In Afghanistan where young people have placed themselves on waiting lists to become suicide bombers, increasing the number of soldiers – whether US, NATO, or Afghan (in order to "Afghanize" the war) – will prolong the conflict rather than ending it.
The decades of violence and instability in Afghanistan suggest a deeper answer to a deeper problem. What the country needs is an interpretation of Islam that embraces freedom and human rights instead of violence and tribal oppression. Everything else is a Band-Aid.
The despotic and misogynist narratives of Islam that predominate now must be challenged by alternative interpretations of Islam. The argument that Afghanistan is "not ready" for democracy and only capable of authoritarian politics misses this point entirely, and condemns Afghanistan to a permanent state of war.
Afghanistan is a deeply religious society, but the dominant interpretations of Islam, as in most Islamic countries, is one that fosters submission to force. More specifically, under existing sharia law, which is completely detached from the message of the Koran, human beings are understood to be at the service of religion and not vice-versa. Because this belief is entrenched deeply in the popular psyche, the struggle for social and political dominance expresses itself through religious discourse.
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