I agree that what's happened to Afghan women is a horror, and one I do what I can to prevent being implemented in any measure by the "but falling birthrates! Wh

I agree that what's happened to Afghan women is a horror, and one I do what I can to prevent being implemented in any measure by the "but falling birthrates! Why won't young women have more baaaaabies?! Why do they wait so long?" crowd - including reminding folks why Caesarean sections aren't horrible, even ones like the one I didn't have to have, strictly speaking, but had a good chance of sparing me an injury I would have had a very hard time dealing with while caring for a newborn. I'm thankful that I live in a well-resourced country with near gender-equality in which I've always had a lot of choices, including the one that saved my life about a decade before I had my child - a choice that is being eroded in my home state. (I've read about what life in urban Afghanistan was like for women in the 1960s and 1970s, so I'm well aware of how far we can fall, given the right religious nutjobs in charge. Franco's Spain freaks me out, too.)