PPEcel
cope and seethe
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- Joined
- Oct 1, 2018
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From POLITICO:
The Femoid Tactical Platoon? Well, OK. I guess there's a reason why the Taliban won.
As the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, members of the FTP were evacuated to the United States as refugees—even though they didn't qualify for Special Immigrant Visas as they were technically employed by the Afghan military, not the U.S. government. But guess who didn't get evacuated? Their male colleagues, who also assisted the United States military and now face reprisals by the Taliban. Yup, no misandry here:
What next? Well, one of the female American officers who helped create the FTP had this to say:
Sucks, I guess.
The Untold Story of the Afghan Women Who Hunted the Taliban
Trained by the U.S. Army, a group of trailblazing Afghan women turned into a formidable force in their homeland. They now live quietly scattered around the U.S., trying to reconcile their past with their present
www.politico.com
In the cramped kitchen of a Chick-fil-A in Pittsburgh, out of the customers’ line of sight, there is a slight 26-year-old woman in a headscarf making chicken sandwiches. She looks up every few seconds to check the drive-thru screen. It beeps insistently, like a hospital heartbeat monitor, detailing each new custom order for her to assemble: no cheese, yes bacon, no tomato. She folds each leaf of lettuce so it tucks underneath the bun, just so. Her co-workers know her as a quiet employee with limited English who learns fast. It feels impossible to explain, almost like it never happened.
For six years, Nahid was known as a courageous and highly effective soldier, part of a covert unit of female Afghan soldiers created and trained by U.S. Special Operations. In a country where most women did not leave home without a male escort, her unit, the Female Tactical Platoon, worked alongside elite strike forces, doing the work that male soldiers could not do in a Muslim country: searching and questioning women and children on high-risk nighttime missions. From the time the Platoon was set up in 2011 to the fall of Kabul in 2021, the women conducted some two thousand missions.
The Femoid Tactical Platoon? Well, OK. I guess there's a reason why the Taliban won.
As the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, members of the FTP were evacuated to the United States as refugees—even though they didn't qualify for Special Immigrant Visas as they were technically employed by the Afghan military, not the U.S. government. But guess who didn't get evacuated? Their male colleagues, who also assisted the United States military and now face reprisals by the Taliban. Yup, no misandry here:
When I visited Mahtab at her apartment in February, she told me about a male colleague who had been tortured and killed by the Taliban. She picked up her phone to show me a picture of his body, covered in burn marks, which had just been returned to his family. “The United States helped me to get out of the country. My question is, ‘What was the difference between me and a soldier who served side by side with me?’” The obvious answer is that she is a woman, and therefore especially endangered back home. But looking at the photo of her murdered colleague, the argument falls apart.
What next? Well, one of the female American officers who helped create the FTP had this to say:
If the U.S. doesn’t find a way to make use of the talent and experience of this group, their American military counterparts say, it will be a tragedy for both countries. “These women have been highly vetted to work alongside U.S. special operations,” said Ellie. “We don’t want them to end up on nightshifts at Walmart in some small town in America. Put them in places where they can make decisions.”
Sucks, I guess.