Curious?

I just filed my Privacy Act request with the National Security Agency. The NSA makes filing such requests very convenient - you can do so online, fax or mail.

Of course, filling out the form probably means that I'm connecting new dots for NSA analysts regarding my many old emails, addresses and phone numbers.

After researching a novel like Fear of Beauty - set in Afghanistan, told from conflicting points of view of a rural and illiterate Afghan woman and an Army Ranger, with a plot focusing on religious extremism, weapons and war, conflict among members of a provincial reconstructions team, surveillance and more - I'd be surprised to have not hit some nerve. The same goes with writing and researching material for YaleGlobal Online,  a job that entails reading reports of all types from around the globe, including the offerings of WikiLeaks, and posting a full range of opinions on numerous topics, with equal measure of praise and criticism for US and other country's methods in their global dealings.

And then there is today's Facebook posting that suggests the leadership of NSA should be held responsible for devising a system that extends access to so much personal data to hundreds of thousands of contract employees, at excessive wages, including a young man who dropped out of high school. The NSA's leaders have lost control of this system as was predicted back in 2006 when details first emerged. All responsible should be fired.

With luck, I'd also expect the analysts to quickly spot my long background in mystery writing and shelve specific concerns about me as a security risk.

One can only hope.

June 13: The Des Moines Register reiterates my reaction of two days ago that more than one person is responsible for this leak.  "It seems the leak is the result of the government’s slipshod management of classified national secrets.... the true scandal is inside the NSA and the CIA: Based on Snowden’s telling, the United States government entrusted a high school dropout who began his career at the National Security Agency as a security guard with some of the most sensitive national security secrets with potentially explosive international repercussions."

Dangerous

Fiction promotes new ways of thinking, suggests Neil Gaiman, journalist and prolific writer. "Fiction is dangerous because it lets you into other people's heads," he said, speaking at BookExpo 2013. "It shows you that the world doesn't have to be like the one you live in."

We can imagine new ways of doing business, relationships and choices - and our imagination is the first step to making new ways a reality. And it's now wonder that those who support the status quo demand authenticity in their fiction.

Illustration, courtesy of Peter Kemp, Nuvolo set and Wikimedia Commons.  

Order

Sometimes nature prefers order, too.

Provincial Reconstruction Teams are wrapping up their work in the provinces of Afghanistan and saying farewells. US Army Spc Brian Smith-Dutton writes a beautiful article for Clarksville Online about the agriculture PRT in Khowst.

“Our emphases has been row planting, basic crop rotation, soil management for pest control, animal care, crop selection, green house management and low tunnel green house development,” said US Army Major Gregory Motz.

The team convinced some Afghan farmers that planting corn in rows would produce a larger crop. And one young Afghan farmer had a wager with his father over rows - and by the end of the season could show that rows produced more corn with half the seed. 

In the article, Motz described the work as the best job he's had in the Army. "To be able to see the progress the Afghans have made in a year and know that it isn’t because we did it for them, but with them."

Fear of Beauty tells the story of a fictional Provincial Reconstruction Team, struggling to provide similar agriculture advice in a remote part of northern Helmand Province - and of course, one of the characters is keen on wheat.  And as Motz suggests, the most successful team members are those who focus on "working with" rather than "did it for them."

Photo of corn field in Afghanistan, no rows, courtesy of 1stLt Kurt Stahl, US Marines and Wikimedia Commons; corn field row in Indiana, courtesy of Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing) and Wikimedia Commons.

GMO

Distributing genetically modified wheat seed to Afghan villages divides US aid workers in Fear of Beauty. One character wants to push large-scale projects while others support moving slowly with small, manageable, sustainable projects to build trust.

Of course, full understanding about biotech crops - the science, the economics and the law - is not high in the United States let alone developing countries like Afghanistan.

"U.S. lawmakers are pushing measures to require labeling of products made from genetically modified crops, citing health and environmental concerns, a proposal opposed by farm groups and sellers such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade group," reports Jack Kaskey for Bloomberg.com.  

Why oppose disclosure labeling unless there is something to hide? Consumers do have a right to know what they are ingesting.

More attention is directed to GMO crops after a stray wheat plant, left over from Monsanto research nearly a decade a go, was found in an Oregon field. Japan and South Korea suspended orders of US wheat until the shipments can be inspected. Property owners should inquire about possible consequences to pesticide-resistant crops - and neighboring property owners should not have to endure unwanted intrusions of pollen from GMO plants.

The reports give a whole new meaning to patrolling wheat fields.

Photo of US and Afghan soldiers patrolling a wheat field, searching for IEDs in Ghazni Province, courtesy of Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, US Army and Wikimedia Commons.

