I think Paul Elam and AVFM deserve credit for publishing this article, several years ago, about the life of men and boys in Afghanistan.

Yes, we're all aware that women and girls there have it very, very tough in Afghanistan. But so do men and boys.

In his landmark imperialist work "The Grand Chessboard," American policy planner Zbigniew Brzezinski argued that control of Central Asia (Afghanistan and other stans) was the key to controlling the world. Unfortunately for Afghanis, Zbig wasn't the first policy planner to come to this conclusion. Would-be world-dominators have focussed on Afghanistan since the time of Alexander the Great.

So in a perpetually hostile environment, it isn't surprising that we see extreme patriarchy. The very first rule of human society is to keep women safe. (JD Unwin noted that female liberation is most likely to occur in safe environments).

Afghanistan is interesting for both feminists and MRA's. Everyone knows that women and girls have a shit deal there, but hardly anyone ever talks about men and boys. Why not?

Well in part because no one cares. That's why the CIA has focussed on the plight of women and girls in Islamic nations. For example, a leaked CIA document headed "Appeals by President Obama and Afghan Women Might Gain Traction", contains the following:

Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing the ISAF role in combating the Taliban because of women's ability to speak personally and credibly about their experiences under the Taliban, their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory. Outreach initiatives that create media opportunities for Afghan women to share their stories with French, German, and other European women could help to overcome pervasive skepticism among women in Western Europe toward the ISAF mission...

...Media events that feature testimonials by Afghan women would probably be most effective if broadcast on programs that have large and disproportionately female audiences.

source

And now here is AVFM:

These boys and men, almost without exception, do construction work or other forms of Afghn workers 1 equally demanding labor. If you built a house in Iran, chances are that most of the labor came from Afghan men. “Why alone so far from the home?” I asked an Afghan boy. “I have a mother and several sisters to feed,” he said “Maybe I get to visit them next year.”

So little boys are working to support their mothers and sisters in Afghanistan. But we'd rather talk about girls getting an education.

I too would prefer an education to working a dangerous job, especially if I were five-years-old.

Patriarchy.