There seems to be a lot of wrangling going on right now about what sort of government Afghanistan will have once the Taliban have been removed from power. My suggestion is this: a government composed entirely of women. I’m actually fairly serious here.

Our problem with Afghanistan is that the Taliban are willing hosts for all sorts of Islamic extremist terrorist groups. These groups, and their Taliban hosts, are almost impossibly misogynistic. Women from any ethnic group can lead the country, and we can be sure that they aren’t in league with the terrorists, since there’s no way the terrorists would work with them.

Afghanistan’s greatest domestic problem is abuse of women. The Taliban has codified the abuse of women, as is well known now that the world is paying attention to what’s going on there. Before that, the Northern Alliance ruled the country, and allowed women to be brutalized with impunity. Women were free to work and go to school, but if criminals attacked and raped them, there were no repercussions. I find it difficult to believe that if women were in charge of Afghanistan neither of those situations would be tolerated. It’s certainly not a perfect solution, and perhaps not even a plausible one, but I think that any solution to the problem has to start with the empowerment of the women of Afghanistan. It’s obvious at this point that the men there aren’t willing to bear their responsibility to their fellow human beings.