Peace by piece

Every individual has a role in ensuring peaceful communities - with no toleration for bullying. Before offering any critical comment, we could pause and strive for a tone that achieves support and compliance rather than resistance.

There is so much to be learned at school, it can be overwhelming for teachers and students alike. But how to treat fellow human beings should not be neglected. Most families teach these lessons at home, but we cannot count on that.  A culture of bullying can quickly develop and take hold of communities, as described in Fear of Beauty: "More often than not, we stood back and watched as fellow villagers were bullied, hoping to avoid such encounters. Ashamed, I didn't blame Mari and Leila for resenting the rest of us."

A Piece Full World offers eloquent reflection on the complexities of bullying and offers reminders that we can all do better, one individual at a time, one school at a time, one community at a time.

Drawing of the schoolhouse, courtesy of a Piece Full World.

Extremism

A few blame many for a senseless crime, and perhaps that's one definition of extremism. Yasmin Albhai Brown writes for the Independent about receiving hate mail regarding the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street:

"What’s it got to do with me or the millions of other blameless British Muslims? We hate Islamicist brutes more than any outsiders ever could. They ruin our futures and hopes. And at moments of high tension, the most  liberal and democratic of us fantasise about transporting them all to a remote, cold island, their own dismal caliphate  where they could preach to each other  and die....

"Around the world one finds disaffected Muslims who are consumed with bloodlust,  who have lost the capacity for dialogue and  compromise, who seem to have given  up on the best of human virtues – compassion, tolerance, freedom, diversity –  and who are disconnected from enlightened, earlier Muslim civilizations. Grievances have mutated into generalised brutishness."  

The only way to defeat such extremism is for the tolerant, fragmented as we may be, to link with others who may not think exactly alike, but who do promote tolerance.  And of course, that's what happens in Fear of Beauty, when strangers find they have more in common, in an alliance against extremism, than they may with family and friends.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and AgnosticPreachersKid.

Unreported crime

Reporting criminal acts combined with enforcement keeps crime at bay.

"Following a seven-year investigation, the Department of Education has fined Yale $165,000 for failing to report four incidents of forcible sex offenses in 2001 and 2002, according to an April 19 letter to the Yale administration," reports Cynthia Hua for the Yale Daily News.

The Clery Act is not new and has been in force in the United States since 1990.

Failure to report campus crimes - and how a ruthless staff member takes advantage of that - was the topic of my first book, Alaska Gray, published in 1994. Jane McBride arrived in Sitka, expecting to begin working as finance director. But she arrives and the job vanishes. She stays and asks questions and that results in the murder of a student on campus - a young native artist.

Hiding or downgrading reports of criminal activity do not protect an institution. The criminal acts will continue unimpeded, whether it's in Alaska, Afghanistan, or institutions of higher education like Penn State and Yale University.

Transparency is essential. If institutions cannot endure transparency, they do not deserve to last.

Malice Domestic 2013

Invisible sleuths, whether hidden, inconspicuous, discounted or vulnerable for any number of reasons, have advantages with an investigation. As others disregard their presence, the invisible sleuth - so often women - can quietly observe a scene. If confident, the invisible sleuth can form her own independent analysis without undue influence from others.

James Lincoln Warren, far left, drew out these contradictory qualities  as moderator of the panel "The Invisible Woman: Sleuths Who Hide in Plain Sight" at Malice Domestic 2013.  Two of the sleuths yearn for literacy - and the other two are quite skilled but marginalized. Such sleuths often earn respect from those outside their immediate environment where their abilities are taken for granted.

In Fear of Beauty, Sofi has little choice but to be invisible. Her community depends on power, hierarchy, outspoken religious devotion and secrecy rather than the rule of law. Illiteracy compounds the horrific effects of bullying. In Afghanistan, women do not have equal standing to men, and Sofi must keep her ambitions, opinions and suspicions to herself. She is a progressive in a true sense - wanting to improve her community for her children - while others see power and safety in maintaining the status quo. But of course, she must work in secret or otherwise put her family at risk.

Lucy Campion in A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins (red sweater) is a chambermaid in a magistrate's household in 17th-century England. Like Sofi of Fear of Beauty, Lucy cannot forcefully protest the accepted assumptions about women, as voiced by a religious leader in her community: "Woman is a weak creature, not endued with the like strength and constancy of mind as men. They are prone to all manner of weak affectations and dispositions of mind..." Of course, Lucy's character and her own experiences defy such broad pronouncements.

