedom to pressure the Australian government to listen and heed her plea. The dishonesty of this government and its collusion with US aggression is aiding the perpetuation of vile atrocities and must be exposed.

Thank you Judy. Seeing is believing isn't it? Australians just couldn't picture the poverty, disease, lack of facilities and infrastructure these sort of countries actually make do with.

I spent nearly 3 months in many different places around Afghanistan and the things I saw just shocked me to my core.

Open sewers which I initially thought were storm drains. Oh, the ignorance of youth, mine that is. In that same "storm drain" I saw people washing their clothes, bathing and brushing their teeth. Just unbelievable.

Toilet systems where paper isn't permitted to be flushed away. Buckets next to the toilets were common, where paper was used that is.

I recently heard people discussing toilets in Asia and what most said was they are comparable with Australia. Yes, in Western style hotels they are. Elswehere, not so. Trains for example simply have a hole in the floor with 2 metal footprints showing where to place your feet. A rail to hold onto was also present. For the locals of course, not Westerners. That hasn't changed in the slightest in nearly a thousand years.

How people become strong and survive these condtions is a constant source of amazement to me. I guess you just get on with life regardless.

The sad thing is these conditions also exist here in Australia. For indigenous people of course. Much to our shame.

Where are all the other "experts" on Afghanistan. This item should have generated so much discussion and I don't understand why it hasn't. Too hard for people to face I suspect. The reality of the people's plight, particularly women and children. I guess those experts would rather rave on about Muslims and Christians and racial hatred.