Last week BBC Radio 4 's Book of the Week was ' Blue Stockings ' I hope that I got the title right and I say at once that I maybe didn't hear everyone of the 5 readings.
It brought home to me how hard it was for British women to get into University and to obtain a recognised degree. The arguments against the education of women were laughable like arguing that the female brain is 5 1/2 ounces less than that of men and that over taxing their brains would atrophy the uterus. It was only around 1930 when most Universities began to issue degree certificates to women.
Why do I mention this wretchedly bad treatment of women today ?
The British Military are in Afghanistan attempting to make a medieval country into a 21 st Century Democracy. Soldiers are dying trying to do the impossible. It isn't a hundred years since women in the UK had access to education and men realised women were not domestic cleaners and baby sitters. Fighting in Afghanistan is not going to change the way Afghan men think and evidence of this is the burning down of newly built schools.
I strongly oppose Gordon Brown's assertion that the fighting is to stop terrorism here; it is far more likely to generate terrorists.
Any opinions here on this topic ?
jenray
Pro 
I mention this a fair bit in various comments on posts...I always find it amazing that we were liberated so recently, and it wasn't long ago that women weren't allowed in libraries either...and yes, I agree with you that the task being undertaken by the soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan is a near impossible one to achieve...in fact, right across the Islamic states, the position of women isn't going to change much at all until more enlightened imams and leaders gain power, and I can't see that happening in a hurry...mind you, if education does open for the women of these countries fully, there is no reason they wouldn't catch up with us very quickly...considering how long we've been permitted an education in all fields, we haven't done too badly...even managed to get a PM who undid so much women had gained over the preceding decades by her response to power...damn her hide...and that's being very polite indeed...LOL...As far as opposing Brown's approach to Afghanistan, I'm really not sure we have a choice now that we're so allied to the USA policies abroad...we've managed to extricate ourselves from Iraq only so that our much fewer soldiers than the USA can now be sent to Afghanistan, so, basically, we've jumped out of the bloody frying and straight into the fire...and terrorism is now entrenched in our world thanks to the mishandling of so many conflicts in the Islamic world by the Western powers...but mainly the USA under Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz...we'll be bearing their legacy for decades I fear...