Daniel Stashower's book, The Hour of Peril, is a nonfiction historical study and focuses on Allan Pinkerton, the methodical investigator who uncovers and disrupts a conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln in February 1861.  The panel focused less on Pinkerton, himself a fascinating character of American history, and more on widow and assistant Kate Warne. Of all the invisible sleuths, Warne probably has the most choice and control, as well as respect from her peers. Joining the Pinkerton team in her early 20s, she became known as the first female detective - and as such was invisible to others during the course of the investigation, capable of passing herself off as woman from Alabama, collecting intelligence from Baltimore women who are Confederate sympathizers, and passing along secret correspondence between investigators and Lincoln's staff.

The Loser series by Peg Herring (turquoise), including Killing Silence and Killing Memories, features a homeless woman who barely speaks and does odd jobs in exchange for food, while watching the world pass her by on the streets of Richmond, Virginia.  "People have rules different from mine, and they make judgments based on those rules." Escaping what must be a troubled past, the woman tries to keep her mind clear of thoughts, but of course that is not easy. "Thinking of nothing worked for a while, but the mind has a mind of its own." By shedding personal possessions and attachments, Loser can determine who appreciates her for what she is willing to share.

The invisible sleuths in each of these books offer comment on social problems of each time period and location. Each woman has her own way of handling the very old process of globalization and the spread of new ideas and ways of thinking. With every century and technological innovation, globalization gains greater speed, followed by the outpouring of praise and condemnation. Individuals, especially the curious and aware, are open to new ideas and immediately decide which may work best for them. Others who fear change and shifting power resist these protagonists' observations.

Four very different protagonists and stories, yet James Lincoln Warren tied them together with his thoughtful questions in remarkable ways. Malice Domestic ranks high among my favorite mystery conferences.

Photo by D Olsen.

Under construction

A Tweet from one of the great teachers in my past, Bob Reich: "Laws not backed by sufficient enforcement resources are aspirations, not laws. Cutbacks at OSHA, SEC are repeals."

Restoring rule of law is an uphill climb after a reduction in enforcement. A breakdown in enforcement in one area spreads to other areas, as government employees and citizens cut corners and rationalize wrongdoing. Inconsistencies build, and citizens quickly lose faith in the system. Restoring the rule of law and citizen trust is more time consuming than destroying these systems.

And so it is with the Constitution of Afghanistan. 


Article Seven maintains, "The state shall prevent all kinds of terrorist activities, cultivation and smuggling of narcotics." Article Seventeen suggests the country "shall adopt necessary measures to foster education all levels, develop religious teachings, regulate and improve the conditions of mosques, religious schools as well as religious centers." Article Twenty-Two forbids "any kind of discrimination" and "The citizens of Afghanistan, men and woman [sic], have equal rights and duties before this law."

Article Twenty-Three:: "Life is the gift of God.... No one shall be deprived of this except by legal provision."  Twenty-Four: "Liberty is the natural right of human beings. This right has no limits unless affecting others [sic] freedoms as well as the public interest, which shall be regulated by law."

Article Twenty-Five maintains that "Innocence is the original state," that the accused are innocent until proven guilty by an authoritative court."

Torture is illegal. Persecution is forbidden.  Freedom of expression is inviolable.  There is a right to privacy around correspondence.  Personal residences are immune from trespassing without official court orders. Forced labor is forbidden. "Education is the right of all citizens of Afghanistan, which shall be offered up to the B.A. level in the state educational institutes free of charge by the state," according to Article Forty-Three, and Forty-Four encourages programs to "foster balanced education for women, improve education of nomads as well as eliminate illiteracy in the country." 

Those who would over-ride any of these articles can point to Article Two, which enshrines Islam as the state religion and prohibits any law that may contradict those beliefs. Even though Islam might endorse all the other articles of the constitution, the extremists develop their own interpretations to defy the rule of law. Stability in Afghanistan will depend on imams with the courage to speak out against manipulative, partial use of the religion to defend criminal acts.

Yes, laws that go unenforced are no longer laws.

And the difficulty of obtaining an online photo of the Afghan capitol building is notable, apparently a security measure. 

Photo of Kabul's largest mosque, Abdul Rahman Mosque, from Joe Burger and Wikimedia Commons.

Routines

An interview is only as good as the questions asked - and Kristen Elise delves into the writing process, research, how a plot can unwind from our life experiences, interactions with others and observations of our local communities.


The interview touches on the mystery of daily routines, under constant threat from globalization's constant march of change. We take these for granted - until one day they are snatched away - and the memories are haunting reminders of loss and our own mortality.

The routines we adopt from day to day are our research for future books, and as mentioned during the interview, my "best research was going about daily routines, thinking deliberately about every modern item we enjoy and stripping such details from my writing."

Murder Lab is a must-read blog for writers.

