By Brigitte L. Nacos
Pressured by the South Korean government to negotiate the
release of a group of South Koreans kidnapped and held by the Taliban,
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai warned according to the Christian
Science Monitor that the kidnapping of female foreigners would “bring
historical shame and defamation for this country and this nation” and that “in
Afghanistan’s history, never anyone has kidnapped women.” It is hard to
understand that 23 South Korean Christians traveled to Afghanistan to
provide medical service for poor Afghans and presumably do missionary work at a
time, when the Taliban had resurfaced in certain regions of the country and was
hardly inclined to look kindly upon Christians and possible missionaries. The kidnappers have already executed two male hostages and
threatened more killings if the Afghan government does not release imprisoned Taliban
members or sympathizers. Of the remaining 21 hostages, 16 are females. By
pleading for the freedom of the 16 women, Karzai plays a dangerous gender card in
an admittedly difficult hostage situation. Karzai’s public appeal is obviously
designed to shame the Taliban kidnappers into releasing those 16 females and
thus save the lives of as many of the captives as possible.
But what about the five male hostages? Since it is not unusual for female captives to receive more favorable treatment from terrorists or criminals alike, government negotiators may have reasons to ask in behind-the-scenes talks that hostage-holders release their female captives first. It is very different, when the president of a country declares publicly that the kidnapping of women is shameful and contrary to the country’s tradition while not saying the same about the kidnapping of men. By not condemning hostage-taking regardless of the victims’ gender and by remaining altogether silent on male captives, President Karzai implied, unwittingly as it may be, that kidnapping females is incompatible with Afghan traditional values but that taking males hostage is not—or less so.
Not exactly a promising effort to curb the wave of kidnappings by members of the Taliban and other tribal groups that, except for the South Korean case, involve mostly male, not female victims.
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