Photo of an Afghan family on routine stroll, courtesy of DVIDSHUB and Wikimedia Commons.  

The Onion

Satire in The Onion, as typical, hones in on the big picture - that terrorism is not cool, not smart, not useful in gathering support for one's religious or political beliefs.

"Sayed told reporters that instructing the 27-year-old in the goals of global jihad and providing philosophical justification for carrying out terrorist attacks against innocent civilians in the West is 'pretty much a lost cause at this point,'" notes the article Islamic Extremist Gives Up on Radicalizing Dim-Witted Friend. "At press time, Sayed had zeroed in on another individual, a lost, highly impressionable 19-year-old boy with no moral center and a broken family who the extremist said would be 'absolutely perfect.'"

And such are the antagonists in Fear of Beauty, brutal and ignorant bumblers who contribute only chaos and pain for the communities they visit. The book offers insight into the courage and unity required to stand up to these bullies.

Censorship

Fiction can be both truth and a product of imagination. But some unimaginative readers and reviewers automatically, arrogantly, dismiss a book for lack of authenticity if the author has not traveled to the locale, if the author does not share a protagonist's ethnicity, career or religion, and yet they can offer no other detailed criticism.

Ian Reifowitz writes for In the Fray and Truthout:  "But fundamentally, this line of criticism — that artists or writers can’t tell a particular story because they are of a different ethnic background from the subjects of the film or history — is a form of prejudice, too. It may not have the life-and-death stakes of the kind of prejudice that motivated George Zimmerman, but it is prejudice nonetheless."

Yes, it's prejudice and also censorship, a form of control to limit uncomfortable stories that need to be told. And we can only pity those who refuse to let their imaginations soar.

More about my quest for authenticity on the blog from Dina Santorelli, author of Baby Grand:

"Fiction goes beyond the reporting of facts. Writers can be obsessed with small details and miss the larger truths. As Stephen King once suggested, an author can become 'too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.'"

Image by Fear of Beauty.

Globalization

The story of Project Artemis is one that shows globalization's many intricate twists.

A man is in charge of training pilots, US and foreign, including those fighting under Chiang Kai-shek, during World War II and decides that Americans could use a school that emphasizes trade and global connections. He obtains an airbase in Glendale, Arizona from the US War Assets Administration with the condition that the property be used for a school "for instruction in foreign area studies, business administration and international relationships." The school's international enrollment drops after the 9/11 attacks on the US, planned within Afghanistan. A few later, the school starts a training program for Afghan entrepreneurs - and that helps boost international enrollment once again.

Connections, expected and unexpected, emerge from trade, education, war and other diverse forces of globalization.

Photo of Lt. General Barton Kyle Yount, Thunderbird founder, courtesy of the Arizona Memory Project.

Parallels

The number of parallels between The Colour of Milk and Fear of Beauty are many and stunning.

Both books focus on women raised in small farming communities, though one is set in 1831 England and the other is set in circa-2012 Afghanistan. The women are illiterate, find reason to learn how to read and write and tell their stories.  Men twist religious texts to control and abuse women. The protagonists are exceptionally intelligent, aware of the challenges for women and their communities. Their families resist discussing those challenges. Both authors toy with grammar to emphasize that these are new writers expressing their thoughts.

Most eerie are the final sentences for each book, the first one published in May 2012 for the UK and December 2012 for the US, the other drafted in 2009 and published in January 2013 for the US.

For Color of Milk: "and so I shall finish this very last sentence and i will blot my words where the ink gathers in the pools at the end of each letter. and then i shall be free. For Fear of Beauty: I have only one certainty in a world that never stops changing - that more must be learned and accomplished. This lack of certainty and the search are my freedom.

Education, the ability to place one's story in the context of our times, is liberating.

The major difference of the two novels? The Colour of Milk is bleak in how the protagonist Mary must take control. Fear of Beauty, in the modern setting, can afford to be more optimistic. Afghan women have role models elsewhere in the world.

To think what our forebears endured from unequal societies ... The author of Fear of Beauty highly recommends The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon.

Reeling in readers

Gratitude to Debbie Campoli for reviewing Fear of Beauty in Women's Book Review: "You find yourself rooting for Sofi and admiring her strength. The story keeps a reader wanting for more, and the author does an excellent job of reeling you in."

Now Debbie Campoli has some stories to tell - and we would like to read a book from her!

Photo courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland and Wikimedia Commons.

Analysis

What was most fun in writing Fear of Beauty? Switching back and forth in point of view between two diverse characters, an illiterate Afghan woman and an Army Ranger in charge of security of a nearby outpost. First-person point of view suits Sofi, and the more distant third-person suits Joey.

Kristen Elise of Murder Lab analyzes the back-and-forth point of view in Fear of Beauty. She explains that the book's "two subplots mesh at the beginning of Chapter 7" and describes the "approach of juxtaposing the first- and third-person perspectives as hallmarks of independent subplots" as "a fabulous way to include the intimacy of a first-person perspective while, in parallel, allowing the reader to observe scenes that the first-person protagonist would not have been privy to."

Her analysis is sharp, maybe because of her scientific background as a cancer drug discovery biologist within a major pharmaceutical company and as author of The Vesuvius Isotope and The Death Row Complex.

Those who write a book discover that reading other books is never the same. Writers are judges. Do check out Murder Lab.

Image courtesy of Murder Lab.

Lessons

Once again, life imitates art. Fear of Beauty describes an Afghan woman who is desperate to learn how to read after the death of her son - and she finds a teacher with an aid worker - a Bengali-American whose goal is to empower Afghan women though agriculture training.

Women understand that education ultimately improves communities - and Parth Shastri with The Times of India describes women of India heading to Afghanistan to teach. One source describes many similarities between Afghan and Indian ways of learning.

Shastri's article describes a group of 16 consultants and teachers attending a two-week workshop at the Centre for Environment Eucation in collaboration with the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan. Lessons were given, connections made, without complaints about language barriers or two weeks being too short of period. As Fear of Beauty suggests, much can be learned in two weeks, with motivation fired up. Determined students and  teachers overcome the language barriers - and never say can't.

"If Afghanistan has a fresh crop of woman scientists and linguists two decades from now, educationists in that country will have to thank their Indian counterparts," Shastri writes.

We can only hope that we are reading similar stories a year from now - and beyond.

Photo of Afghan teacher at the Nawabad School in the Deh Dadi district, courtesy of Sandra Arnold, US Armed Forces and Wikimedia Commons.

Divided partners

Fear of Beauty and this blog describe the role of the provincial reconstruction teams - groups of civilian and military specialists - in Afghanistan as they provide technical advice and support in agriculture, education, health care, construction and many other areas. Of course, some teams have produced great achievements and others have been less successful. Philosophies differ, as demonstrated by the quarrels between Cameron and Mita in Fear of Beauty. So much depends how the teams worked with local governments.

Alexandra Gheciu details and analyzes NGO concerns about the PRTs in an article "Divided Partners: The Challenges of NATO-NGO Cooperation in Peacebuilding Operations" for Global Governance:

"From NATO's point of view, the contemporary blurring of boundaries between civilian and military actions in peacebuilding operations can be seen as an opportunity to bring into the sphere of humanitarian activity some of the advantages of the military culture of efficiency. But from the perspective of many NGOs, the existing blurring of boundaries is a deeply problematic development that should be contained and, as much as possible, reversed. What is needed, according to this logic, is a clear separation between the military and humanitarian norms and activities, and an affirmation of the leading role of humanitarian organizations in the definition of the rules of the game in activities that involve assistance to civilians in war-torn countries."

Gheciu concludes that a lack of coordination will only lead to more disagreements, wasted resources and "growing disenchantment both in the territories undergoing postconflict reconstruction and in the international community - with international peacebuilding operations."

Strong opinions are the norm. People quarrel, institutions quarrel - and with luck, communities progress.

Saffron project

A pilot project for distributing saffron seeds has been successful throughout Helmand Province and agriculture officials expect cultivation to continue and the small flower to eventually become a common crop.

Agriculture Director Abdullah Ahmadzai also reported that the new program will train 40 farmers in growing techniques. The director explained the climate in Helmand  is favorable for the crop that needs less water, in a report for Pajhwok Afghan News by Shams Jalal.

One concern among farmers - as detailed in Fear of Beauty - is competition among farmers and villages and finding enough markets for the expensive golden spice.

And to read authentic news coming from Afghanistan, both good and bad, but refreshingly local, then head to Pajhwok Afghan News.

Photo courtesy of  Gut Gimritz (Germany) and Wikimedia Commons.  

Trade and peace

It's tough to kill the entrepreneurial spirit, though the Taliban in Afghanistan sure gave it a good try before 2001. Project Artemis, hosted by the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, hosts Afghan women for an intensive two-week business skills course.

Matthew Hilburn, reporting for Voice of America, describes a woman who ran a secret honey-making business during the Taliban era. Women entering the program run businesses for embroidery and saffron. Hilburn writes: "While Afghan businesswomen still have many hurdles to overcome - they still may need to rely on men for many external dealings such as negotiations and making deliveries - Artemis is making progress toward changing how women are viewed by society at large.

Artemis pairs the entrepreneurs with mentors. Check out the stories on their site - again, they are inspiring. The project operates in other countries, too, including Peru, Jordan and Pakistan.

Secrecy and saffron are part of the plot of Fear of Beauty. Trade, business, a sense of purpose provide security and stability for communities.

Photo of Afghan woman weaving carpet courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and US Marine Corps.  

Rule of law

The only recourse against bullies is the rule of law, according to professionals in the West. But sometimes the bullies oversee judicial systems. So naturally a problem emerges when wronged individuals do not have access to fair courts. 

 The United States Institute of Peace writes about Afghanistan:

"An estimated 80 percent of all criminal and civil disputes in Afghanistan are resolved outside the formal legal system through various community forums known as shuras, jirgas, and jalasas. Disputants often prefer to have their cases resolved by community dispute resolution mechanisms that are popularly viewed by most Afghans as more accessible, less costly, more legitimate, and less corrupt than government courts. Many Afghans find the latter more in tune with cultural values promoting consensus and reconciliation, rather than punitive retribution alone."

Unfortunately, half the population - women - are excluded from overseeing these proceedings and the decisions rendered. Women still prefer the traditional forms of resolution.

The institute also takes pains to point out that individual interpretations can vary. One adjudicator may emphasize forgiveness and another emphasizes compensation or punishment. Evidence can be found in acceptable documents  to support a range of alternative narratives:  "USIP seeks to establish an understanding of the Afghan-Islamic normative values of Islamic jurisprudence. USIP is also expanding its programming to examine land dispute resolution and promote efforts to improve community legal awareness of rights and criminal law by engaging youth and media."

The rule of law is essential for Afghanistan to achieve security and stability. The US Department of State also lists other programs on the rule of law.

Photo of Kunar Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizada updates supreme court judges on Afghan law in 2010, courtesy of US Army Spc. Richard Daniels and Wikimedia Commons.

Dry areas

 Researchers with the Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas studied gender roles in rural Afghanistan and found that women participate less than men do. Women are more likely to participate in livestock-related activities than raising crops.

Srinivas Tavva and five other researchers conducted interviews on participation in seven villages from Nangarhar Province and seven in Baghlan Province. "Age, social stigmas, poverty and shortage of labour influence the gender division of labour, decision-making ability and participation in Afghanistan's farm and non-farm activities."

We must wonder if this is especially true of dry areas. "Dry areas cover 41% of the world’s land area and are home to one-third of the global population," notes the ICARDA site. "About 16% of this population lives in chronic poverty, particularly in marginal rainfed areas. The dry areas are challenged by rapid population growth, frequent droughts, high climatic variability, land degradation and desertification, and widespread poverty."

In Fear of Beauty and its imaginary village with a more temperate climate, women did most of the work tending diverse crops and boys tended sheep and goats. As we have noted before, there are not many thrillers that focus on farming. The plot would have been impossible without women's participation in everyday farming tasks. As shown by the photo from USAID, the scenario of women doing farmwork is feasible. And the photo, with no location noted, does not appear to be a dry area.

And Olivier De Schutter confirms the feasibility of Laashekoh, too, with an opinion essay, "The Feminization of Farming," in The New York Times. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food explains that more men are migrating from rural to urban areas, leaving women behind to run farming operations, too often as unpaid work. The essay also points to work being done in Bangladesh, as represented by Mita, the aid worker in Fear of Beauty. The novel strives to represent globalization's many conflicts in a tiny and imaginary village of Afghanistan.

De Schutter concludes: "Recognizing the burden that the feminization of global farming places on women requires us to overturn longstanding gender norms that have kept women down even as they feed more and more of the world."

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and USAID.

Why Afghanistan?

So many ask why in the world did I choose to set a mystery in Afghanistan, and I explain this weekend at Poe's Deadly Daughters.

"The old advice is write what you know, but I’d say write what you care about, especially when you’re surprised by how much you care. Afghanistan tugged at my imagination long before the US invaded in late 2001. Before news emerged of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist-training camps or the Taliban government blew up the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan."

It was hard to imagine that the country could so quickly shift from one renowned for its hospitality to one known for religious extremism, fear of history and regular bullying of women and children. "For this avid reader, illiteracy and bullying are the stuff of nightmares," and Afghanistan allowed me to explore how communities, particularly women, might respond.

I'm also looking forward to talking with David Alpern 1 pm today about Afghanistan. "Each week, FOR YOUR EARS ONLY broadcasts to stations coast-to-coast and to U.S. military personnel in 177 nations via the Pentagon's American Forces Radio Network."

Photo of Afghanistan contrasts, courtesy of US Air Force Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse and Wikimedia Commons.

Perfect society?

The Afghan women will be all right.

A post from Patheos by eren both assures and chides US, Canadian and other pundits fretting about the future of Afghan women even as Western troops withdraw. The post bashes the colonial notion of noble savage, the notion that Afghan's women voters will vigorously pursue democracy.

"I think it is quite important to recognize that reconstruction is a process where gender relations will be shifted, changed and re-arranged," eren notes. "Yes, there is a lot to do. Afghanistan remains the most dangerous country for women today and education for both men and women may be the only way to end prevailing domestic violence."

In all the shifting, individuals must define happiness on their own ... eren goes on to suggest that the time has come "to hand the country back to its people, with no expectations of 'perfect Afghani women' and no further money for weapons."

Globalization is tricky and exposes the dangers of stereotyping. The ideal society varies among women, among communities, so much so that the shaping and reshaping is constant and yet one ideal can never be achieved.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Petty Officer 2nd Class Ernesto Hernandez Fonte during NATO training mission.

Patience

Atiq Rahimai wrote the book and directed the film, and Tracy McNicoll writes about the director of The Patient Stone for Newsweek:

"I was tired of always seeing the same discourse on Afghan women, as submissive, as victims," Rahimai says.... "When I go to Afghanistan, I meet women of extraordinary might. they have a presence, socially, politically, culturally speaking.... Even in Parliament, it is the women who call out all the war criminals."

Women must evade the control from others to avoid being victims. That often requires keeping secrets and hiding achievements.

The film will come to the United States this summer.

Fathers

Afghan women do not necessarily resent their fathers, explains Stacy Parker Le Melle, workshop director for the Afghan Women's Writing Project in the Huffington Post.

"As an outsider, it had been easy for me to make assumptions of how fathers treated their daughters," she writes. "It had been easy to assume that because one man treats his daughter like cloth, to be bought and sold, as writer Lena once described, that all Afghan fathers are like this. But clearly this is not the case."

Sofi recalls her last memories of her father in Fear of Beauty. Those memories of his love give her strength and confidence. 

The motto for the writing project is "To tell one's story is a human right." And those stories are inspiring.

Photo of women waiting outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in 2006, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the US government.

Diversify

As the US withdraws troops from Afghanistan, nonprofits will be left behind, trying to monitor and protect human rights. Using threats or rumors, some conservatives who reject women's rights will try to chase off these nonprofit organizations. 

One dilemma for Afghans is the reliance on opium as a crop. The country is the world's major supplier and for some communities it's an economic staple. Community leaders worry about the loss of a major crop and also detest the complications, especially addiction, that come with growing opium.

The illegal crop provides little in the way of stability or economic certainty, not with foreign and Afghan troops working to destroy the fields. The loss of a harvest can lead to debt for families and early and inappropriate marriages for daughters - which are closer to trafficking than a partnership for starting families - explains Emily Simons for The International.

The International Organization for Migration monitors and issues reports trafficking, debt marriage and other issues of migration.

Sources for Simons suggest that "Afghan policymakers have yet to find a solution that will protect farmers' families while also trying to end the opium trade."

Neighboring countries can help by reducing subsidies on their own agricultural products and encouraging Afghanistan to diversify its harvests - growing pomegranates, saffron, wheat and more. The neighboring countries an than purchase the surplus legal crops produced by Afghan farmers, helping families and their daughters. 

fghan policymakers have yet to find a solution that will protect farmers’ families while also trying to end the opium trade. - See more at: http://www.theinternational.org/articles/340-afghan-opium-brides#sthash.OWPhqutG.dpuf

In its 2008 trafficking report on Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) observed how deeply the practice of “debt marriage” is ingrained into Afghan society. According to the report, the practice of using women and girls for dispute settlements has been a part of Afghan society for centuries. - See more at: http://www.theinternational.org/articles/340-afghan-opium-brides#sthash.OWPhqutG.dpuf

In its 2008 trafficking report on Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) observed how deeply the practice of “debt marriage” is ingrained into Afghan society. According to the report, the practice of using women and girls for dispute settlements has been a part of Afghan society for centuries. - See more at: http://www.theinternational.org/articles/340-afghan-opium-brides#sthash.OWPhqutG.dpuf

In its 2008 trafficking report on Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) observed how deeply the practice of “debt marriage” is ingrained into Afghan society. According to the report, the practice of using women and girls for dispute settlements has been a part of Afghan society for centuries. - See more at: http://www.theinternational.org/articles/340-afghan-opium-brides#sthash.OWPhqutG.dpuf

Those who profit from opium and the old ways will resist new crops.

Another provincial reconstruction team project: With potatoes becoming  major cash crop, a father and son farm tend to the root vegetables in Bamyan Province. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the US Army.

Slowdown

Interest in infrastructure development for distant lands comes and goes, relying on the political, economic and security interests of not just one country, but two and sometimes more. 

The US Agency for International Aid has decided against completing a $266 dam project on the Helmand River, reports Rajiv Chandrasekaran for the Washington Post.

"The dam is one of many reconstruction projects, once deemed essential, that are being scaled back rapidly and redesigned in the waning days of America’s long war in Afghanistan as troop reductions, declining budgets and public fatigue force a realignment of priorities," Chandrasekaran writes.

USAID will pay for installation, but will give the money to an Afghan electricity company rather than a US contractor. Afghans will provide security, as requested by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.  Many question if the dam will eventually supply more reliable electricity to Kandahar.

USAID has described how a convoy of 4,000 coalition troops spent a week fighting insurgents to allow delivery of a turbine to the Kajaki Dam in 2008. Three years later the turbine was still not installed, according to a report by Zainullah Stanikzai for Pajhwok Afghan News.

Economic development in the country depends on security. Responsibility for security, as well as success or failure of the dam project, now rests with the Afghan government. 

Photo courtesy of Wikimeda Commons and the US Army Corps of Engineers

Fertility

Following a trend evident throughout Asia and around the globe, Afghanistan has seen its fertility rate drop. "The average number of children Afghan women can expect to have in their lifetime fell from 8 in the 1990s to 6.3 in the mid-2000s and to 5.1 at the end of the decade," suggests a USA TODAY analysis of the country's birth data.

New emphasis on health care and education have contributed to the decline in the birthrate. The country's infant mortality rates have also plunged. 

Photo of Afghan baby delivered by Caesarean section, courtesy of  DVIDSHUB and Wikimedia Commons.

Invisible

Women are not shown in Afghanistan's elementary school textbooks.

"An accurate representation of successful women presents children with the realistic message that no country can progress if half its population is invisible in the social, economical and political scene," writes Noorjahan Akbar for UN Dispatach. "If we want to change gender roles in Afghanistan, a good place to start is with the textbooks."
 
Afghanistan has enough troublemakers who do not want gender roles to change - or at least they expect  women to work and get no credit for what they do. 

Even Dari books for children produced outside Afghanistan are sparse on images. Still, the children are eager to learn.

Photo of Afghan National Police offer distributing coloring books, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and US Marine Corps.





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Even though women make up nearly 50% of agricultural workers in Afghanistan, according to the drawings in these books, farming, too, is exclusive to men. - See more at: http://www.undispatch.com/afghanistans-pedagogy-of-the-invisible#sthash.ggR8pJox.dpuf

Even though women make up nearly 50% of agricultural workers in Afghanistan, according to the drawings in these books, farming, too, is exclusive to men. - See more at: http://www.undispatch.com/afghanistans-pedagogy-of-the-invisible#sthash.ggR8pJox.dpuf

Even though women make up nearly 50% of agricultural workers in Afghanistan, according to the drawings in these books, farming, too, is exclusive to men. - See more at: http://www.undispatch.com/afghanistans-pedagogy-of-the-invisible#sthash.ggR8pJox.dpuf

Helmand PRT

The Provincial Reconstruction Team described in Fear of Beauty is a small subset of the overall Helmand team. The novel describes a US agriculture group, whose security members also have another mission in the remote area around fictional Laashekoh.

The actual and overall Helmand PRT is a complex organization, civilian-led, with 160 staff members. The PRT is led by the United Kingdom, a multinational effort of the US, Denmark and Estonia.

The PRT, which for years has dispatched teams around the province, describes its goals:

"Success in Helmand, where the insurgency and drugs trade interact to create particular challenges, is essential for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. Why we do it It is vital that Afghanistan becomes a stable and secure state that is able to suppress violent extremism within its borders. We cannot allow Afghanistan to again become a safe haven for terrorists." 

Fear of Beauty provides but a small snapshot and a few insights into the PRT work. Progress has been made. For example, Mercy Corps has trained 50,000 people in improved farming techniques.

Is the story of Fear of Beauty improbable? Not according to some US veterans and Afghan refugees. 



Photo of Helmand River, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and US military.

Interview

Great questions from Jordan Rich of CBS Boston, WBZ 1030 - about Afghanistan, the troops returning home and their accomplishments, and women's rights.

Note: I was thrown off by the first question, "Why did you go there?" Of course, he meant why did I choose to write about Afghanistan - a long story that includes a list of many chance encounters. Before our call, he had already asked if I had actually traveled there and he knew the answer was no.